THE CLIENT AS THE PREDOMINANT ACTOR AND THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF CLIENTS

The client orders the construction and he pays for it. Because of that traditionally he is the predominant actor in the project coalition. Generally the client is the one who has to define the need for a building or a civil engineering construction, to find the land and to find the money. But for a more detailed analysis of the role of the client in the construction process several distinctions have to be made. The first difference is a consequence of the fact, that the client can be a casual client or a experienced client. The casual client is building once for his life (e.g. a family looking for a house) or at least once in a longer period (e.g. a small or medium firm needing a new plant or more space for office work every ten or twenty years). His relation to the other actors in the construction process is obviously different from that of the experienced client, for whom construction (including renovation and rehabilitation of buildings) is every day business, and for whom, as the most important point, it may be possible and profitable (although it is not necessary) to employ in-house professionals for other than the client’s (decision) phase of the construction process. The second important distinction is between the client as user and as seller of the building. The casual client nearly always is also the later user. He becomes a client only because he later wants to have and use the building himself. The experienced client may be either user or a seller, who as the latter becomes a client in construction only to turn his money into a commodity he then can sell. Experienced clients on the one hand, who are also the later users of the building are above all public authorities (as legitimized representatives of the real users of streets, airports, indoor baths, theatres, schools, universities etc.), but also bigger firms (e.g. manufacturing enterprises, who in their built production infrastructure need a change whenever their product or production process is changing or whose built infrastructure is big enough to require steady maintenance). Housing companies (Wohnungsbaugesellschaften), which provide one-family houses or multi-storey-apartment houses (with from three to hundreds of dwellings), can be included here also even if they sell some of the houses or apartments they have built, because they mainly let houses and therefore have to take care of them as users themselves normally do. On the other hand, experienced-seller clients (e.g. real estate companies), are those which develop land, and build, renovate, and sell one-family-houses, or building promoters (Bauträger), which do the same with office blocks or commercial buildings (mainly in urban areas as combinations of apartments, offices, and shops). They take the role of the client, but they do not intend to use the buildings themselves (cf. table 2). Whereas the user-clients can be expected to be above all interested in the use-value of a building, for the seller-clients the most important questions are the timing and the amount of the return of the investment. So different interests and different relations to the other actors in the construction process may occur. The extent, to which these come up, depends upon the volume of the business of a seller-client. Among them there are big companies with a turnover of hundreds of million DM. They on the one hand are able to impose strong supervision and control on the process and dominate the other actors, but on the other hand are also able to make an investment in quality. But among them are also small firms consisting of two or three persons, which do not own more than their ability to work and their willingness to take a risk which holds out a prospect of a profit. They are totally dependent upon the bank financing the project and because they have only very small margins, they need to implement a very tough cost and time supervision and control on the other actors, especially the construction firms. Another key question for the form of the project coalition is whether a company employs in-house professionals, who can take over other than traditional clients functions, (i.e. the planning, the design and the control of the construction process), or if they employ for these tasks independent professionals by contract. A third way to discriminate clients is if they are public or private. Whereas private clients are free how they want to place orders towards contractors, for public clients there is a particular regulation, which they are obliged to obey strictly. Forms of tendering In Germany, like elsewhere, three main different forms of tender and different possibilities to place orders are in use: directly placed orders or negotiated tender, selective or limited tender and open tender. Private clients and commercial investors (industrial or commercial companies, banks, insurances, building societies) often use the form of selective tender, inviting only contractors well known for efficiency and to whom they have good, long-term relations. Public clients are allowed to place orders directly or use selective tender only if the work is very small or if it is very difficult and requires very highly specialised qualification only a few firms can offer. Normally they have to use the open tender form. The basic document for the tender process especially in the case of a public client is the Verdingungsordnung für Bauleistungen (VOB). Frequency Intention to Use Intention to Sell Casual families; small enterprises (does not exist) Experienced public authorities; manufacturing enterprises; housing companies commercial enterprises (banks; insurance companies); building promotors; Bauträger Table 2 Types of Client