The Invisible Costs

THE MARIS METHODOLOGY:

THE COMPLIANCE INTEGRATION MODEL

At Maris Interiors, we do not treat statutory compliance and professional fees as an administrative afterthought; we engineer them directly into the structural fabric of your project. We utilise an integrated model to protect your balance sheet from the “fee-on-fee” layering that plagues traditional procurement routes.

• Absorbing the Professional Pot: Because we house architectural design, quantity surveying and project management under one single roof, the traditional 10% – 15% professional fee bloat is fully absorbed into our core construction overhead.
• The Principal Shield: We absorb the immense legal weight of the delivery phase by formally acting as Principal Designer and Principal Contractor under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015. We become your single point of accountability for coordinating all site safety protocols.
• Proactive Lease Navigation: A formal Licence to Alter application typically takes between four and twelve weeks. We initiate this critical landlord approval process in parallel with your commercial lease negotiations. By coordinating the landlord’s surveyor and independent fire engineers simultaneously, we aggressively protect your negotiated rent-free period and guarantee seamless project momentum.

 

THE CFO’S CORNER:

MITIGATING FEE-ON-FEE LAYERING

For the Chief Financial Officer, the “invisible costs” represent the most dangerous threat to the overall project budget. In a traditional procurement model, the CFO must budget separately for a multitude of external consultants, which rapidly inflates the baseline cost.

Traditional external fees typically include:

• Project Management: 2.5% – 4% of the total construction cost.
• Quantity Surveying: An additional 2% of the construction cost.
• Architectural Design: Typically ranges between 12% – 14% of the interior Cat B construction value.
• Landlord Approvals: When pursuing a Licence to Alter, tenants must pay the landlord’s consulting team, which frequently includes £800 – £3,000 for solicitors and £800 – £2,500 for surveyors.

By choosing an integrated design and build partner, the CFO transfers this financial risk. We lock in all statutory fees and professional services within a fixed price lump sum contract, ensuring the corporate balance sheet is protected from unexpected mid-project invoices.

MARIS TOOLS:

THE DIRECTOR’S LIABILITY SHIELD

Under the Construction Design and Management (CDM) Regulations 2015, the ultimate responsibility for health and safety lies directly with the client. You cannot delegate your legal liability, but you can actively shield your business. We advise leadership teams to take three straightforward, chronological steps to protect the Board of Directors:

1. Demand Rigorous Due Diligence:
You must ensure the business discharges its legal duties before contractors ever arrive on site. We advise independently verifying all fire strategy validations and strictly checking that your entire supply chain holds active Safety Schemes in Procurement (SSiP) accreditations.

2. Submit Regulatory Notifications:
It is a legal requirement to alert the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) that a major construction project is commencing. We advise executing the official F10 notification immediately, ensuring you are never caught unprepared on the wrong side of an unannounced HSE inspection.

3. Interrogate Your Lease Architecture:
Before committing any capital to your physical design, we advise conducting a thorough review of your legal documents. You must examine your repairing covenants and future reinstatement obligations to guarantee your proposed fit-out does not violate the strict terms of your commercial lease.