JCT Minor Works, JCT Home Owner or a simple build contract? Choosing the right contract for a domestic job

Most domestic building work in the UK is still done on a quote and a handshake. It works until it does not: a disputed extra, a late payment, a client who decides the finish is not what they expected. A contract does not make clients difficult; it makes the difficult conversation shorter, because the answer is written down.

The options

JCT Home Owner contracts

The Joint Contracts Tribunal publishes two plain-English contracts for homeowners: one for jobs where the client has appointed an architect or consultant to oversee the work, and one where they have not. They are short, cheap, written for people who are not lawyers, and cover the essentials: the price, the start and finish dates, payment, changes, insurance and what happens if things go wrong. For a £40,000 to £300,000 extension they are hard to beat.

JCT Minor Works Building Contract

The Minor Works form (updated in the 2024 edition) is the standard for smaller projects, typically up to a few hundred thousand pounds, where an architect or contract administrator is running the job. It has proper interim payment provisions, a defects period, liquidated damages for delay, and adjudication. Use it when there is a professional on the client's side, and consider the "with contractor's design" version if you are designing any part of the work.

Trade body and simple contracts

The Federation of Master Builders and other bodies publish domestic contracts for members. A well-drafted simple build contract covering the same ground is fine for smaller jobs, provided it actually covers the ground; a page of terms on the back of a quote usually does not.

The clauses that matter

• The contract sum and what it is based on: the quote, the drawings by revision, the specification
• Payment: stages, timing, interest on late payment, and retention if any
• Variations: priced and approved in writing before the work is done, with agreed rates for labour and plant
• Programme: start date, completion date, and what counts as an extension of time (weather, client changes, unforeseen conditions, late decisions)
• Client's obligations: access, decisions by a date, client-supplied items and their delivery dates
• Insurance: who insures the existing house and who insures the works
• Defects: a defects period, usually 3 to 12 months, and the process for reporting and fixing
• Disputes: a conversation first, then mediation or adjudication, then court

Residential occupiers and the Construction Act

The statutory payment and adjudication rights in the Construction Act do not apply to contracts with a residential occupier. That is why the contract itself has to provide them: JCT forms do, and so should any simple contract you use. Without it, a payment dispute goes straight to the county court, which is slow and public.

Design responsibility

If the client has no architect and you are deciding the details, you are designing, and you carry the risk for it. Say so in the contract, limit it to what you actually decide, and check your professional indemnity cover. If an engineer or architect is involved, make clear that their drawings govern and that you build to them.

Signing it

Contracts signed on site, at the client's home, trigger the 14-day cancellation right under the Consumer Contracts Regulations. Include the cancellation notice and, if the client wants an early start, get their written instruction. Electronic signatures are valid and faster; nobody prints anything.

Building the contract from the quote

The reason builders do not use contracts is the admin: re-typing the scope, the price, the dates and the stages into a form. EstiMate generates the build contract from the accepted quote with the scope, the price, the payment schedule, the programme and the variation procedure already filled in, and the client signs it online. Changes mid-job become variations under the contract rather than arguments. For the legal letters when something does go wrong, the legal toolkit in Pro drafts the notices from the same job record.