JCT contracts to suit self-build projects have been made available on ContractStore.com.
Joint Contracts Tribunal (JCT) and ContractStore.com have teamed up to produce two documents which help self-builders manage consultants and contractors as they create their ‘grand design’. The contracts also maintain the interests of construction professionals working for individuals.
The documents provide an alternative to the long and complicated contracts produced by professional bodies, which those commissioning or working on small jobs have had to make do with until now.
ContractStore’s Appointment of a professional consultant to provide services to a home-owner contract is a generic form of agreement suitable for hiring and managing an architect, structural engineer, mechanical and electrical engineer, project manager, interior designer or landscape architect.
The four page document, in the form of a letter, offers 19 clearly-understandable paragraphs covering aspects of the build such as: the scope of the agreement, the services provided, the duration of the appointment, fees and payments, termination. There is also a schedule to be completed that containing details of the project, scope of services and fees.
ContractStore.com founder, Giles Dixon, says: “If you are managing your own project, it is easier to use a straightforward, fairly balanced contract than to have a variety of different forms with different professionals.”
Meanwhile the JCT Building contract for a home owner / occupier comes in two versions – one where the home owner has appointed a consultant to supervise the work and one where there is no consultant. The document allows for the client and contractor to agree on the arrangements for the work, such as the work to be done, the price, payment terms and the working period.
The document also includes three pages of conditions covering items such as the contractor and the clients’ responsibilities, health and safety considerations, finishing the work, making good and ending the contract. In addition there is an agreement to have any disputes decided by an adjudicator within 21 days as well as the right to go to court. The same form of contract can be used even if multiple contractors are employed on site.
The JCT is the principal provider of standard contracts for the building industry in the UK. Their home owner contracts have the Plain English Campaign's ‘Crystal Mark for Clarity’ to underline the point about clarity.
“Contracts are useful on self-build projects because they also act as a checklist, prompting clients to go over what they need to think about before they begin a project,” said Dixon.
For more information and pricing, please visit www.contractstore.com and www.jctltd.co.uk
