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Do you need a written contract for building work?

A contract for building work does not have to be a signed document to exist. An accepted quote, an email saying "go ahead", or an agreement over the kitchen table can each be where the contract was made. The trouble comes later, when the job changes or the money is questioned and nobody can show what was agreed.

For homeowners, the law also requires certain information to be given before they are bound, whether or not there is a formal contract. Where the contract is made away from your business premises, that information has to be on paper or email.

Why writing it down matters

Arguments on small jobs are rarely about the law. They are about what was included, what the price covered, when it would finish, how a change was priced and when each payment fell due. A written contract settles those before anyone asks:

  1. The parties and the site.
  2. The work — scope, inclusions, exclusions, and the drawings or specification it relies on.
  3. The price — the total, how VAT is treated, any provisional sums.
  4. The programme — start, duration, and what the dates depend on.
  5. Payment — the stages and when each is due.
  6. Changes — how variations are priced and agreed before the work is done.
  7. Completion and defects, and what either side can do if the other does not perform.

Working for a homeowner

The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013. For a contract made at your business premises, regulation 9 requires you to give or make available the information in Schedule 1 before the homeowner is bound, unless it is already apparent from the context.

Stricter rules apply to an "off-premises contract". Regulation 5 defines it to include:

  • a contract made while you and the homeowner are together at their house, or anywhere else that is not your business premises
  • a contract where the homeowner made you an offer in those circumstances
  • a contract agreed at your office, or by phone or email, immediately after you met the homeowner in person away from your premises

If you are unsure, treat the contract as off-premises. Before the homeowner is bound by one, Schedule 2 requires information including:

  • your identity and geographical address
  • the total price including taxes, or how it will be calculated
  • the arrangements for payment and performance, and when you will do the work
  • the conditions, time limit and procedure for cancelling

Regulation 10 says this, with the model cancellation form, goes on paper or, if the homeowner agrees, another durable medium.

Cancelling. The homeowner can cancel an off-premises or distance contract without giving a reason.

  • Work only. Regulation 30 ends the cancellation period 14 days after the day the contract was made.
  • Work that also supplies goods, such as a kitchen you supply and fit. The Regulations call this a sales contract, and the 14 days may instead run from the day the goods reach the homeowner. How that applies to building work is not settled, so do not treat the period as over early, and take advice if it matters.
  • Cancellation information not given. Regulation 31 extends the period to 12 months after it would otherwise have ended. If you give the information late, the period ends 14 days after they receive it.

Some contracts have no cancellation right, or a limited one:

  • Urgent repairs. Where the homeowner asked you to visit to carry out urgent repairs or maintenance, there is no right to cancel. The exception is extra work, or goods other than the replacement parts the repair needs, supplied on that visit (regulation 28(1)(e) and (2)).
  • Made-to-order goods. Goods made to the homeowner's specification or clearly personalised are outside the right (regulation 28(1)(b)).
  • Small contracts. The cancellation rules do not apply to an off-premises contract worth £42 or less (regulation 27(3)).

Regulation 36 says you must not start in the cancellation period unless the homeowner expressly asks; for an off-premises contract, on a durable medium. If they then cancel, they pay a proportionate amount for what was done.

They pay nothing if you did not have their request in the right form. They also pay nothing if you did not give them the cancellation information, or did not tell them beforehand that they would have to pay for work done if they cancel (regulation 36(6)).

Regulation 6(1)(e) takes a contract outside the Regulations to the extent that it is for building a new building, or a substantially new building by converting an existing one. On its wording, that does not cover extensions, alterations or repairs to an existing home.

The Consumer Rights Act 2015. Every contract to supply a service to a consumer includes these terms, written or not:

  • the work is done with reasonable care and skill (section 49)
  • what you said or wrote about yourself or the work becomes a term if the homeowner took it into account. That is subject to anything you said at the same time that qualified it (section 50)
  • where no price was fixed, a reasonable price and no more (section 51)
  • where no time was fixed, the work is done within a reasonable time (section 52)

Section 57 says a term cannot exclude your liability under sections 49 and 50. A written contract cannot remove those rights. What it can do is fix the price and the time, so nobody has to argue about what counts as reasonable.

Working for a business client

Part II of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 applies to construction contracts. Every construction contract must have an adequate payment mechanism and a final date for payment. The Act also sets rules for payment notices and pay less notices. Where a contract leaves payment notices out, section 110A(5) says the Scheme for Construction Contracts applies instead. Writing your own terms means you know the dates rather than finding them in the Scheme.

Section 106 says these rules do not apply to a contract with a residential occupier, meaning a contract principally for work on a house or flat that one of the parties lives in or intends to live in. They do apply to your subcontracts.

Part II also does not cover a contract only to make or deliver materials or plant without installing them (section 105(2)). It applies only to work in England, Wales and Scotland (section 104(6)(b)). What a pay less notice is.

When a published standard form fits better

A short plain-English contract suits a small, well-defined job. A published standard form may fit better where:

  • the job is larger;
  • there is a contract administrator;
  • others are doing the design; or
  • the client asks for one.

The JCT Minor Works Building Contract 2024 is one example. Take advice where the value or risk justifies it.

Common questions

Is an accepted quote a contract? It can be. But a quote rarely says how changes are priced, what happens when the programme slips, or when payment notices fall due.

We agreed the job at my office. Does the 14-day cancellation right apply? Usually not, because that right is for off-premises and distance contracts. The exception is a contract made at your office, or by phone or email, immediately after you spoke to the homeowner in person away from your office. Straight after a site visit is the common example, and that still counts as off-premises (regulation 5). For a contract made at your office, regulation 9 still requires the Schedule 1 information before the homeowner is bound.

The homeowner wants me to start tomorrow. Only on their express request, which for an off-premises contract must be on a durable medium such as a signed form or an email.

What a template does not do

A contract template gives you the clauses and the information the law asks you to give. It does not know the job, the risk or the client, and it does not replace advice where the stakes are high. What our documents can and cannot promise.

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