Choose the contract by the work, the design responsibilities and the procedures the project needs. A price band or a familiar form used on a previous job is not enough to explain the choice. This guide sets out a practical sequence for discussing Minor Works, Intermediate and Standard Building Contract with your advisers. It focuses on traditional procurement and the questions to settle before tender, while identifying when a Home Owner or design-and-build discussion may be more appropriate. Read the selected edition and amendments before committing.
Start with a short description of the proposed arrangement
Record what is being built or repaired, the information already available and who will complete the design. Identify whether the employer is procuring a defined design or asking the contractor to take wider design responsibility. JCT's contract-selection practice note compares procurement routes and form families; use it to frame the discussion rather than treat a form name as a specification.
Prepare a list of unresolved decisions before asking for a recommendation. Include specialist packages, access constraints, sequencing, intended handovers and information still to be obtained. Ask your adviser to explain how the proposed contract deals with those issues. A reasoned recommendation should connect the form to the project, not simply state that it is commonly used.
Minor Works: test simplicity and design allocation
JCT describes Minor Works as suitable for smaller, straightforward work under traditional procurement. It is not intended for projects needing bills of quantities, detailed control procedures or provisions for named specialists. Where the contractor will design particular elements, consider the contractor's-design variant and define those elements rather than assuming the basic form covers that responsibility.
Ask what makes your proposed work straightforward in practice. Check whether the tender information describes the required result clearly and whether the professional team can explain the remaining uncertainties. A modest floor area does not answer those questions. If the work contains difficult interfaces or incomplete information, discuss the implications before choosing the shorter contract for convenience.
Intermediate: examine the additional provisions you need
JCT's Intermediate 2024 product information describes employer-provided drawings with bills of quantities, a specification or work schedules. It also identifies provisions for named specialists. Compare the relevant Intermediate form with Minor Works by looking at the actual procedures needed for your works, rather than treating Intermediate as an automatic choice for a particular budget.
Ask which additional provisions solve a real issue in the brief and who will administer them. Identify the design information and cost information that must be prepared before tender. If part of the design is to be undertaken by the contractor, confirm the correct variant and the boundaries of that responsibility. The project team should be able to explain the recommendation in ordinary language.
Standard Building Contract: match the detail to the project
JCT describes Standard Building Contract as intended for larger or more complex traditionally procured work needing detailed provisions. Its variants accommodate different pricing-document arrangements, and the family can provide for a contractor's designed portion and work in sections. Those options need deliberate selection and properly prepared supporting information.
Ask your advisers which variant matches the proposed pricing documents and how the administration will be resourced. Identify who will maintain the drawings, respond to information requests, assess changes and prepare the cost records. Selecting a more detailed contract is not a substitute for arranging the people and information needed to operate it throughout the works.
Keep the contract form and appointment aligned
Record the professional roles identified by the selected building contract and compare them with the separate consultancy proposals. Confirm who will perform the architect/contract administrator function and how any valuation or quantity-surveying support is allocated. Ask how decisions will be recorded and which matters require the client's response before the team can proceed.
Use a responsibility schedule to expose missing tasks. Include the tender information, instructions, payment assessments, change records, completion process and post-completion work in the discussion. Name the person or organisation responsible for each output and the information they need. A contract with a named role and a consultancy quotation that excludes the relevant work need to be reconciled before signature.
Check whether the starting route is wrong
Do not stretch this comparison to cover every project. JCT's Home Owner family offers arrangements for domestic work with or without a consultant. Design and Build has a different allocation of design responsibility and uses an Employer's Agent role. A contractor designing a defined portion under a traditional form is not, by itself, the same arrangement as an entire design-and-build procurement.
If the current brief leaves design responsibility unsettled, pause the form selection and resolve that question with the professional team. Establish what the employer will specify, what the contractor will develop and how the proposals will be assessed. The recommendation may need to change when those responsibilities become clear; keep the written reasons with the procurement record.
Review the documents as a coordinated set
Before signature, ask the team to check that the contract particulars, scope, drawings, pricing information and proposed amendments describe the same arrangement. Identify inconsistencies rather than assuming one document's wording resolves another's omission. Keep a dated list of the documents being agreed, with a clear method for recording any final changes.
Discuss insurance arrangements and legal amendments with the appropriate advisers, and identify information that still needs confirmation. Ask who is responsible for closing each open point. Do not use a checklist as authority to sign with unresolved commercial or legal questions. Its purpose is to make those questions visible early enough for the right person to address them.
Turn the comparison into a procurement decision
Request a short recommendation identifying the proposed form and edition, the relevant design responsibilities, the principal reasons for the choice and the alternatives considered. Keep it with the agreed works brief. If the scope or procurement strategy later changes, return to that record and check whether the original reasons still apply before simply reusing the same form.
For help preparing that brief, see procurement and tendering. For the professional appointment after selecting the arrangement, see JCT contract administration in London, or Employer's Agent services for design and build. These routes describe the service scope; the executed contract and agreed appointment determine the responsibilities on the individual project. HCS's contractor-independence requirement remains part of its CA scope.