A building contract is an agreement between two parties, a client and an individual or organisation, to undertake an agreed amount of work, to an agreed standard and for an agreed sum of money. The exacting requirements of good conservation practice means that the form of contract employed is extremely important to the success of the project. JCT 80 is a very comprehensive document containing a wide range of clauses, designed to ensure protection to both the client and the contractor, which can be modified or deleted as necessary. The minor works contract is a designed for simple, usually lower cost projects.
Procurement is the method by which a contractor's services are obtained.
The method of choosing the contractor has to be determined at an early stage as this can influence the design process. Drawings and detailed specifications are prepared which includes sufficient information to allow a bill of quantities to be produced, all of which is then issued to contractors for pricing. Bills can either be firm ie totally comprehensive or approximate ie where there the level of detail to prepare a firm bill is lacking, but there is sufficient information to proceed with the project. The key documents are the same as above, minus the bill of quantities. This sum can be based on a fixed fee or a percentage of the above mentioned costs.