JCT Minor Works vs Intermediate vs Design and Build
The short answer
Minor Works for simple jobs the client has designed. Intermediate when the job needs named specialists or more detailed delay and payment rules. Design and Build when you take on the design. Home Owner forms for consumers.
- Who designs decides most of it. Client designs: MW or IC. You design parts: MWD or ICD. You design it all: DB.
- Complexity, not value, moves you from Minor Works to Intermediate. Named specialists, bills of quantities or detailed delay control mean IC.
- Design and Build puts design risk on you. Price it, insure it and get the Employer's Requirements in detail.
- Homeowner jobs need a consumer contract: the JCT Home Owner form or your own fair terms, not Minor Works by default.
JCT Minor Works vs Intermediate vs Design and Build: the right choice depends on who designs and how complex the job is. Here's how to pick in five minutes. If you want someone to check the form before you sign, book a free strategy call.
The short answer
Three questions pick the form in most cases:
- Is the client a homeowner living in the property? Use a consumer contract: the JCT Home Owner form or your own fair terms. Read JCT vs bespoke contracts for private clients first.
- Who designs? If you complete the design, it is Design and Build. If you design only defined parts, use the "with contractor's design" version (MWD or ICD).
- How complex is the job? Simple and low-risk: Minor Works. Named specialists, bills of quantities, phased work or detailed delay rules: Intermediate.
New to JCT? Start with the hub: JCT contracts explained for UK builders. This page is general information, not legal advice.
Side-by-side comparison
| Form | Use it for | Who designs | Delay and change rules | Payment | Price (JCT store, Oct 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minor Works (MW 2024) | Simple, low-risk jobs: small extensions, minor alterations, basic fit-outs | Client's team | Short and simple; no new relevant events in 2024 | Lump sum, monthly interim | £100 + VAT |
| Minor Works with contractor's design (MWD 2024) | As MW, where you design defined parts | Client's team + you for the defined parts | As MW | Lump sum, monthly interim | £100 + VAT |
| Intermediate (IC / ICD 2024) | Medium jobs: small commercial buildings, multi-unit residential | Client's team (ICD: you for defined parts) | Fuller rules on extensions of time, variations, loss and expense, liquidated damages; epidemics and change in law added in 2024 | Lump sum, monthly interim | £178 + VAT |
| Design and Build (DB 2024) | You take the client's requirements and complete the design | You | Detailed provisions, like IC or more | Lump sum, interim stage or periodic | £204 + VAT |
| Home Owner (HO/B, HO/C 2021) | Homeowner extensions and alterations | Homeowner or their consultant | Plain-English, short | Lump sum incl. VAT, on completion or agreed stages | £40 / £46 + VAT |
Problems like this usually trace back to cash and contracts. Take the free 4-minute Construction Business Scorecard: 18 questions on your pipeline, sales, pricing, cash flow and systems, with your weakest area shown first.
Minor Works: when it fits and when it doesn't
Minor Works is the shortest JCT building contract. It assumes the client, or their architect, has designed the job and that drawings, specification or schedules fully define what you are building. A contract administrator runs it.
It is the wrong form when the job needs:
- Bills of quantities to price and value the work
- Named specialists whose appointment the contract must control
- Detailed control procedures for delay, loss and expense, or phased handovers
- Your design on parts of the work (use MWD instead)
A small job can still be complex. A refurbishment with a specialist lift or hoist installer, for example, may need a bigger form than its value suggests.
Agreeing to Minor Works on a job with phased handovers and several specialist packages because "it's only £150K". The simple delay rules will not cover what actually happens, and you carry the gap.
Intermediate: more detail, more admin
Intermediate sits between Minor Works and the Standard Building Contract. The client still designs. What you get is fuller machinery: detailed interim payments, extensions of time, variations, loss and expense and liquidated damages, plus the option of named specialists. All other subcontractors are your domestic subcontractors, and their performance is your responsibility.
More rules protect you only if you follow them. Intermediate expects notices, applications and records on time. If you don't have someone running the commercial side, those rights are lost by default. That is the gap our commercial management service fills.
Running Intermediate jobs without a commercial manager?
Book a free call and we'll show you how Craftex tracks notices, valuations and variations.
Design and Build: you own the design risk
Under Design and Build you complete the design and carry out the work, against the client's Employer's Requirements. It suits warehouses, industrial units and design-heavy residential schemes. It is the form for a design-and-build company (see how to become a design and build company).
What changes for you:
- Design risk is yours. Gaps between the Employer's Requirements and what is buildable become your cost unless the contract says otherwise.
- Price goes up for good reason. Design fees, design development and consultant costs belong in the price.
- The design duty in the 2024 forms is reasonable skill and care, with fitness for purpose expressly excluded where the form allows. Watch for amendments that put it back.
- The client is less involved day to day, so record every change in their requirements in writing.
Homeowner jobs: neither of the three by default
For homeowners having work done on the home they live in, JCT publishes separate Home Owner contracts. HO/B is for jobs with no consultant; HO/C is where a consultant runs the job. They are in plain English for extensions and alterations. They include their own adjudication rules, because the Construction Act doesn't apply to homeowner work.
Whichever document you use, the client is a consumer. Terms that are unfair under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 do not bind them.
Sviat Jay runs the London contractor Craftex. He advises his mentees to use their own contract with private clients rather than a JCT form. The reasons are in JCT vs bespoke building contracts. Want your own contract set up? Book a free strategy call.
Want a contract and process that fits the jobs you actually win?
Book a free strategy call.
Pick the form in five minutes
General information as of October 2026, not legal advice. Have the contract reviewed by a construction solicitor before you sign.
Choosing a JCT form
- Client is a homeowner: Home Owner form or your own fair consumer terms
- You design everything from their requirements: Design and Build
- You design defined parts: MWD or ICD
- Simple, client-designed, low risk: Minor Works
- Named specialists, bills or detailed delay rules: Intermediate
