JCT vs a Bespoke Building Contract for Private Clients

Bespoke building contract vs JCT: with private clients, the choice decides how you get paid and who can go around you. Here's the case for your own contract and the consumer-law limits. Want yours checked against how you actually work? Book a free strategy call.

Sviat's position in one paragraph

Sviat Jay runs Craftex, a London main contractor, and mentors construction business owners one-to-one. With private clients, he advises them to use their own contract instead of a JCT form. A standard form is written to be fair to both sides.

A contract written for your business can strengthen your position as the contractor. It covers how you get paid and what happens when the client changes their mind. It also covers who owns the design and who may hire your people.

He adds one rule for every job: sign non-solicitation and non-compete agreements with everyone involved. Architects, designers, consultants, subcontractors. Otherwise a subcontractor takes your client, or the client hires your subcontractor directly. Right now Sviat has two live cases of clients trying to go around him.

This page is general information, not legal advice. Have your contract drafted or reviewed by a construction solicitor.

JCT vs bespoke: honest pros and cons

What a contractor-friendly contract should cover

These are the clauses that protect a contractor or design company on private work. Write them in plain words so the client actually reads them.

• Payment schedule and deposit. Stages tied to visible milestones, the amount at each stage and the due date. Clayton, a plasterer we worked with, now signs with £5K upfront and staged payments. Individual results, not typical or guaranteed.
• Variations procedure. No extra work without a written instruction and an agreed price or rate, sent before you start it.
• Suspension for non-payment. Your right to stop work, after written notice, when a stage payment is late, and to recover the cost of stopping and restarting.
• Design ownership. You keep ownership of your drawings and design; the client's right to use them starts when you are paid in full.
• Client-supplied items. Who orders, checks and stores them, and what happens to the programme and price when they arrive late or wrong.
• Delays caused by the client. Late decisions, late access, late payments: more time and the cost of the delay. A decision schedule makes this work in practice: see when a client keeps changing their mind.
• Non-solicitation of your team. The client may not hire your staff, subcontractors or designers directly for the job, or for a set period after it, without your agreement.
• Defects and handover. When the job counts as finished, how long you come back for defects, and how snags are reported. Your defects period isn't your only exposure: see how long a builder is liable for defects.
• Disputes. A route to settle disputes quickly, such as adjudication or mediation, before court.

These clauses earn their keep on the bad day. Here is what to do when a client wants to sack you mid-job.

The consumer-law limits you can't write around

A contract with a homeowner is a consumer contract. Your own terms are allowed, but the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 decide how far they can go.

• Unfair terms don't bind the client. A term is unfair if, contrary to good faith, it creates a significant imbalance against the consumer. The Act's grey list includes taking disproportionate sums on cancellation and changing the terms or price on your own. It also covers terms the client had no real chance to read.
• Price and scope must be clear and prominent. Only then are they protected from a fairness challenge.
• You can't exclude reasonable care and skill. A clause removing that duty does not bind a consumer.
• 14 days to cancel off-premises contracts. If you sign in the client's home, they normally have 14 days to cancel. To start inside that period you need their express request on a durable medium; an email will do. If you never gave the cancellation information, the client may owe nothing for work done in that period. What to do when it happens: client cancelled within 14 days.

The practical rule: write one-sided protections as reasonable, clearly explained procedures (notice, a cure period, a fair cost), not as penalties. A construction solicitor can tell you where the line sits for your contract.

When a JCT form is still the right call

Use the JCT form when a commercial client, main contractor or lender requires it, when an architect runs the job, or when you are tendering. Then the work is in the details: price the risk in their schedule of amendments, and run notices, valuations and variations on time.

Want a contract set up for your private clients? Book a free strategy call. Our JCT hub and the forms comparison cover how to choose and what to check.

Whatever form you sign, add your own agreements with the people around the job. The non-compete and non-solicitation guide covers subcontractors, architects, designers and consultants.

Before you send your next private-client contract

General information as of October 2026, not legal advice. Have your contract drafted or reviewed by a construction solicitor before you use it.