JCT Contracts 2024 – Standard Building Contracts and Intermediate Building Contracts

The JCT has continued the roll out of its 2024 suite of contracts, publishing the Standard Building Contracts and related sub-contracts on 21 August 2024. Updated collateral warranties were also released on 21 August, following the Design & Build Contract, Minor Works Contracts and Intermediate Building Contract families published earlier in the year.

The changes introduced across both the Standard Building Contracts and Intermediate Building Contracts are entirely consistent with those made to the Design & Build Contract, which we covered in some detail here and discussed in our webinars of 25 April 2024 and 18 June 2024.[1]

For example, the Standard and Intermediate Building Contracts now use gender-neutral language and include provisions for electronic communications in the same form as those in the 2024 Design & Build and Minor Works Contracts. As with the 2024 Minor Works and Design & Build Contracts, contractors appointed under Standard and Intermediate Building Contracts are also required to provide information regarding the environmental impact of goods and materials and ‘encouraged’ to suggest ‘economically viable’ amendments to the works which reduce their environmental impact – albeit these provisions are very light-touch and do not provide any clear incentive for contractors to do so.

The 2016 suite of contracts included a ‘Supplemental Provision’ which, if selected, required the parties to act ‘in good faith’. Across the 2024 suite, including the Standard and Intermediate Building Contracts, that provision is now included as a core clause. As with the 2024 Design & Build Contract, the Standard and Intermediate Building Contracts now include more detailed provisions governing compensation on termination, an expanded definition of insolvency, an enhanced design obligation together with an express exclusion of fitness for purpose design obligations (in the ‘with design’ versions), confirmation that liquidated damages cannot be levied in respect of any period following termination and a very light-touch approach to the Building Safety Act, essentially limited to identifying duty holders.

The provisions governing extensions of time and claims for loss and expense in the 2024 Standard and Intermediate Building Contracts are also aligned with those in the 2024 Design & Build Contract. On extensions of time, there is a ‘new’ ground covering the effects of epidemics (although such effects were generally agreed to be covered as ‘force majeure’ under the 2016 contracts) and  expanded grounds dealing with adverse physical conditions and changes in law. The Standard and Intermediate Building Contracts also mirror the Design & Build Contract by including two ‘optional’ grounds for recovery of loss and expense which apply only if selected in the Contract Particulars (covering costs arising from epidemics and/or changes in law).

As with the equivalent provisions of the 2024 Design & Build Contract, the Standard Building Contract requires the Architect/Contract Administrator to notify any further particulars required to make an extension of time decision within 14 days from receipt of the contractor’s initial notice and, to notify any award within eight weeks from receipt of such particulars (or the initial notice where sufficient particulars are provided). Those clauses do not operate as a clear condition precedent and there is no deemed approval where the Architect/Contract Administrator fails to comply. The same provisions do not appear in the Intermediate Building Contracts which operate a simplified mechanism for extension of time claims.

As noted above, the updates to the Standard and Intermediate Building Contracts are entirely consistent with those made to the other 2024 contract families. There is nothing in the 2024 updates to alarm users save for the areas in which anticipated changes have not been made: detailed drafting around the Building Safety Act, further insurance options and overall caps on liability being good examples.

We will continue to issue further updates as new documents are published, including the Pre-Construction Services Agreements and Consultancy Agreement on 4 September 2024, and the much-anticipated Target Cost Contract later in the year.

If you require any assistance with the 2024 updates to the JCT suite, please contact any member of our team below.

[1] Please see here for our recent webinars on the JCT Contracts 2024.