JCT building contracts: What's new?

Abstract

This paper is based on a lecture (of the same title) given by the author to attendees of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Spring 2007 Building Surveyors Annual Briefing. It also contains a new section summarising some of the changes in the intervening months towards the end of this paper. In 2005 JCT and Sweet & Maxwell started a new arrangement whereby Sweet & Maxwell would publish all JCT's contracts from then onwards. The change in publisher also heralded a change in the contracts themselves - in terms of layout, drafting style and, on occasion, risk allocation between the employer and contractor. This paper will provide a brief overview of the changes, look at some of the alterations in more detail and consider some of the key changes since Spring 2007. © 2008 PALGRAVE MACMILLAN LTD.