JCT released the first of their 2024 Edition of Contracts on 17th April, starting with the Design and Build family of Contracts. The latest update to the suite includes several improvements to modernise and streamline the documents, provide future-proofing, reflect the latest legislative changes, and introduce a new Contract family.
The team at Make recently attended a webinar, provided by JCT, to enable users to gain a better understanding of the new 2024 Edition of Contracts for Design and Build.
Whilst we found the changes from the 2016 editions are not as significant as we anticipated, there are some notable changes that we wanted to highlight.
1. The Building Safety Act (with the inclusion of named duty holders)
- There were some important updates regarding the Building Safety Act. The new duty holder obligations introduced by the Building Safety Act are recognised by the new 2024 Contract, and what each party undertakes to comply with their respective duties under Part 2A of the Building Regulations. The new roles of Building Safety Act ‘Principal Designer’ and ‘Principal Contractor’ are also recognised.
2. Construction Playbook
- Elements of the Construction Play book have now been incorporated in order to future proof the Contract.
3. Modernising and Streamlining of the Contract
- Shortening the time for assessment of Extension of Time claims to 8 weeks, the introduction of clauses relating to pandemics/epidemics and expanding the antiquities clause to cover additional unexpected findings.
4. Three supplemental provisions are now mandatory (i.e. they were optional and now they are not!)
- a: The inclusion of collaborative working as mandatory means there is now a contractual duty for all parties to work with each other in a trustworthy and respectful manner. It prohibits conduct which would be seen as commercially unacceptable.
- b: Sustainability – to reflect the global goal towards greener buildings and net zero carbon emissions – This is something that Make were already including within our consultancy Contracts as standard but it is now mandatory as part of the new JCT Contract.
- c: Disputes – Senior Executives outside of the project are required to meet and resolve disputes – Again, this is something that Make were already including within our consultancy Contracts as standard but it is now mandatory as part of the new JCT Contract.
The remainder of the JCT Suite will be rolled out throughout the rest of this year, with their Minor Works Contract being issued earlier this month. A brand new Target Cost Contract is also in the pipeline, due to popular demand.