ABSTRACT
Control of work under a building contract Many of the examples used so far to illustrate the working of the law of contract have been simple transactions involving small sums of money where the contract is made and performed within a short period of time. Contrast that with a building contract where the work may be massive in scale, taking months or years to complete and costing millions of pounds. The very scale of the work means that many subcontracts will be involved, as well as the main contract. Despite the complexity of a building contract it is judged by the ordinary general principles of the law of contract. It would be uneconomic to draft a complex new set of terms for every building contract and although this type of contract has not been codified by a statute, standard forms of contract have developed in the construction industry. These have been subject to extensive interpretation by the courts, and amendments to the standard form are issued regularly. Inevitably, the terms of any standard form contract may be seen to lean against the interests of one of the parties, unless representatives of both sides played a part in drawing up the original version.
