Stage 4: Signing

Most self-build disputes are not about bad building. They are about a contract nobody read, or no contract at all.

4.1 What a contract actually does

A building contract is not a formality and it is not there because lawyers like paperwork. It is the document that answers the questions you will have when something goes wrong, and it answers them in advance, while everybody is still friendly.

What you pay and when. How much is due, who decides that, how often, and how long you have to pay after it is decided.

What happens when things change. Who can instruct a change, whether it has to be in writing, and how it gets priced.

What happens about time. When it should finish, what happens if it does not, and what entitles the builder to longer.

Who carries which risk. Insurance, the works themselves, materials on site, defects after completion.

What happens if it all stops. Whether either side can walk away, on what notice, and what happens to the money and the materials.

One thing that matters more for you than for a commercial client. There is a piece of legislation, the Construction Act, which gives most parties to construction contracts a statutory right to be paid on a fixed timetable and a statutory right to take a dispute to adjudication, which is a fast decision process. It largely does not apply to a household building a home it will live in. The Act excludes a construction contract with a residential occupier.

The practical consequence is important: your contract is all the protection you have. There is no statutory payment machinery sitting behind it and no automatic right to adjudicate. That is why reading the contract matters more on a self-build than it does on a commercial job, not less.

If you are building to sell, building through a company, or building something you will not live in, this changes and the Act may well apply. If that is your situation, take advice on it.

4.2 The questions to answer before signing

Twenty-five, in five groups, and every one answered from the document in front of you rather than from what you were told.

What contract is it. Which form is being used, and is it written for domestic work? Are the parties named correctly, with the builder’s registered company name and number? Is the scope properly described? Are the drawings and the priced schedule listed as contract documents, so that what you agreed is what is in the contract?

The money. What is the contract sum, and can it be adjusted? How and when do you pay? Who decides how much is due, and how do you challenge it? How many days do you then have? Is anything payable before work starts? Is retention held, how much, and when is each half released? What happens if you pay late?

When things change. Who can instruct a change, and must it be written? How is a change priced, and is it priced before or after the work is done? How are provisional sums adjusted?

Time. Is there a completion date? What happens if the builder is late, and is there a figure for it? What entitles them to more time, and who decides?

When it goes wrong. What insurance does each side carry, and in whose name is the works insurance? What is the defects period? Can either side end the contract? What happens to materials on site if the builder stops? How are disputes resolved?

Write the clause number against every answer. You will want to find them again, usually in a hurry.

Anything you cannot find an answer to is a gap, and a gap is a question to ask before signing, not after.

The Aldertons

Five of their twenty-five answers, and what they did about them:

Question	The answer	What they did
How and when do you pay?	Monthly valuations, architect certifies	Nothing. This is what they wanted
Retention, and release?	5 per cent, half at completion, half after six months	Diarised both dates the day they signed
How is a change priced?	Contract rates, otherwise fair rates	Asked that changes be priced before instruction
If the builder is late?	Silent	Asked. Got a date, no figure. Accepted it knowingly
Works insurance, whose name?	Joint names, builder to arrange	Asked for the certificate. It was three weeks out of date

Two of those five changed something. The insurance certificate took a week to sort and would otherwise have left them uninsured for the first month of the build. And the contract was silent on lateness, so they asked, were told there would be no figure, and accepted that with their eyes open.

Knowing is the point. The checklist does not require you to win every argument.

The tool: the Contract Review Checklist.

4.3 Money paid before you have anything

Your largest single risk on a self-build is not the builder’s price. It is paying for things that do not exist yet.

A window company takes a deposit on a twelve-week lead time. A kitchen takes a deposit a year before it is fitted. A kit company takes a substantial proportion of its price on order, before anything is manufactured. A builder asks for money up front to buy materials.

None of those payments buy anything you own. They buy a promise, and the promise is only as good as the company behind it. Construction had 3,912 insolvencies in the twelve months to January 2026, more than any other sector. When one of those companies is holding your deposit, you are an unsecured creditor, and in almost every case the money is gone.

The exposure is invisible unless you add it up, because it accumulates one order at a time. Nobody decides to put £25,000 into other people’s hands at once. They just place five orders.

So add it up. One row per payment: what it is, who to, how much, when it is due, and when you will actually receive the thing. Your exposure on each starts when you pay and ends when you have the goods. Plot the running total and look at the peak: the most money standing with other people at any single moment.

Then ask, for each one, what would actually happen if that company failed tomorrow.

Retention of title clauses say the seller keeps ownership until payment. They protect the seller. They only help you if the mirror exists and if the goods can still be identified, unmixed and unfixed, which after a frame is erected or bricks are laid they cannot.

Vesting means ownership transfers to you before delivery, usually with the goods marked as yours and stored separately. It is real protection and it has to be asked for.

Advance payment bonds are a third-party guarantee repaying your advance if the supplier fails. Common on large contracts, rare on a house, and worth asking about on a very large kit order.

How you pay may itself matter. For qualifying purchases between £100 and £30,000, a credit card provider can be jointly liable with the supplier under section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. Conditions apply and your provider will confirm the position. It is a mechanism worth knowing about; whether to use it is your decision, and I am not advising on financial products.

What to actually do. For everything not yet ordered, ask for a smaller deposit, or payment on delivery rather than on order, or the payment split into two. Ask for goods to be identified and marked as yours, stored separately and insured, and get that in writing. And write yourself a set of standing rules, because you will be placing orders for two years and you cannot think it through each time.

The Aldertons

They are asked for five deposits across the build, £34,800 in all. Laid out against the dates, the number that matters is smaller and worse: in early November, the windows deposit paid in October and the builder’s materials advance paid on the first leave £24,600 standing at one moment, and not a pound of it has anything behind it.

Their five rules, written once and applied for the rest of the build:

1. We do not pay more than 25 per cent of any order before anything is delivered.
2. Anything over £5,000 is paid by a method that brings a third party in alongside the supplier, where our provider confirms it applies.
3. We do not pay for goods we cannot see, unless they are marked as ours, stored separately and insured, and we have that in writing.
4. We check the legal entity on every quotation against the name on the invoice before paying.
5. Our exposure across all suppliers never exceeds £25,000 at once without us discussing it first.

If your build is run differently

If you are buying a kit, this section is the most important one in the guide for you. A timber frame contract can take half its value before manufacture, which on a £120,000 kit is £60,000 standing with one company for months. That single payment will usually be larger than every other advance payment on your build put together, and the terms will have been written by their side.

What Stage 4 leaves you with

A contract you have read, with the clause numbers written against the answers. Insurance certificates you have actually seen. A schedule of what you are paying in advance and what stands behind each payment. And a set of rules you can apply on a Tuesday without ringing anyone.