General overview of how to draw up a contract for services or works in United Kingdom

Tips for drafting a service contract

In the world of service and work providers, drawing up a robust contract is essential to ensure that your rights are protected. This subject concerns providers of services and work carried out in United Kingdom or offered to clients in United Kingdom, and covers the following rules: 

• Service contracts can involve a long relationship, clothed in trust, interdependence and heightened expectations. 
• The extent of fees can vary from project to project, and according to unforeseeable circumstances, and this point leads to most disputes between the parties. 
• The service provider often incurs additional costs and the cost of materials to be re-invoiced to the customer, and the method of re-invoicing must be clear. 
• Default of payment happens very often in service contracts, and you need to protect yourself, especially when payment is in arrears during work that has already begun but not yet been completed. 
• Providing services raises other legal issues, including confidentiality, liability for subcontractors, and the design and assignment of intellectual property. 
• A service contract is not exhaustively regulated by law, so a good contract is a must. 

Any website owner offering online services in UK, also because the rules on data protection are in addition, and are strictly regulated, all to be regulated in the General Terms and Conditions of Sale (GTCS). 

What is a service contract and what types are there? 

Service contracts vary according to the following: 

• Form: an oral contract is possible, and many are often concluded, for example in the shop or by calling a technician, but written contracts are recommended for long-distance transactions, for long periods or for large sums. 

It should be noted that acceptance of the general terms and conditions of sale (GTCS) online is legally equivalent to a contract, although it is not “in writing” as such.  

• Duration: service contracts can be concluded for a very short term, with a fixed duration, or provide for fairly rapid, even instantaneous, execution of the service. To this end, we offer in particular a one-off project or service contract, perfect for carrying out on-site work, removals, one-off cleaning, on-site repairs or calibration. It can also be used to carry out projects, whether tangible or intangible, such as software development or the design of an architect’s plan, up to a certain date or in successive stages. 

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• Where successive projects or stages form part of a longer relationship, which is often subject to change, we suggest entering into a single Master Services Agreement which governs all legal matters, to be supplemented by brief Project Assignments which describe only the scope of the project, the timescale and the price

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• For services of the same type that you offer to several customers under the same conditions, you can draw up only one estimate of services, a proposal to be countersigned by the customer, with optional reference to general conditions. 
• If similar services are to be provided on a regular or on-demand basis, a consultant contract is your perfect choice. Whether an individual or a company, the consultant undertakes to perform services, either at the hourly rate or at the specific prices and deadlines for each type of service (service package). 

Create your contract for package of regular services in a couple of clicks

• When you perform services that materialise and involve the transfer, examination or modification of movable or immovable property, this is the contract of works whereby the service provider is also liable for defects. 

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What are the main mistakes service providers can make and how can they avoid them with AdminTech? 

To avoid common mistakes when drawing up a service contract, it is important to pay attention to the following key points:  

• Unclear or insufficient description of services or works and their characteristics. In fact, it is not necessarily useful to specify all the technical data of the services to be performed, in the legal text. What is more practical, and what we suggest in our templates, is to make only a brief description, while adding a detailed appendix to avoid any misunderstanding. 
• No clear agreement from the customer on the final price. In practice, contracts often provide only an hourly rate, without giving an estimate of hours, or a simple estimated quote, without committing to a firm price. Our templates allow you to provide more details on how the price is calculated, paid, guaranteed and adjusted if necessary as the work progresses. 
• Neglecting to re-invoice costs. Whether it’s a consultant, architect, technician or IT specialist, every service provider incurs a number of costs in carrying out their work. Although the service provider bears these costs personally, it is sometimes necessary to re-invoice them to customers, especially the cost of materials or expenses incurred at the customer’s express request. Our templates allow you to re-invoice actual, fixed or variable prices. 
• Inadequate description of deadlines. With our templates that allow you to provide for single or successive deadlines, precise or estimated, with or without an obligation to tolerate a slight delay, you can better agree your obligations and formalise the customer’s expectations. 
• Absence of means of proof of performance and means of review of services. In principle, the customer only undertakes to pay according to satisfaction. In addition to a clear and detailed description of the services, our templates allow you to provide for how the services are submitted to the customer for review, and within what timeframe the customer must report a defect. 
• Do not limit the liability of the service provider. Even slight negligence can result in unforeseeable and unbearable damages. Our models, which are in line with current practice, give you the option of limiting your liability to the amount of fees actually paid during a certain period prior to the dispute. 
• Neglecting the risk of payment default. Not only is this the most common risk for any service provider, but if the services have already been started or performed, the provider is often in a precarious situation. You should therefore use the following options, which we suggest: set the costs of payment reminders, interest on arrears, provide for a guarantee deposit and set the length of delay tolerated before services are suspended. 

To avoid these mistakes, use the AdminTech online contract builder to create a robust works or project contract. 

Create your contract for consultant at hourly rate in a couple of clicks