A plain-English written contract between a homeowner (or small business) and a builder / tradesperson, generated from the user's own description of the job and signed online by both parties. The strongest single candidate from the casual-contracts cluster — score 30, Rob's clearest brand-fit on the Sorted side, and the cleanest expression of his "intent-to-create-legal-relations" thesis from the 19 May meeting. The promise. "Both sides know what was agreed. Both sides signed it. If it goes wrong, you have something in writing."

AAt a glance

BCustomer input — what we ask the user

B.1The conversation shape

Chat-style guided interview, ~6–10 minutes to complete. Plain English throughout — no legal jargon in the prompts. Save-and-resume from any device. The tone is "what did you actually agree?" rather than "complete this legal form." The interview adapts based on whether the user is the homeowner side (most common entry point) or the builder side (the membership-tier user) — same output document, slightly different framing.

B.2The fields we collect

Section A — Who's involved

• Your role required — Homeowner / Builder / Tradesperson / Small business commissioning work [drives branching]
• Your full name and address required
• Other party's full name and trading name required
• Other party's address and contact details required
• Other party's trade body or registration optional — Federation of Master Builders, Gas Safe, NICEIC, etc.

Section B — The job

• Short job title required — e.g. "Kitchen extension at 24 Oak Street"
• Site address if different from homeowner address conditional
• Full description of the work required — free-text, with prompts: "What's being done? What rooms or areas? What's the finished state?"
• Start date required
• Target completion date required
• Materials — who supplies what required — contractor / homeowner / mix

Section C — Money

• Total price agreed required — fixed / day rate / cost-plus / not yet agreed [drives branching]
• Deposit if any conditional — amount, when paid, what it covers
• Payment schedule required — milestone-based / weekly / on completion / split presets
• VAT required — included / added / not VAT registered
• What triggers each payment required — milestone completion, signed-off inspection, etc.

Section D — Quality and variations

• Quality standard expected required — "trade standard," "as per quote," "British Standard XYZ if specified"
• Who decides if a variation is needed required
• How variations get priced and recorded required — flags Variation-Order Tool as natural follow-up

Section E — When it goes wrong

• Notice period to fix problems required — default 14 days
• Termination triggers required — defaults provided
• Dispute path required — direct discussion → mediation → small claims (defaults locked)

Section F — Sign-off

• Email of the other party required, validated
• Preferred contact method required

B.3Evidence & verification

• Email verification of both parties before the contract is generated (handled by the e-sign envelope).
• ID verification is not required at the contract level — the parties are signing in their own names; this is a private contract, not a regulated transaction.
• Trade-body registration numbers are stored as metadata but not verified by us — the user can verify directly via the trade body's lookup tool, and we link out to those tools.

B.4Branching & edge cases

1. Homeowner ↔ builder, fixed price, single job — the simplest path; default flow.
2. Homeowner ↔ tradesperson, day rate, open-ended — pivots to estimated days, daily cap, weekly review.
3. Small business ↔ contractor — adds VAT registration fields, business vs trading address.
4. Builder-initiated — builder is the user, generating the contract to send to their homeowner client.
5. Variation to an existing arrangement — handles backdated start and explicit acknowledgement clause.

B.5Drop-off risks

• The total price field. Users often haven't agreed a number yet. Mitigation: a "Not agreed yet" path that drafts a contract with the pricing mechanism (cost-plus, day rate) and prompts both parties to fill it in before signing.
• The other party's email. Mitigation: SMS sign-off option as a fallback, plus print-and-sign-physically option.
• Free-text job description. Users freeze. Mitigation: three or four "show me an example" prompts based on job type (kitchen, extension, bathroom, roof, electrical).

CProduct output — what the customer receives

C.1The deliverable

A 3–5 page plain-English agreement plus a one-page summary cover note. Two formats: PDF (signed) and DOCX (editable before signing). Delivered through an in-product e-sign envelope (DocuSign-equivalent flow on our own infrastructure) and emailed to both parties on completion.

See the Specimen Output at the bottom of this document for a fully-rendered 6-page A4 example with dummy data.

C.2Document mock-up — skeleton

Cover page
  ★ "Builder's Mock-Up Contract" wordmark
  Job title · Issue date · Reference number
  Parties: [Homeowner name] and [Builder/Trading name]

1. Parties and the job
   Full names, addresses, contact details
   The job in one paragraph (drawn from Section B input)

2. The works
   2.1 What's being done (full free-text description)
   2.2 Where (site address)
   2.3 Materials and who supplies them
   2.4 Quality standard

3. Timeline
   3.1 Start date
   3.2 Target completion date
   3.3 Allowance for delays outside the contractor's control
       (weather, supply, listed exceptions — short fixed list)

4. Price and payment
   4.1 Total price (or pricing mechanism)
   4.2 VAT treatment
   4.3 Deposit
   4.4 Payment schedule — milestones, triggers, amounts
   4.5 Late payment — statutory interest reminder

5. Variations
   5.1 How variations are proposed and agreed
   5.2 How variations are priced
   5.3 Variations must be in writing — reference to the
       Variation-Order Tool as the recommended format

6. Insurance and responsibilities
   6.1 Public liability insurance — confirmation of cover
   6.2 Employer's liability — where the contractor has employees
   6.3 Workmanship — defects period (default 12 months)
   6.4 Snagging — process for raising and resolving

7. Termination
   7.1 By agreement
   7.2 For unfixed default — 14 days' written notice
   7.3 Payment on termination

8. Dispute resolution
   8.1 Direct discussion first
   8.2 Mediation
   8.3 Small claims court (default jurisdiction: England & Wales)

9. Signatures
   Homeowner — name, signed, dated
   Contractor — name, signed, dated
   Witness if applicable

Footer
   "Generated by LegalHelp · Self-help tool · Not legal advice"
   Reference number · Date · Page x of y

C.3What's included alongside the document

• Main contract — PDF (signed final) + DOCX (editable working copy).
• Plain-English cover note — one page, ten lines, what was agreed in the homeowner's own words.
• Signing instructions — when both parties have signed, how to keep the signed copy, what to do if paper signing is preferred.
• Trade-body lookup prompt — link to verify the builder's stated registration (Gas Safe, NICEIC, FMB) at the point of signing.
• What-to-do-if guide — short reference card: what to do if the work goes wrong, what to do if payment is late, how variations work.
• Reminder to log variations — soft prompt at the end suggesting the Variation-Order Tool when work starts shifting.

C.4The visual treatment

Branded throughout per brand/brand-book.md:

• Cover page: orange accent strip, wordmark top-left, job title large.
• Body pages: cream background, ink body text, orange section heading rules.
• Footer on every page: reference number + page number + the "Self-help tool · Not legal advice" line.
• Signature page: clear sign-here boxes, dated, with a small "What this means" callout above each signature line in plain English.

The visual treatment matters here more than for most products — it's the one a builder hands to a homeowner (or vice versa) and we want it to look like an arrangement worth taking seriously.

C.5Handoff & follow-up

• Both parties get the signed PDF by email immediately on completion.
• Signed copies stored in the user's account if registered (membership unlocks unlimited storage).
• 4-week check-in: "How's the work going? Any variations to log?" — drives Variation-Order Tool usage and surfaces issues early.
• End-of-job check-in: "Was the work completed as agreed? Any snagging?" — drives Trustpilot review request + Personal Legal MOT cross-sell.

DPricing & commercial shape

D.1Headline price

• First contract: free. Removes friction; the customer experiences the product before being asked to pay.
• Subscription for repeat users: £7.99/month or £49/year. Unlimited contracts, unlimited variation orders, unlimited storage, dispute-pack escalation included.
• Compared against: £350+ for a solicitor to draft a one-off building contract; £20–40 for a downloaded template that doesn't get signed and doesn't adapt.

D.2Unit economics

D.3Upsell hooks

• Variation-Order Tool (Product #2 in the 12) — the natural next product the moment the job changes.
• Personal Legal MOT (Product #12) — surfaces what other contracts and documents the user is exposed on.
• Will / LPA — the membership flywheel: once the user trusts us with contracts, the conversation about wills opens naturally.
• B2B membership cohort — builders who become regular users are a natural sub-segment for trade-association partnerships and a future "LegalHelp for Trades" sub-brand conversation.

ECompliance guardrails

E.1Why this is 🟢

Building contracts between private parties are not reserved instruments under LSA 2007 Sch.2. The product does not provide legal advice on whether the contract is enforceable in a specific dispute, does not represent either party, and does not file or submit anything to any tribunal. The user supplies the terms; we render those terms as a contract document; the user reviews and signs in their own name. This is squarely inside the self-help template framing and outside both the LSA reserved-activities perimeter and the FCA claims-management regime. Per regulatory-stance v3, the casual-contracts cluster is the cleanest opening front.

E.2User-as-actor framing

• We draft the contract from the user's own description of what they've agreed.
• The user reviews — every clause is shown in plain English with a one-line explanation; the user can edit, accept, or query.
• The user signs in their own name; the counterparty signs in theirs.
• The user shares the signed copy with their counterparty; we facilitate the e-sign envelope but the parties are the signatories.
• The user enforces the contract themselves if it comes to that; we provide a self-help "what to do if" reference card but never act on their behalf.

E.3What the AI explicitly does NOT do

Interstitial copy that appears at three points (signup, before review, before sending):

• The AI does not give legal advice on whether your contract is enforceable in your specific situation.
• The AI does not sign anything in its own name.
• The AI does not represent you to your counterparty, to any court, or to any trade body.
• The AI does not check whether the builder is actually registered with the trade bodies they say they are — please verify via the trade body's own lookup tool.
• The AI does not pursue payment, claim defects, or take any action on your behalf.

E.4Required disclosures

E.5What we don't say — danger words

• "Legally binding guarantee" — say "written agreement signed by both parties"
• "We'll make sure your builder honours this" — never; the parties enforce their own contract
• "Sue your builder" — say "pursue the matter through small claims"
• "Our solicitors have approved this template" — the templates are not solicitor-drafted bespoke advice
• "Protect yourself from cowboy builders" — say "get the job in writing, signed by both sides"
• Any language that implies the contract guarantees a particular outcome in dispute.

FMarketing & SEO essentials

F.1Search intent

The customer typing in this category is in one of three mental states:

• The pre-emptive search. "How do I write a contract for building work" / "builder contract template UK" — mid-funnel, ready to act, highest conversion.
• The trouble-incoming search. "My builder hasn't started after I paid deposit" / "builder contract problems" — high intent, but they're after a fix not a contract; we capture them with the "what to do if" content programme and convert via the Variation/dispute hook.
• The research search. "What should a building contract include" / "what to ask a builder before hiring" — top-of-funnel, lower intent, builds authority and feeds the funnel.

F.2Keyword cluster

Primary keyword: builder contract template uk

Secondary cluster:

• building work contract
• contractor agreement template uk
• home renovation contract
• builder contract template free
• contract for building work uk
• tradesperson contract template
• simple builder contract
• homeowner builder contract

Long-tail / intent variants:

• what should I include in a builder contract
• how to write a contract for a builder
• builder hasn't started work contract (problem-aware)
• builder contract no written agreement (problem-aware)
• is a verbal agreement with a builder legally binding (research / high conversion)
• free builder contract template UK

F.3On-page must-haves

• H1 contains primary keyword in natural English: "Builder Contract Template UK — Drafted From Your Job, Signed Online, Free"
• Meta title (≤60 chars): "Builder Contract Template UK · Free · LegalHelp"
• Meta description (≤155 chars): "A plain-English builder contract drafted from your job details. Signed online by both sides. Free for your first contract. Self-help legal tool."
• Schema markup: Product + Service + FAQPage
• FAQ section answering the top 8 People-Also-Ask questions (drawn from live SERP)
• Internal links to: Casual-contracts hub page · Variation-Order Tool · Personal loan agreement · Personal Legal MOT
• Trust signals above the fold: review count + average score · "Not legal advice" disclosure · sample document preview · estimated 6–10 minute completion
• Price visible above the fold ("Free for your first contract")
• Mobile-first layout — over 70% of trade-related search traffic is mobile
• Sample PDF preview embedded on the page so the visitor can see what they get before starting

F.4Page title & meta — compliance-safe drafts

Title candidates:

• A: "Builder Contract Template UK · Free · LegalHelp"
• B: "Builder's Mock-Up Contract — Get The Job In Writing · LegalHelp"
• C: "UK Builder Contract Template · Drafted For You · Free First Contract"

Meta candidates:

• A: "A plain-English builder contract drafted from your job details. Signed online by both sides. Free for your first one. Self-help legal tool."
• B: "Get your building work in writing. Plain-English contract drafted from your job, signed online by both parties. First contract free. Not legal advice."

F.5Compliance-safe content programme

Eight supporting articles feeding the product page:

1. "What should a builder's contract include? A plain-English checklist." Top-of-funnel educational. Soft CTA to the product.
2. "Verbal agreements with builders: what does the law actually say?" Research / high-conversion. Answers the "is a handshake binding" question.
3. "What to do if your builder hasn't started the work." Problem-aware. CTA: get the next stage in writing.
4. "Builder contract vs. quotation: the difference and why it matters." Decision-aware. Sets up the product.
5. "How to write a variation order (and why every job needs them)." Bridges to Variation-Order Tool.
6. "Snagging: how to record defects and what to do if the builder won't fix them." Problem-aware. Sets up the dispute escalation path.
7. "VAT on building work: who pays, who charges, what should be in the contract." Technical / authority-building.
8. "How to choose a builder: the questions to ask and what to check before signing anything." Top-of-funnel. Includes trade-body lookup links.

Each article ends with a soft CTA — "Want your job in writing? Try our free builder contract." — never a hard sell. All copy compliance-reviewed before publication.

F.6Off-page / amplification

Rob fit. Strong. Rob's instinct from the bench (per meeting-notes-2026-05-19 §1) is that intent-to-create-legal-relations is the backdrop to most low-level consumer disputes — and the Builder Mock-Up Contract is the cleanest expression of that thesis.

Charity partner fit. Citizens Advice (homeowner side — "got a builder you're worried about?" referrals); Federation of Small Businesses (small biz commissioning fit-outs); Age UK (elderly homeowner protection from rogue traders); HomeOwners Alliance (natural editorial overlap).

MSE / Which? fit. Excellent. MSE has long-running coverage of cowboy builder issues; "free builder contract template" slots into their existing reader-resources angle. Which? has a Trusted Traders product — there's a partnership conversation rather than a competitive one.

PR angle. The data story is the headline: "Eight out of ten UK building disputes involve no written contract" (we'd need to source-check this stat or commission research). The product-driven angle: "Rob Rinder launches free builder contract after years of seeing handshake-deal disputes destroy homes." Tabloid-friendly, fits Rob's existing public profile.

Affiliate / partner channels.

• Trade associations — FMB, NICEIC, Gas Safe, NAPIT — affiliate or content partnership; the contract is good for their members.
• Builders' merchants — Travis Perkins, Selco, Wickes Pro — point-of-sale referral.
• Homeowner channels — Houzz, Rated People, Checkatrade — reciprocal content partnership.

F.7The marketing "do not say" list — product-specific additions

• "Bulletproof contract" — say "clear written agreement"
• "Stop your builder ripping you off" — say "get the terms in writing before work starts"
• "Guaranteed compensation if it goes wrong" — never; the contract sets out rights, the courts decide outcomes
• "Legal protection" without qualifier — always pair with "self-help" framing
• Any "before/after" testimonial that implies we secured a financial outcome — testimonials must describe the product, not the legal result

GBuild dependencies & open questions

G.1What we need before launch

• AI drafting pipeline for building contracts — prompt set, clause library, variation handling. Owner: Pablo. Status: not yet started.
• E-sign envelope flow — in-product signing infrastructure. Owner: Pablo. Status: needs design decision (build vs. integrate DocuSign / SignWell).
• Reviewer panel sign-off on the template clauses for v1 release. Owner: Ed + senior-practitioner panel. Status: depends on panel capacity decision (Group F in the Risk Register §9).
• Compliance copy sign-off on product page and output document footer. Owner: Ed. Status: needs sign-off before any test traffic.
• Content programme — 8 articles drafted and compliance-reviewed before paid acquisition starts. Owner: Rachel + Jemima. Status: not started.
• Trade-body lookup integrations — link-out to Gas Safe, NICEIC, FMB, NAPIT public lookups. Owner: Pablo. Status: scoping (link-out is fine; no API needed for v1).

G.2Open questions

1. Free vs freemium structure. First contract free with paid subscription for repeat use, or everything free with paid premium features (storage, dispute pack, witnessed signing)? Affects the funnel and the marketing line.
2. Builder side or homeowner side first? Both are legitimate users but need slightly different onboarding flows. Do we ship one and iterate, or both at v1?
3. Variation-Order Tool — separate product or built into this one? Listed as Product #2 (score 29) in the Risk Register, but operationally it might be cleaner as a feature of this product rather than a standalone. Affects the count of the 12 and the cross-sell logic.
4. Statutory interest framing. Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act applies for B2B; for B2C the basis is different. The contract needs to handle both shapes cleanly without giving legal advice on which applies.
5. Trade-association partnership conversations. Worth having pre-launch (creates a soft-launch channel) or post-launch (we have proof points)?