Terms and conditions for a groundworks contractor

A groundworks contractor's terms have to deal with what nobody can see when the price is agreed: made ground, rock, water in the trench, a service that is not on the drawing, and a main contractor who pays when it suits him. I draft customer terms around how your business prices work and how it gets paid, for a fixed fee of £995, delivered in five working days.

Who this is for

Groundworks, civils and substructure contractors in England and Wales: dig and muck away, foundations, drainage, service trenches, slabs and external works. Most of your work will be for main contractors, housebuilders and developers, which is business to business, and some will be direct work for homeowners on extensions and basements. One set of terms needs a section written for consumers as well.

What matters in a groundworks contractor's terms

What your price assumes about the ground

Your quotation rests on assumptions: the trial holes or report you were shown, the levels on the drawing, the arisings staying on site, and the ground behaving as described. The terms should record those assumptions expressly and say what happens when they prove wrong, whether that is rock, running sand, groundwater, made ground, old foundations or a soakaway that will not take water. The mechanism matters as much as the wording: rates for excavation in unforeseen material, changes agreed in writing with their effect on the programme, and agreement before the machine carries on.

Muck away, spoil and waste carrier registration

Off site disposal is where a groundworks margin quietly disappears. The terms should say whether the price includes arisings leaving site and on what basis, how many loads that assumes, and what happens if the spoil turns out to be unsuitable or contaminated so that tipping costs change. A business that transports waste must be registered with the Environment Agency under the Control of Pollution (Amendment) Act 1989 and the Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011, and main contractors increasingly ask to see the registration and the transfer documentation before the first load leaves.

Applications, retention and pay-when-paid

Most of your money arrives against applications, and that is where arguments start. The terms should say when you apply, when payment falls due, what notices you expect back, what happens when none arrives, and should cap and date any retention you agree to. Where the customer is a business and the work counts as construction operations, the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 may apply to the contract: it implies a right to adjudication, payment notice rules and staged payments for contracts of 45 days or more, and it bans pay-when-paid. On business debts the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 gives interest and fixed compensation.

Buried services and neighbouring structures

A cable strike, a clipped water main, a drain run that was not on the plan, cracking in the house next door. The terms should put the obligation to provide service drawings, survey information and setting out data on the customer, require known services to be marked before you break ground, and record that you work to the levels and information you are given. Liability to business customers should be capped with consequential loss excluded. Under the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 a limit in written standard terms has to be reasonable, and liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence cannot be excluded.

Plant, standing time and the programme

Groundworks runs on hired plant and a gang that has to be somewhere else next week. The terms should allow you to charge standing time when the site is not ready, when the preceding trade has overrun, when access or a crane oversail is blocked, or when the customer suspends. They should treat completion dates as estimates and exclude liability for delay caused by weather and conditions outside your control. If you are asked to accept damages for delay, the terms should state what you will carry, because an open exposure on a substructure package can exceed the value of the package.

Direct work for homeowners

Digging footings for an extension or forming a basement for a homeowner is a different contract. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 requires services to be performed with reasonable care and skill and within a reasonable time, and a term cutting those rights down, or limiting liability for the service to less than the price, will not bind the customer. Where the job is agreed at the customer's home or by phone and email, the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 give fourteen days to cancel, and starting the dig inside that period without the customer's express request can mean not being paid for it.

What it costs

Customer or supplier terms and conditions, £995. One set of terms, customer-facing or supplier-facing, drafted around your business. Five working days.

Review of your existing terms, £495. You already have terms and want to know how much of a problem they are. Returned marked up with my amendments and an explanation of the changes. Three working days.

Buying online forms the engagement on payment. The scope is what the terms and conditions drafting page describes, you accept the Terms of Service at checkout, and I email you within four working hours to get started. If you would rather ask something first, email me.

What you get

• A full set of terms drafted around your business, not a template with your name inserted
• A covering note in plain English explaining every commercial choice I made and why, so you can defend the terms in a negotiation without ringing me
• Liability, payment, termination and IP provisions set at a level that will survive a procurement review
• Consumer-facing wording drafted to be enforceable where you sell to consumers
• Guidance on how to incorporate the terms properly, which is where most businesses actually fail
• One round of amendments after you have read them

What is not included

• Negotiating your terms with individual customers
• Sector-specific regulatory compliance beyond the contract terms themselves
• Website privacy notice and cookie compliance, which I quote separately
• Terms governed by the law of another country

Questions I am often asked

The main contractor sends me their own order. Do my terms still count?

Which set applies depends on what was put forward and what was accepted before work started, so the important thing is that your terms go out with every quotation and that you know what you are signing when the order arrives. I include guidance on incorporating your terms properly. Where you are handed a long subcontract order, I review contracts as separate work.

Can I charge extra when we hit rock or the trench fills with water?

Only if the contract allows it. That means recording the ground information the price was based on, setting rates for excavation in unforeseen material and for dewatering, and requiring written agreement before the extra work proceeds. Without that, a lump sum tends to be read as a lump sum, and the cost of the extra fortnight sits with you.

We work mainly under a housebuilder's framework. Is a set of terms worth having?

It is. The framework will usually govern that client's work, but most groundworks businesses also quote for small civils jobs, drainage repairs, developer enquiries and private extensions, and those are often agreed on an email and a price. Having your own terms to put forward means those jobs are not contracted on nothing at all.

Related guidance and services

• Terms and conditions drafting, £995, the service this page describes
• Contract review, £495
• Ask Caesar, £495 a month
• Terms and conditions for a builder doing commercial work
• Terms and conditions for a driveway and paving contractor

This page is general guidance for businesses in England and Wales, not advice on your own circumstances. Last reviewed: September 2026. Email geoffrey@caesar.co.uk.