Building Contract for Home Owner/Occupier (who has appointed a consultant) (HOC) Contract for Home Repairs and Maintenance (HO/RMI) Key features The JCT contracts avoid up-front payments from payers to payees. Instead, the payee invoices the payer once work has been certified as completed by an independent third party, the contract administrator (often an architect or surveyor). Often interim certificates are issued where itemised components of the work have been completed, or a verifiable percentage is complete. In the 2009 amendments, the payer or payee can issue the certificate if the contractor administrator fails to do so. The JCT encourages retention of an agreed percentage of the contract sum until practical completion and then a percentage for a period after final completion. This avoids payment in advance for such things as minor defects or snagging which need to addressed at the end of the project or come to light after the project is complete. So the invoice at each point is a percentage of the value of the work certified complete. The payer can deduct an amount; however, under the 2009 amendments, the method for calculating the new amount must be stated. The JCT encourages up-front agreement of liquidated and ascertained damages (LAD) as an estimate of the payer's weekly losses if the payee fails to reach practical completion by the contractual completion date. If delays are for reasons beyond the contractor's control, the contractor can request an extension of time: if the contract administrator allows this, it in effect extends the period before which the contractor is liable to pay the LAD. The JCT introduced the concept of determination, whereby the contract can be terminated for suspension of works, failure to proceed regularly and diligently, failure to remove defective works, failure to execute works in accordance with the contract, or bankruptcy of the contractor. If one party has ceased to perform the contract (e.g. the contractor has gone past the contractual completion date and has no plan to complete the contract), determination enables the other party to end their obligations (e.g. to pay the contractor to finish the project). This is in addition to the common law remedy of repudiation. Reference is made to adjudication as a quick way of resolving disputes which the parties cannot resolve between them. Arbitration or litigation, depending on the preferences of the parties, is also available for the settlement of disputes, but these are