ABIC Simple Works vs Major Works

ABIC contracts are published by Australian Building Industry Contracts, a joint venture of the Australian Institute of Architects and Master Builders. They replaced the older JCC series and share a common design: plain-English drafting, and an architect appointed as contract administrator who assesses claims, certifies payment and decides variations and extensions of time independently of both parties.

The suite is organised on two axes. The first is the scale of the contractual machinery: Major Works (MW) is the fullest form, Simple Works (SW) is a streamlined version, and Basic Works (BW) is shorter again for minor work. The second is the type of work: each form comes in a Commercial variant (suffix C) and a Housing variant (suffix H), because residential building work is regulated and needs different terms. So ABIC SW-2018 H is the Simple Works form in its housing version, and ABIC MW-2018 C is the Major Works form for commercial work.

The mistake is treating the choice as purely a question of contract value. Dollar bands do circulate in the industry, and they are indicative at best: they conflict with each other, and they say nothing about the two things that actually determine which form you need, namely how much administrative machinery the project requires and how much risk-allocation detail the parties need settled in advance.

Choosing MW for a straightforward renovation loads a small job with notice regimes and procedures nobody will follow, and unfollowed procedures are worse than absent ones because they create breaches. Choosing SW for a long, complex, multi-trade project leaves you without the machinery to deal with the events that project will actually throw up.

Start with the type of work, because that decision is not discretionary. If the work is residential building work, you need the Housing variant, and you need it to comply with the residential building legislation of the state where the work is carried out. A Commercial form used on residential work will be missing statutory terms it is required to contain.

Then assess the project rather than the price. Simple Works suits work with a short programme, a contained scope, a manageable number of trades, and few expected variations: renovations, extensions, alterations, and smaller fitouts. Major Works suits work with a long programme, staged or sequenced construction, many trades and subcontractors, provisional and prime cost allowances that will need adjusting, and a realistic expectation of significant variations, delay claims and extension of time disputes.

The practical test is to ask what happens when things go wrong. If a serious delay event occurred six months in, would you want a detailed extension of time regime with defined notice periods, or would the shorter form’s simpler provisions be adequate? If you would want the detail, use the fuller form. Machinery you never need is a minor inefficiency; machinery you need and do not have is a dispute.

Both forms are amended the same way, which is worth knowing before you commit. Every ABIC contract carries a Special Conditions schedule, referenced in the contract information schedule and taking effect through the order-of-precedence provision. That is where targeted amendments go, whether you are moving a housing contract from stage payments to monthly progress claims, adding a force majeure regime the standard form does not contain, or bringing a commercial form into compliance for residential work. Choosing the lighter form and adding the specific machinery you need is often a better answer than adopting the heavier form wholesale.