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This Practice Note considers hierarchy of documents clauses within a building contract (otherwise known as order of precedence clauses, precedence clauses or Priority of documents clauses).

Construction contracts can be lengthy and made up of a number of different documents, both legal and technical—this Practice Note looks at how the courts approach a contract when there is a conflict between different elements of them. It looks at how the priority of Contract Documents can be expressly dealt with in the conditions themselves, how effective these clauses will be in a dispute, and contains example hierarchy of documents clauses setting out the order of precedence of various contract documents. It also considers how standard form building contracts, including JCT, NEC and FIDIC, deal with the hierarchy of documents, the effect of BIM protocols, and looks at general common law rules as to the priority of documents within a construction contract.