Letter of Intent Checklist
What an LOI must say before anyone mobilises.
The checklist to run before starting work under a letter of intent: the terms it must state, the payment rules that apply to it anyway, and what happens when it expires or the contract never follows. A letter of intent is a legitimate way to start fast, and dangerous to still be working under months later.
What you get
What it checks
The four that decide everything
A financial cap stated as a number, an expiry stated as a date rather than a hope, a defined scope of authorised work, and what happens on expiry or if no contract follows: how work done is valued and paid, and who owns what.
The Act applies to an LOI too
If the letter is a construction contract, and it usually is, the payment rules apply: due dates, a final date for payment, the notice regime and adjudication at any time. Without an adequate mechanism the Scheme is implied, which is often better for the payee than what the letter would have said.
Risk, ownership and the exit
Insurance evidenced before mobilisation, design responsibility and copyright where design is authorised, ownership of materials ordered and paid for, and how either party ends it and at what cost. The expiry line is the one nobody reads until the week it lands.
A guidance sheet as a two-page A4 PDF: print it, pin it up, or keep it with the contract file. Your contract's terms come first.
Related paid help
Got the letter in front of you now? The Contract Review & Amendment Schedule on the Quantity Surveying side reads it with you before anything starts.