What should a UK model contract include?

A UK model contract should name the parties, the booking, the deliverables, usage windows, exclusivity, fees and VAT, image delivery, who owns the photographs and what the model licences, a liability cap, and what happens if a booked day is unused. Sign it before the shoot.

This page is England and Wales first. Copyright and performers' rights under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 are UK-wide. Off-payroll working (IR35) is a UK tax rule and only matters when you book into an organisation as a contractor through your company. The money-claim route for an unpaid invoice is the England and Wales procedure in Client won't pay a freelance invoice. Typical brand, studio, agency and production bookings are business-to-business. Do not paste consumer cooling-off onto a company brief.

Contracts.io has no model-only template. Start from an influencer agreement for usage, exclusivity and fees, or a photo licence for stills reuse. A wider freelance job can sit next to a freelancer agreement or a services agreement. A filmed day can sit next to a videography contract. Repeat bookings can hang a statement of work under standing terms. Company-to-company contractor work can start from an independent contractor agreement. If you are sharing an unreleased campaign before the deal is signed, a mutual NDA sits next to it. Contracts for models is the shorter audience page. What should a UK photographer contract include? is the stills sibling. What should a UK influencer contract include? is the creator sibling. What should a UK voice actor contract include? is the performers'-rights sibling.

Twelve blocks finish this paper:

The counts, windows and 50% split are examples of how to write the list, not prices we charge. Write the numbers you actually use.

Sign before the shoot. Should I start work before the contract is signed? is the day-one rule.

Name the job, the days, the hours, fittings, travel, and who supplies wardrobe, hair and makeup. “A shoot” is not a list. “One e-commerce day, 8 hours, two fittings included, London studio, no overnight, no runway” is a list. Extra days, a lookbook recut, a social content day and overtime are a change of scope, quoted first.

Write eight things:

• Job. Fashion editorial, lookbook, e-commerce or catalogue, advertising or campaign, runway or casting at a high level, social or content day, promotional appearance. Direction and audience matter. A lookbook day is not a paid-ads campaign.
• Days and hours. Named dates, call time, wrap, and what overtime costs. There is no default UK overtime rate for a freelance booking; both sides have to agree it.
• Fittings. How many, when, and whether they are a separate booked hour or included.
• Wardrobe, hair, makeup. Who supplies them. A client's garment is not the model's kit.
• Travel. Local day versus overnight. Who books and who pays. Per diems if they are in.
• Image delivery. How many selects, who picks them, the delivery window, and the format.
• What is out of scope. A second SKU, a filmed day, a runway, a US buyout, paid ads.
• Who attends. Photographer, art director, brand, agency. A crowd on set is not a silent extra.

Example

The Talent will attend the booking in SchedulescheduleA schedule is an annex to the contract that holds the detail: fees, dates, deliverables, service levels. It is part of the agreement if the main body says so. An order-of-precedence line should say what happens if the schedule and the clauses collide. Swap a schedule only by the variation method the contract names.More in the glossary 1, for the hours and at the place in that Schedule. Extra days, overtime, a filmed day, a runway and paid-ads usage are out of scope and will be quoted first. The Client supplies wardrobe, hair and makeup unless Schedule 1 says otherwise. The Client warrants the products and claims it supplies.

In Plain English: they get the named day, at the named hours, in the named studio. A new day is a new fee. They stand behind the product. You do not throw in a worldwide buyout as a courtesy.

A change-control line stops a “quick extra look” becoming unpaid work. Scope creep and change control is the longer page.

Write the fee, whether VAT is extra, when invoices go out, and the usage window the fee buys. VAT is added if you are VAT-registered; that is practice, not a rate we invent. A day rate is not a buyout. Usage is extra permission to use the images. For a UK business client, late commercial payment carries statutory interest.

Payment terms should name:

• the fee and the basis — a day rate, a half day, or a project fee;
• whether VAT is extra;
• when invoices go out — on signature, on wrap, or in named stages;
• how many days to pay — net 14 or net 30Net 30Net 30 means the client has 30 days from the invoice date to pay.More in the glossary;
• a pause right if an undisputed invoice is overdue, including a right not to release a further sitting;
• that any licence of the model's image passes only on full payment.

Usage is the commercial heart of a model booking. Write media, territory and term. “In perpetuity, all media, worldwide” is a buyout heading, not a day-rate licence. A 12-month UK web and social window is a licence. Paid ads, a second territory, packaging and a billboard are extra uses. Price them.

A deposit before booked days are reserved is a common shape, not a statutory rate. A 50% invoice on signature and 50% on wrap is an example of how to split a project fee, not a price we charge. There is no default UK right to keep a deposit; both sides have to agree it. See Client cancelled: can you keep the deposit?.

For a qualifying business-to-business debt, the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 sets statutory interest. GOV.UK on late commercial payments states the rate as 8% plus the Bank of England base rate. We do not print the current base rate. Once that interest runs, a fixed recovery sum is also due: £40 under £1,000, £70 from £1,000 to under £10,000, and £100 at £10,000 or more, plus any reasonable recovery costs not met by that sum. See late payment interest.

Example

The fee is the figure in Schedule 1. VAT is charged in addition where the Talent is VAT-registered. 50% is due on signature and reserves the days. The balance is due within 14 days of wrap. The Talent may withhold a further sitting while any undisputed invoice is more than 7 days overdue. Any licence of the Talent’s image passes only on payment in full. Statutory interest and compensation on late commercial payment apply where the 1998 Act applies.

In Plain English: they pay to reserve the diary. They have two weeks after wrap for the rest. After a week late, you hold the next day. They do not get unpaid usage. A business client can owe the statutory interest and the fixed recovery sum.

The chase sequence is Client won't pay a freelance invoice.

Write the notice both sides use to cancel a booked day, what unused days cost, and the kill feekill feeA kill fee is a payment due to a creator or supplier when a client cancels a project before it is finished.More in the glossary if they stop a started job. There is no default UK right to keep a depositdepositA deposit is money paid up front, before the main work or the final invoice.More in the glossary or charge unused days; both sides have to agree the sums. Typical brand and studio bookings are B2B. For a consumer, a 14-day right can apply, and the term must be fair.

A common freelance shape — not a statutory rule — is:

• a deposit to reserve named days;
• short-notice cancellation of reserved days charged in full or in part;
• a kill fee if they stop after work has started, covering work done plus a named unused-time charge;
• postponement is not a free rewrite of the diary;
• talent cancellation: write the notice you give, and how a substitute or a moved date works.

Force majeureforce majeureForce majeure is a clause that pauses a party’s duties when something outside both sides’ control stops the work.More in the glossary sits at a high level. If illness, a studio outage, weather or an event neither side could reasonably control stops a shoot, write who can postpone, whether the date moves, and that unused booked days still follow the kill-fee line. FrustrationfrustrationFrustration discharges a contract when an unforeseen event makes performance impossible or something radically different from what was agreed. In England and Wales the test is Davis Contractors Ltd v Fareham UDC [1956] AC 696. Taylor v Caldwell (1863) 3 B & S 826 is the classic illustration: a music hall burned down, so the hire could not go ahead.More in the glossary under the Law Reform (Frustrated Contracts) Act 1943 is a last-resort statute when performance becomes impossible. Do not treat a change of brief as frustration. See force majeure and frustration.

For a business client the charge must not be a penalty. A genuine pre-estimate of lost booked time is the shape that holds; a figure designed to punish is the shape that fails. See Cavendish Square Holding BV v Talal El Makdessi. We do not invent a holding beyond that.

Example

A deposit of the sum in Schedule 1 reserves the days in that Schedule. If the Client cancels reserved days on less than 48 hours’ notice, those days are charged. If the Client ends the job after work has started, the Talent is due the work done at the agreed rate plus the unused-time charge in Schedule 1. A postponement agreed in writing moves the dates; it does not waivewaiverA waiver is a choice not to enforce a right this time, without rewriting the contract. Accepting late work once does not, by itself, kill a time-is-of-the-essence clause if a no-waiver line is present. Waiver is not a variation: Rock Advertising Ltd v MWB [2018] UKSC 24 still requires the agreed method for a change of terms.More in the glossary the unused-time charge unless Schedule 1 says so.

In Plain English: unused booked days are charged if you wrote that. Starting the shoot and then stopping still costs them the work done and the named kill fee. Moving the date is a written change, not a free pass.

The longer consumer-versus-business page is Client cancelled: can you keep the deposit?. Cancellation and kill fee is the clause page.

The photographer owns freelance copyright in the photographs. The model grants a licence of their image. Those are two piles. Paying the model's fee moves neither copyright nor a wider grant. An assignment of copyright is not effective unless it is in writing, signed.

CDPA 1988 s.11 makes the author the first owner of freelance copyright. A photograph is an artistic work. Combined with GOV.UK on ownership of copyright works, the first legal owner of a commissioned photograph is the photographer, not the commissioner and not the person in the frame, unless you otherwise agree it in writing. CDPA 1988 s.90 is the assignment rule. Paying a day rate does not move title.

There is no standalone UK image-rights statute we cite. What the model signs is a contractual licence of their image and likeness for named media, territory and term. That is permission to use the pictures of them. It is not ownership of the files. See usage rights and credit and IP licence vs assignmentIP licence vs assignmentAn IP assignment transfers ownership of copyright or other intellectual property. A licence is permission to use it; the author still owns it. In England and Wales there is no work-made-for-hire first-owner rule for freelancers: Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 s.11. An assignment must be in writing and signed: s.90. Say which you mean, and when it happens.More in the glossary.

A filmed commercial is a further pile. CDPA 1988 s.9(2)(ab) says the author of a film is the producer and the principal director. Section 178 says the producer is the person by whom the arrangements necessary for the making of the film are undertaken. Combined with s.11, the author is the first owner of freelance copyright. For a film that author is the producer and the principal director, unless the employee exception applies. A freelance model is not, by showing up, the producer or the principal director.

Performers' rights sit next to that, and only where there is a performance. CDPA 1988 s.180 confers rights on a performer by requiring consent to the exploitation of a live dramatic, musical or similar performance. A stills posing day is not, as such, a performance under that section. A filmed commercial with directed acting, or a live runway presentation, can sit in that pile. Section 182 says recording a qualifying performance without consent infringes. Section 191B says an assignment of the performer's property rights is not effective unless it is in writing, signed. Write the consent for a filmed job. Do not paste those section numbers onto a lookbook stills day.

Keep four piles:

• The photographs. Copyright usually with the photographer. See What should a UK photographer contract include?.
• The model's image. A licence of named uses on full payment.
• A filmed performance. Performers' property rights with the model unless assigned in writing, signed. Film copyright with the producer and the principal director.
• Unused selects. Not included unless the paper says so.

A US “work for hirework for hireWork for hire is a phrase, common on US-style papers, meaning the client is treated as the author and owner of the work from the start.More in the glossary” heading does not do that work in England and Wales. See work for hire. Write licence or assignment in English words.

Example

Copyright in the photographs remains with the photographer as first owner under CDPA 1988 s.11 unless the photographer assigns it in writing, signed. On receipt of full payment the Client is granted the licence in Schedule 1 to use the Talent’s image in those photographs for the media, territory and duration named in that Schedule. Until then the Client has no licence to publish the Talent’s image. Assignment of copyright in the photographs is not included. Unused selects are not included unless Schedule 1 says so.

In Plain English: they may use the named stills of you as the schedule says, once they have paid. They do not own the files. The photographer does, unless that photographer assigned them. A buyout of your image is extra.

If they publish unpaid work, see Client using your work without paying.

Licence the named use of the model's image unless they must own a wider grant. An assignment of copyright in the photographs is a photographer paper, not a model paper. A buyout of the model's image is a wider licence: media, territory and term, in writing, on full payment. Most e-commerce days need a licence of named web and social use for a named window — not “all media, worldwide, in perpetuity”. A new window, a new territory and paid ads are a separate use. Price them.

An exclusive licence of copyright is a further step for the photographer. CDPA 1988 s.92 says an exclusive licence is a licence in writing, signed, authorising the licensee to the exclusion of all other persons, including the copyright owner. For the model's image, write exclusivity of use in English words: named media, named window, and that you will not sit for a competing brand in that category for that window. Do not treat a heading as an assignment of the photographs.

Moral rightsmoral rightsMoral rights are the author’s personal rights in a copyright work: to be identified as author, and not to have the work subjected to derogatory treatment. In the UK they sit in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 ss.77–80. They cannot be assigned. They can be waived in writing, signed by the person giving them up, under s.87.More in the glossary in the photographs sit with the photographer, not with the model. The author of a copyright artistic work has the right to be identified (s.77) and the right not to have the work subjected to derogatory treatment (s.80). Those rights may be waived by an instrument in writing signed by the person giving up the right (s.87). See moral rights. Performer moral rights (ss.205C, 205F and 205J) sit with a performer of a qualifying performance — a filmed acting job, not a stills posing day as such. A credit line is practice; a waiver is a signed paper, not a heading.

Example

On full payment the Client is granted a non-exclusive licence to use the Talent’s image in the photographs from the booking on the media, territory and duration in Schedule 1. Paid ads, packaging, a second territory and a new term are not included unless Schedule 1 names them and the extra fee. Assignment of copyright in the photographs is not included. The Talent does not waive any performer moral rights that arise on a filmed performance unless Schedule 1 attaches a signed waiver.

In Plain English: they can put the named stills of you on the named channels for the named window once they have paid. Running them as ads, or in a new country, is extra. They cannot buy the photographer's copyright from you. A credit on a film stays unless you signed it away.

Contracts for photographers and Contracts for influencers are the stills and creator siblings for the same licence-versus-assignment split.

Name the category, the rival brands if you can, the media, and the window. Price it. An exclusivity clauseexclusivity clauseAn exclusivity clause stops one side working with other people in a named market, for a named time. In England and Wales a lock-out has to be for a fixed period: Walford v Miles [1992] 2 AC 128 is why an agreement to negotiate exclusively with no end date fails.More in the glossary that bans every booking in every category forever is the shape that fails in practice. Exclusivity is not an assignment of copyright in the photographs and it is not a non-competenon-competeA non-compete is a promise not to do similar work for a competitor, or in a named market, for a period after the job.More in the glossary by another name unless you wrote it that way.

A working exclusivity line answers five things:

• Category. Womenswear, not “fashion and anything adjacent”.
• Names. Named rivals where you can. “Direct competitors” without names is how a later argument starts.
• What is banned. Paid campaigns, lookbooks, e-commerce — write which. Editorial already published is a different pile.
• Media. The media in the deal, or every channel you sit for.
• Window. During the campaign and a named period after. Thirty or ninety days after the last use is a common freelance shape, not a statutory period.

A right of first refusalright of first refusalA right of first refusal gives one party the chance to match a third-party offer before the other side can take it. It is not exclusivity and not a right of first offer. Write the trigger, the terms that must be shared, the days to match, and whether silence is a waiver. Keep the window short.More in the glossary is a narrower tool: they get a chance to match another brand in that category before you take it. A most favoured nationmost favoured nationA most favoured nation clause says the supplier will not give another customer a better price or term without offering the same to this client. It is a pricing promise, not exclusivity. Draft the comparison: same scope, same volume, same period. An open-ended MFN across every client and every product is hard to police and easy to breach.More in the glossary line is a price promise, not exclusivity. Do not mix the three in one sentence.

An exclusivity clause that stops you working for anyone else can look like employment when you book through a personal company into a brand, agency or studio. If they want a wide exclusive, price it and keep it narrow. See IR35 contract clauses checklist.

Example

During the Term and for 30 days after the last permitted use, the Talent shall not sit for paid bookings in the category and for the named brands in Schedule 1, in the media in that Schedule. Editorial already commissioned and unpaid showreel use are not included. This clause is not an assignment of copyright and does not stop the Talent working in other categories.

In Plain English: for the named window you do not take paid bookings for the named rivals in that category. You can still sit in other categories. They did not buy the photographs by buying exclusivity.

Contracts for agencies is the campaign sibling when an agency sits between the brand and you.

Write who picks the selects, how many, the delivery window, and what silence means. One packed set of comments is a round. A drip of Slack notes is not. Silence after the window is usually treated as approval, so delivery is not blocked by a late marketing lead. A late brief does not squeeze your call time unless the paper says so.

Revisions and acceptance should name:

• What a select is. A named still the client may use under the licence. Not every frame on the card.
• How many. Write the number. Extra selects are a change of scope. See revision limitrevision limitA revision limit says how many rounds of changes are included in the fee before extra work is quoted.More in the glossary.
• Who picks. Client, photographer, or both. A model’s personal veto of a still is practice if you wrote it, not a statute.
• The window. Ten working days is a common shape, not a statutory period.
• What silence means. If they do not pick in the window, you may treat the then-current set as approved.
• What is new work. A reshoot, a new SKU, a new location, or a request to sit again.

Agency bookings sit next to that. The talent–agent commission is a separate paper between the model and the agency. We do not invent a commission rate. Write who invoices whom: the agency as booking agent, or the talent directly. A booking confirmation is a diary hold. It is not the contract until both sides sign the usage, the fee and the days. See Contracts for agencies.

If the client redlinesredlineA redline is a proposed edit on a draft contract — words added, struck out or rewritten — not a signed change.More in the glossary “silence is approval” out of the paper, that is a price and timeline issue, not a courtesy. See Your client redlined your contract.

Example

The fee includes the selects in Schedule 1. The Client must pick those selects within ten working days of the files. If the Client does not reply in that window, the Talent may treat the then-current set as approved. Extra selects, a reshoot or a new SKU is new work and will be quoted first. Where an agency booked the Talent, the agency’s commission sits on the agency–talent paper and is not a deduction from the fee in Schedule 1 unless that Schedule says so.

In Plain English: they get the named stills. If they go quiet, those stills are the set. A reshoot is a new quote. The agency’s cut is their paper with you, not a surprise on the brand invoice.

Unreleased campaigns, products, launch dates and embargoed assets stay private until the go-live window. Write the usual limits: a court order, or what the client has already made public. A confidentialityconfidentialityConfidentiality is a promise to keep shared information private and to use it only for the agreed purpose.More in the glossary clause is not an NDANDAAn NDA is a contract in which one or both parties agree to keep shared information confidential.More in the glossary by itself. If you are opening an unreleased campaign before the deal is signed, put a mutual NDA next to it.

Confidentiality on the model agreement should name:

• the product, the launch date, unreleased assets, the location, and the fact of the campaign until go-live;
• how long the duty lasts after wrap — the life of the remaining sensitivity, not “forever” as a slogan;
• the usual limits: a court order, information already public, or information you already held;
• whether you may name the client in a composite or showreel. Many unreleased launches say no until the embargo lifts. See publicity and portfolio use.

An embargo is a go-live rule, not a separate statute. Write the date and time zone the images may go live, and that a leak before that time is a breach. Do not post a Story of the set on the way home.

A one-way NDAone-way NDAA one-way NDA is a confidentiality agreement where only one side discloses information and only the other side is bound to keep it private.More in the glossary the studio sends before they will share the campaign is common. Read it. A clause that assigns copyright in the photographs, or that bans you from working for anyone in their sector, is not an NDA. See NDA for UK freelancers and the NDA generator.

Example

The Talent will keep the Product, launch date, unreleased assets, location and the fact of this campaign confidential until the go-live window in Schedule 1, and will not disclose them except where required by law or a court order, or where the information is already public other than through the Talent’s breach. Composite or showreel use of the Client’s name is not included until that window, unless Schedule 1 says so.

In Plain English: the campaign stays in the job until the named go-live. You do not post it early. You do not put their name on your composite until they said you could.

NDAs explained is the longer NDA page.

Your own invoices, emails and composite are typically data you control. UK GDPR Article 28 applies when a booking collects casting details, measurements or identity documents for the client. A one-line “you will comply with data protection law” is not that contract.

The split is:

• Controller. You decide why you hold your own invoices, your own CRM and the composite you publish.
• Processor. You store measurements, a passport scan or another talent's details they asked you to take. They decide the purpose; you process on their instructions.
• Article 28. Processing by a processor must be governed by a contract that is binding and that sets out the subject-matter, duration, nature and purpose, the type of personal data and categories of data subjects, and the processor terms in Article 28(3)(a)–(h). See data protection.

Typical booking data:

Do not export their cast list onto a personal laptop “to make a spreadsheet” unless the paper says so. On ending, you stop processing and return or delete what the schedule requires.

This is high-level B2B framing. We do not invent a further UK GDPR obligation beyond Article 28 and the data protection clause.

Example

Where the Talent processes personal data for the Client — including measurements, casting notes and identity documents the Client asks the Talent to store — that processing is governed by the processor terms in Schedule 2. The Client is the controller. The Talent will not process those data except on the Client’s documented instructions. The Talent’s own invoices and composite remain the Talent’s data.

In Plain English: their cast list is their data. Your own composite stays yours. If you collect names for them, write the processor paper, not a vibe.

Usually no. A brand, studio, agency or production house buying a booking in the course of business is not a consumer. Do not paste the 14-day cooling-off onto a company brief. Consumer rights only bite when the counterpartycounterpartyThe counterparty is the other side of the contract — the person or company you are making the deal with.More in the glossary is a consumer — for example a private individual buying a birthday portrait sitting wholly or mainly outside their trade.

Who the other side is splits the page:

• A business client (a company, or a person buying in the course of business). No statutory 14-day cooling-off under the 2013 Regulations. An agreed cancellation charge must not be a penalty. The 1998 Act can apply to late payment.
• A consumer (an individual buying a personal sitting wholly or mainly outside their trade). Distance and off-premises contracts carry the 14-day right. The term must be fair.

The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 give that right (regulation 29). For a service contract the period ends at the end of 14 days after the day the contract is entered into (regulation 30). Booking by email or a website, without both of you in the same place, is a distance contract.

Consumer Rights Act 2015 s.62 says an unfair term of a consumer contract is not binding on the consumer. Section 49 says a trader supplying a service must do so with reasonable care and skill. Neither section turns a company campaign into a consumer contract.

Most fashion, e-commerce, editorial and campaign bookings on this page are the left-hand column. Write the paper that way.

Example

If the Client is a consumer and this agreement was made at a distance or off-premises, the Client may cancel in the cancellation period without giving a reason. For the Services that period ends at the end of 14 days after the day this agreement is entered into. This clause does not apply where the Client is buying in the course of a business.

In Plain English: an individual who booked a birthday portrait sitting online has two weeks to walk away. A company buying a product launch does not get that statutory cooling-off.

Cap liability at a multiple of the fees. In England and Wales you cannot exclude liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence. Do not guarantee a campaign will convert, a ranking, or that a platform will keep the images up. See the longer liability guide.

Limitation of liability on a model booking usually does four things:

• caps the talent’s total liability at the fees paid for that booking, or a named multiple;
• excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence from that cap — Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 s.2 does not let you exclude it;
• says other negligence liability can be limited only so far as the term is reasonable;
• leaves the implied termimplied termsImplied terms are obligations the law reads into a contract even when the parties did not write them down. In England and Wales they come from statute — for business services, reasonable care and skill under the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 s.13 — or from common law where a term is necessary for business efficacy.More in the glossary that a service is performed with reasonable care and skill — Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 s.13 for B2B, Consumer Rights Act 2015 s.49 for a consumer.

We do not invent a case holding that a particular cap is reasonable. Reasonableness is a fact-specific test. A cap at the fees, with the UCTA floor left in, is the common freelance shape.

A liability cap is not an indemnityindemnityAn indemnity is a promise to cover another party's losses arising from a particular event or claim.More in the glossary. Do not sign an unlimited indemnity for “any loss arising from the campaign” on a product-liability brief without pricing that risk. The client warrants its products and claims; you warrant you will attend and carry out the booking with reasonable care and skill. How a freelancer caps liability is the longer page.

Example

The Talent’s total liability under this agreement is capped at the fees paid for the booking. Nothing in this agreement excludes or limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud. The Talent does not warrant a commercial result, a ranking, or that a platform will keep the images available.

In Plain English: if the job goes wrong, they can come for the fee, not for an open-ended loss. You still owe care and skill. You cannot write out death or injury caused by negligence. You did not promise the stills would sell the product.

Contracts for photographers is the sibling page when the work is the files rather than the sitting.

IR35 only matters when you book into an organisation as a contractor through your company. It does not apply to a private individual buying a portrait sitting. No label decides the tax. From 6 April 2021, public authorities and medium or large clients must give a status determination statement. Small private-sector clients leave that decision with your company.

Write the working practices, then work that way:

• you decide how the sitting is given, within the agreed brief;
• you can send a qualified substitute, and you have actually used one or can;
• there is no obligation on them to offer further bookings, and none on you to accept them;
• you are not on their org chart, in their Slack, or in their holiday rota.

A heading that says “independent contractor” does not take you outside IR35. Chapter 10 of ITEPA 2003 (ss.61K, 61N and 61NA) puts the status determination on the public-authority or medium or large client with a UK connection. Chapter 8 and s.60A leave small private-sector clients on the older rules. See IR35 contract clauses checklist and sole trader vs limited companysole trader vs limited companyA sole trader contracts in a personal name and is personally liable. A limited company is a separate legal person; the company is on the hook, not the director, unless there is a guarantee. Switching from one to the other is a novation, not a letterhead change. IR35 / off-payroll rules can still apply to a personal service company.More in the glossary.

An exclusivity clause that stops you sitting for anyone else can look like employment. If they want exclusivity in a sector, price it and keep it narrow.

Most direct-to-studio days never reach this heading. Agency-to-talent jobs into a medium or large end-client still should, because the end client is often an organisation.

Example

The Talent is an independent contractor. The Talent decides how the booking is performed, may send a qualified substitute, and is not obliged to accept further bookings. Nothing in this agreement makes the Talent an employee, worker or agent of the Client. The parties will work in line with any status determination statement the Client is required to give.

In Plain English: the tax follows how you actually work. A label on page one does not decide it. A large company client has to give you their determination.

On Contracts.io both sides draft, negotiate and e-signe-signatureAn e-signature is any electronic way of showing agreement to a document, such as a typed name, a drawn signature or a click.More in the glossary one shared model agreement, so the days, the usage window and the exclusivity line are the version you both signed. Describe the job in a sentence. Lex, our AI host, drafts. You share one link. Nobody emails v4_final.docx back and forth.

The client opens that link. They can Accept, Counter or Decline on the same version, then both of you e-sign it. The other side never pays and does not need an account.

Start from an influencer agreement or a photo licence. A filmed day can sit next to a videography contract. You can also start from the AI contract generator or the contract generator. If you are sharing an unreleased campaign before the deal is signed, a mutual NDA sits next to it, or use the NDA generator.

That does not chase an invoice for you. It does mean the licence or IP assignmentIP assignmentAn IP assignment is a transfer of ownership in the work, so the client owns it instead of the person who made it.More in the glossary, the exclusivity clause and the kill fee are the words you both signed, not a line lost in email.

Free £0, then paid plans from £15 a month — see /pricing.

Try it on contracts.io: describe the booking in one sentence, share one link, and e-sign before the call time.

Contracts for models is the wider set of terms that sit around this paper. Contracts for photographers is the stills sibling. Contracts for influencers is the creator sibling. Contracts for voice actors is the performers'-rights sibling. Contracts for videographers is the filmed sibling. Contracts for agencies is the campaign sibling. Contracts for freelancers is the delivery sibling. What goes in a freelance or contractor agreement is the shorter how-to. NDA for UK freelancers is the pitch-stage paper. Should I start work before the contract is signed? is the day-one rule.