If all parties conduct themselves as if a contract exists, does this carry any contractual legality?

There are many court cases along these lines with relation to the construction industry, as it appears that numerous contractors believe that written contractual terms will fall into place once work begins. This is a misguided view and completely baseless in legal terms. In A Monk Building and Civil Engineering Ltd v Norwich Union Life Insurance Society, a case in which there was a dispute over whether a contract was in place or not, the ruling court decided that it was irrelevant that Monk had relied on contractual provisions during the progress of the Works, and that no legally binding contract existed.