If you agree a job with a customer anywhere that isn't your own business premises, and it comes to more than £42, they have 14 days to cancel for any reason. You have to tell them about that right in writing before they commit, with a cancellation form. Skip it and the 14 days can stretch to more than a year, you can't charge for work you did in that time if they cancel, and it's a criminal offence. The fix is one paragraph on the quote.

This is a guide for trades dealing with private customers in the UK, not legal advice. The rules are the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013; links at the end.

Does it apply to you?

It applies when the customer is a private person, not a business, and the job is agreed away from your premises. For most trades that's:

  • At their home, or anywhere else that isn't your shop or office. It doesn't matter who made the first call. They rang you and asked you round is still their home.
  • By text, call or email straight after you've been round. The law counts a job agreed "immediately after" a face-to-face visit as if it was agreed at the visit.
  • Online or by phone without meeting. These "distance" contracts get the same 14 days.

The grey area is a customer who says yes a few days after your visit. Trading Standards' guide for businesses says that can count as an ordinary contract with no cooling-off, unless it was agreed straight after you left. A quote sent as a link and accepted online may well count as a distance contract, which does get the 14 days. Don't bank on the gap. Treat every job you quote at the home as having the 14 days. It costs you nothing and it's the only safe assumption.

When it doesn't apply:

  • Jobs of £42 or less.
  • Urgent repairs or maintenance the customer asked you to come out for. A burst pipe they rang about has no cooling-off. Anything extra you do on that visit does: Trading Standards' own example is fixing a dripping tap while you're there for the leak.
  • Goods made to their measurements or personalised, like made-to-measure windows. Standard parts put together for the job don't count as made to measure.
  • Jobs agreed at your premises, a shop or an office. Few trades have one.

When the 14 days start

  • Labour only: the day after you agree the job.
  • Supply and fit: the day after the customer gets the goods. The law treats a contract with goods and services in it as a goods contract. So on a supply-and-fit kitchen, the 14 days don't start until the units arrive, which can be after you've started fitting them.

Either way, the customer only has to send their cancellation inside the 14 days. A text saying "I want to cancel" is enough. They don't have to use your form or give a reason.

What you must tell them, before they commit

The regulations list what the customer must get before they're bound. Give it on paper, or by email or WhatsApp if they're happy with that (the law calls these a "durable medium"). Most of it is on a decent quote already:

  • Who you are: your name or trading name, address, phone and email.
  • What the job is.
  • The total price including VAT, or how it'll be worked out, and any extra charges.
  • How and when you'll be paid, and when the work will be done.
  • How to complain to you.
  • The right to cancel: that they have 14 days, when it starts, how to cancel, and a cancellation form they can use.
  • That if they ask you to start inside the 14 days and then cancel, they pay for the work done up to then.
  • Anything with no cancellation right: made-to-measure goods, urgent repairs.

Then, once it's agreed, they need a copy of what was agreed, or a confirmation of it, before the work starts. A quote they've accepted, with the terms on it, does both jobs. If there's ever a dispute, it's on you to prove you gave them all this, so keep it.

With WorkPaid: paste your notice into the Cancellation policy box once, save it in your profile, and it's on every quote and its PDF. When the customer types their name to accept, they've accepted the notice too, and the date and time are kept as proof.

Want to start inside the 14 days?

You can, if the customer asks you to in writing. A text or email is fine. Say in your quote, and get their yes to, these two things:

  • They're asking you to start before the 14 days are up.
  • If they cancel after you've started, they'll pay for the work done up to then, in proportion to the full price, and once the job's fully done they can't cancel.

Without that written request, if they cancel inside the 14 days you can't charge them a penny for the work you've done. Not the labour, not the day you lost.

If they do cancel

  • Refund everything they've paid within 14 days of them telling you, the same way they paid unless they agree to another way, with no fee taken off.
  • The one deduction: a fair share of the price for work they asked you to start, up to the day they cancelled.
  • Materials you've bought aren't a deduction inside the 14 days, unless they were made to measure for the customer (those sit outside the cancellation right). That's why you don't order materials before the 14 days are up, or you get the written request to start first.

Deposits are the usual flashpoint. There's a separate guide on what you can keep: Customer cancelled after paying a deposit: do you have to give it back?

What it costs to skip the notice

  • The 14 days become up to 12 months and 14 days. If you never tell them about the right to cancel, the cancellation period runs until 12 months after it would have ended. Tell them late and it ends 14 days after they get the information.
  • You can't charge for the work in that time. If they cancel and you never gave them the cancellation information, they owe nothing for what you did, even if they asked you to start.
  • It's a criminal offence to agree a job at the customer's home without giving the cancellation information. Trading Standards enforce it, and the fine is unlimited in England and Wales.

In practice, the one that bites is the second: a customer who learns about the rule after falling out with you, cancels a half-done job, and owes nothing for it.

A notice you can paste under every quote

Swap the bits in brackets. It covers the cancellation right, the start-early request and the refund in one go.

Your right to cancel. You can cancel this contract within 14 days without giving a reason. The 14 days run from the day after [you accept this quote / you receive the goods]. To cancel, tell me in a clear statement, by text, email or letter, at [your name, address, phone, email]. You can use the cancellation form below, but you don't have to. If you cancel, I'll refund everything you've paid within 14 days of hearing from you, by the same method you paid.

Starting early. If you'd like me to start before the 14 days are up, please say so in writing. A text is fine. If you then cancel, you'll pay for the work done up to then as a fair proportion of the price, and once the job is complete you can no longer cancel. [Made-to-measure items] have no right to cancel.

Under it, add the official cancellation form. The regulations include a model form (Schedule 3, linked below): the customer fills in their name and address, what the job was, the date, and a line saying they're cancelling. Copy it as it is.

With WorkPaid: the customer reads the quote, your notice and the price on their phone, accepts by typing their name, and pays the deposit from the same link. It's free to send quotes, with no monthly fee. Get started free.

Three questions we get asked

Does the 14-day rule apply if the customer rang me and asked me to come round?

Yes. It's about where the job was agreed, not who made the first call. The only call-out with no cooling-off is an urgent repair or maintenance the customer specifically asked you to come out for, and even then, extra work you do on that visit has the 14 days.

Can I start the job inside the 14 days?

Yes, if the customer asks you to in writing. A text or email is enough. Tell them first that if they cancel after you've started they'll pay for the work done so far, and that once the job's finished they can't cancel. Without that written request, you can't charge for any work you did if they cancel.

I've never given a cancellation form. What now?

Start putting the notice and form on every quote from today. For jobs you've already agreed, send the cancellation information now: the customer's 14 days then run from the day they receive it, instead of stretching to 12 months. The notice in this guide and the official form in the regulations are all you need.

Doing it in WorkPaid

Every WorkPaid quote has a Cancellation policy box, and you can set a default one in your profile so it's on every quote without retyping. Paste the notice above into it. It shows on the quote the customer sees and on the PDF, and when they accept the quote by typing their name, they've accepted those terms too, with the date and time kept as proof. Their "please start early" can be a reply to the quote or a text, as long as you keep it. If they do cancel, WorkPaid can't send the refund for you: pay them back yourself within the 14 days (if they paid by card, check they're happy to get it another way, such as a bank transfer), then record it on the quote.

The rules: the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 (Part 3 is the right to cancel, Schedule 2 the information list, Schedule 3 the model cancellation form) and Trading Standards' guide for businesses on off-premises sales.