Deposit, same-day cancel, and 14-day cooling-off on a domestic quote

There is no legal set percentage.

Do not ask for the whole job up front. Citizens Advice tells householders not to pay everything before you start. If you want a deposit for materials, they are told they can buy the materials themselves.

On a long job they are told to push the deposit down, and not agree to more than 25%. That is advice to the customer. It is not a cap in the statute. Ask for more and expect a no.

GOV.UK (CMA) says a non-refundable deposit is more likely to be fair if it is a small percentage of the price, you say exactly when it would not be refunded, and it matches what you will actually lose.

The principle: enough to cover materials you must order. Not the whole job.

• Put the amount, and what it is for, on the quote
• Give a receipt
• Do not call a large deposit “non-refundable” just because you wrote it

If cooling-off applies (below) and you have not started, they get the deposit back.

No official source sets a call-out or no-show fee. Do not invent one after they cancel.

You can only charge what you agreed in writing, and only a genuine estimate of what the cancel actually cost you.

Citizens Advice says that once there is a contract (they accepted the quote, paid a deposit, fixed a start date, or told you to go ahead) you may ask for a cancellation charge, or for loss if you set the day aside and cannot fill it.

GOV.UK is stricter than “whatever is on the quote”:

• The term has to be fair
• You keep only actual, direct loss
• You must try to reduce that loss (another job in the slot)
• You must not charge twice for the same loss
• A blanket “non-refundable, no matter why” is likely unfair

If you never wrote a cancel term, do not add a call-out later.

If the 14-day cooling-off applies and they cancel before you start, Business Companion is clear: no cancellation or restocking fees. Refund what they paid.

14 days is the legal minimum for most distance and off-premises contracts. Not for every quote they sign at the house.

It usually applies when they agree:

• On the phone
• Online or by email, as the way you take the job
• By post
• There and then at their house, workplace, or in the street (not at your office or yard)

Citizens Advice: the 14 days start the day after they give the go-ahead. They can cancel for any reason. If you have not started, they get their money back.

It does not automatically apply when:

• They agree at your premises (office, yard, shop)
• You visit, leave a quote, and they accept later in their own time. Business Companion treats that as an on-premises contract. No 14-day right. If they say yes while you are still there, that is off-premises. Different rule.
• They asked you in for urgent repairs or maintenance (burst pipe, unsafe boiler). Extra non-urgent work on the same visit can still have a cooling-off
• The goods are made to their specification (made-to-measure windows, curtains, a conservatory). Combining stock parts does not kill the right
• For a service contract, they expressly requested an early start and acknowledged that they would lose the cancellation right once the service was fully performed. For off-premises contracts, retain the early-start request on a durable medium

On-premises: there is still a contract once they accept. Cancelling is a breach unless your quote says otherwise. Then you are back to genuine loss, not a made-up fee.

Do not start during cooling-off unless they expressly ask. Off-premises: that request has to be on paper or email, not a nod in the kitchen.

Tell them they will pay a fair share of the price for what you have done if they later cancel.

If you start without that request, Citizens Advice: they can cancel and you refund everything.

If they asked, you told them, and they cancel mid-job: they pay for the proportion done. Not the rest of the job.

If a right to cancel exists, tell them the conditions, time limits, and how to cancel before they are bound. Give them a cancellation form.

Business Companion (the official model form) says it must be in this form:

To [your name, address, and email]:

I / We [*] hereby give notice that I / We [*] cancel my / our contract of sale of the following goods [*] / for the supply of the following service [*],

Ordered on [*] / received on [*],

Name of consumer(s),

Address of consumer(s),

Signature of consumer(s) (only if this form is notified on paper),

Date

[*] Delete as appropriate

They do not have to use the form. Any clear statement will do.

Also tell them: if they ask you to start inside the 14 days, they pay for the work done up to the cancel.

If you skip the cancellation information, Citizens Advice: the 14 days is extended from the day they get it, up to a year. Business Companion: failing to give that information can be a criminal offence.

Before anyone books a day or orders materials, write down:

• The deposit, what it covers, and when (if ever) it would not be refunded
• What happens if they cancel or do not show (only a genuine pre-estimate of your loss)
• Whether the 14-day cooling-off applies to this job, and how they cancel
• That you will not start inside cooling-off unless they ask in writing

The bit that fails is writing it down before anyone books a day. Record the agreed work and your own terms in the quoting workflow.

A job quote or job estimate is a way to put deposit and cancel terms in writing.

Check that the customer received the required information before agreement; a saved quote alone does not prove that step.

Fictional administrative example. A householder accepts an off-premises service contract and wants work during the cancellation period. Record the express request to begin, the information provided about proportionate payment if they cancel, and their acknowledgement that the cancellation right is lost once the service is fully performed. For an off-premises contract, the early-start request must be on a durable medium. Permission to start alone is not the full-performance acknowledgement.

• Contract: how/where agreed ___; scope and quote version ___; goods/service classification checked ___.
• Information supplied before agreement: cancellation conditions/form ___; date and retained copy ___.
• Early start: consumer’s express request ___; durable record ___; proportionate-payment information ___; full-performance acknowledgement ___.
• Changes or cancellation: what actually happened and date ___; work performed ___; agreed extra work ___; payment/refund calculation and evidence ___.

An urgent-repair exception covers the requested urgent work; optional extras need their own assessment. Use the official guidance to classify the actual contract. This sheet records decisions and copies; it is not contract wording.

Keep it alongside the quote and handover pack.