Written for plumbers, gas and heating engineers, electricians, heat pump and drainage firms, bathroom installers doing their own plumbing, and small multi-trade firms serving landlords, anywhere in the UK.
The short version
- Note urgent repair calls on the job sheet.Write that the customer asked for an urgent repair, and the time. That visit carries no cancellation right.
- Treat any upsell as a separate sale.A boiler sold on a repair visit keeps the cancellation right. Hand over the notice and model cancellation form in writing.
- Get a written request before starting early.Inside the cancellation period, start only on the customer's written request. Without it, a customer who cancels may owe you nothing.
A job agreed in the customer's home can be an off-premises contract, which gives a homeowner the right to cancel, and the paperwork you hand over decides whether you are paid if they use it. Get the right papers into the van and onto the job sheet.
The 14-day cancellation right
Qualifying off-premises and distance service contracts normally carry 14 days to cancel. If you do not give the cancellation information, the period can be extended by up to 12 months. Give the information and the cancellation notice on paper or another durable medium the customer agrees to. As of Oct 2026.
Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, regs 10, 30 and 31
Starting inside the 14 days
Start only on the customer's express request, made on a durable medium for an off-premises contract. If they then cancel, they pay a proportionate amount for what you did. If you started without the request or without giving the information, they pay nothing. As of Oct 2026.
Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, reg 36
The emergency call
There is no cancellation right where the customer asked you to visit for urgent repairs or maintenance. Extra work you sell on that visit, such as a new boiler instead of the repair, keeps the 14-day right. As of Oct 2026.
Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, reg 28(1)(e)
The repair is outside the cancellation right; the boiler is not. Without the request and the information, a customer who cancels may owe you nothing.
The call-out fee
A call-out price binds only if the customer knew it first
A call-out fee stated before you arrive binds the customer; one first seen on the invoice does not. If the price and what it covers were not stated before you attended, the customer owes a reasonable price instead. As of Oct 2026.
Consumer Rights Act 2015 s.51 and Part 2
What the quote should carry
- The scope item by item: appliance make, model and output, cylinder size, radiators, circuits.
- Exclusions, such as making good, asbestos, and faulty pipework or earthing found.
- The price ex VAT, the VAT rate and the reason for it, and the total including VAT.
- The deposit and stages, the start date and duration, and how long the quote is valid (commonly 30 days).
- How extras are priced, and the guarantee.
- For an off-premises homeowner contract, the cancellation notice and the model cancellation form.
Large non-refundable deposits and one-sided price changes may not bind a homeowner, because they sit on the Consumer Rights Act grey list of potentially unfair terms. Take a deposit towards the goods you order for that customer, kept within any consumer code cap.
What you owe the homeowner
You must use reasonable care and skill, and statements the customer relied on, such as a heat pump's quoted performance, bind you. If the work falls short, the customer can ask you to do it again, then claim a price reduction up to a full refund, and your terms cannot exclude these rights. As of Oct 2026.
Consumer Rights Act 2015 ss.49, 50, 55, 56 and 57
If you also work for builders
Payment notices, pay less notices and pay-when-paid
Qualifying construction contracts in England, Wales and Scotland, such as a subcontract for a builder, fall under the Construction Act. A contract with a residential occupier for work on the home they live in or intend to live in is excluded, and Northern Ireland has separate law. Under the Scheme's defaults, the payer gives a payment notice within 5 days after the due date and any pay less notice 7 days before the final date for payment, and you can suspend on 7 days' notice. Without a valid pay less notice, the notified sum is due. Pay-when-paid is ineffective except on upstream insolvency. Adjudication normally takes 28 days. As of Oct 2026.
Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 Part II, ss.106, 111 and 113; Scheme for Construction Contracts
For example, a builder disputes £31,200 of your application because its pay less notice arrived 2 days late: if no valid notice reduced the sum, the £31,200 is due. Strike set-off clauses that let a builder deduct "costs and losses" without a pay less notice with reasons and a cap, and have a solicitor check the notice and the contract before you adjudicate.
As of Oct 2026, take a solicitor's advice before you sue a homeowner for more than £10,000 or answer an injury claim.
Asked in Greymill
If she called you out for an urgent repair, that visit carries no cancellation right. But the boiler is extra work sold on that visit, so she keeps 14 days to cancel (As of Oct 2026).
1. The cancellation information: the cancellation notice and model cancellation form, on paper or another durable medium (a lasting copy) she agrees to.
2. Her written request to start early: tomorrow is inside the 14 days. Then if she cancels, she pays a proportionate amount for work done.
Start without one of them, and she pays nothing if she cancels. Skip the information and her 14 days can be extended by up to 12 months (As of Oct 2026).
On last night's job sheet, write "customer asked for urgent repair" and the time.
I can draft the notice and start-early wording for the van.
Ask it about your own business
Paste this into Greymill with your own figures, and Contracts & Disputes works it through for your business.
I run a plumbing, heating or electrical business in the UK. Review my homeowner paperwork: my quote template [paste], my terms [paste] and how we book call-outs [describe]. Check the cancellation notice and model form, the wording for starting inside the 14 days, the urgent repair note on the job sheet and the call-out fee wording, and redraft anything that would not hold up. If we work for builders, also check the payment and set-off terms in [a builder's subcontract].
More for plumbing, heating and electrical in the UK
- My diary is full but nothing is left over: what should my charge-out rate and call-out fee be?Your engineers are paid for every hour but you only bill some of them, so build the rate from the hours you sell, not the hours you pay.Read the lesson
- Busy all summer on installs, yet the bank account is emptiest when the diary is fullestBreakdowns pay on the day, but installs, heat pump vouchers and letting agents pay late, so plan cash by the week, not by the season.Read the lesson
- Which VAT rate goes on the invoice: heat pump, boiler, wet room or new build?The VAT rate depends on what you install, for whom and in what kind of building, and charging too little comes out of your own margin.Read the lesson
- Can my engineer legally take this job, and who has to notify it?Gas, electrical and water work each has its own gatekeeper, and a job is not finished until the right person has done it, signed it and notified it.Read the lesson
- My engineers run their own vans and carry CIS cards, so they are self-employed, aren't they?Status, travel time, on-call, holiday pay and who may work on gas all follow how the work is really done, not what the paperwork says.Read the lesson
- Letting agents want me to take on their landlords' deadlines: how do I win the work safely?Landlord and agent work is won on reliability, so sell the diary, price the failed visit and keep the legal duty where it belongs.Read the lesson
- The appliance is dangerous, or the customer blames my repair for a flood: what do I do first?When a job turns dangerous or a customer blames you for damage, the order of your first steps and what you write down matter most.Read the lesson
Open the interactive lesson · Every plumbing, heating and electrical lesson · What Greymill knows about the trade
Sources
The primary sources behind this lesson, checked Oct 2026.
- reg 10, Schs 2 and 3 (Domestic contracts: cancellation, emergency starts and remedies)
- CCR 2013 regs 5, 19, 30 and 31 (Domestic contracts: cancellation, emergency starts and remedies)
- reg 36(1), (2), (4), (6) (Domestic contracts: cancellation, emergency starts and remedies)
- reg 28(1)(e) and (2) (Domestic contracts: cancellation, emergency starts and remedies)
- ss.49 to 52, 55 to 57 (Domestic contracts: cancellation, emergency starts and remedies)
- ss.62, 68, Sch 2 (Domestic contracts: cancellation, emergency starts and remedies)
- CCR 2013 Sch 3 (Deliverables in house style)
- GSIUR reg 36(3)(c) (Deliverables in house style)
- GSIUR reg 26(9) (Deliverables in house style)
- IGEM/G/11 Gas Industry Unsafe Situations Procedure (Deliverables in house style)
- BS 7671 Appendix 6 model forms (Deliverables in house style)
- Benchmark scheme; manufacturer terms vary (Deliverables in house style)
- IGEM/G/11; RIDDOR reg 11 (Hard cases: gas, water and heating)
- Building Regulations 2010 reg 18; council decision and requirements, not a promised certificate (Hard cases: gas, water and heating)
- What you can get (Hard cases: gas, water and heating)
- Class G (Hard cases: gas, water and heating)
- Summary of updates to BUS guidance for installers, April 2026 (Heat pumps, BUS, MCS and consumer codes)
- MIS 3005-D, MIS 3005-I (Heat pumps, BUS, MCS and consumer codes)
- s.50 (Heat pumps, BUS, MCS and consumer codes)
- Ofgem BUS Installer Guidance V5.1 (1 July 2026) paras 2.08 to 2.18 and Table A (Heat pumps, BUS, MCS and consumer codes)
- MCS:2025 transition to Customer Commitment by 31 March 2027; Ofgem BUS installer guidance, consumer-protection requirement (Heat pumps, BUS, MCS and consumer codes)
- FRS 102 and FRS 105 (Cash, funding and the 13-week model)
- s.113 (Contract red flags)
- s.111(1) (pay the notified sum), (3) to (6) (pay less notice, its contents, deadline and effect) (Contract red flags)
- TUPE 2006 reg 3(1)(b); reg 11 employee liability information (Contract red flags)
- FCA DPC regime from 15 July 2026; RAO arts 36A and 60F (Hard cases: finance, tax, electrical and people)
- PERG 6 (Hard cases: finance, tax, electrical and people)
- reg 3(4); Best Practice Guide 4 (Hard cases: finance, tax, electrical and people)
- DESNZ asset-visibility call for evidence, Connect Direct; GOV.UK device-registration process (Hard cases: finance, tax, electrical and people)
- Pimlico Plumbers v Smith (Hard cases: finance, tax, electrical and people)
- reg 3 (Hard cases: finance, tax, electrical and people)