Customer Cancelled Building Work Within 14 Days?
The short answer
Signed at the client's home or by phone and email? They usually have 14 days to cancel and get the deposit back. You can only charge for early work they requested in writing.
- Where you signed decides it. At the client's home, or by phone and email: 14-day right to cancel. At your office or showroom: only your contract terms.
- No cancellation information = up to 12 months to cancel, and you can't charge for work done.
- Early start done right: a written request from the client. If they then cancel, they pay a proportionate amount for what you've done.
- Fix your paperwork: a cancellation form with every quote signed off your premises, plus an early-start request form.
Your customer cancelled the building work inside the 14-day cancellation period. They signed at the kitchen table on Monday and paid a deposit on Tuesday. You ordered materials on Wednesday. On Friday the email came: "We've decided not to go ahead."
Whether you keep anything depends on where and how the contract was made, and on the paperwork you gave them. Most homeowner pages tell the client what they can do. This one tells you. If a cancellation has just landed and real money is at stake, book a free strategy call.
This is general information on the UK rules as of October 2026, not legal advice. For a large sum, speak to a solicitor.
The next 24 hours: work out if the 14-day right applies
The right to cancel comes from the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013. It applies to consumer contracts made away from your business premises or at a distance. Run your job through this table.
| Question | If yes | If no |
|---|---|---|
| Is the client a business, developer or landlord company? | No consumer right to cancel: your contract decides | Go on |
| Was the contract made at your office or showroom? | No statutory right to cancel: your contract decides | Go on |
| Made at the client's home, or by phone, email or online without meeting? | The 14-day right usually applies | Take advice |
| Is it a new building, or a conversion into a substantially new building? | Excluded from these rules | The right applies |
| Did the client ask you to visit for an urgent repair? | That repair is excluded (extras you add are not) | The right applies |
The cancellation information you had to give
This one question decides most of the money. Before the contract, you must give the client the right-to-cancel information, with the model cancellation form, on paper or by email.
- If you didn't: the 14 days can stretch by up to 12 months. And for contracts made away from your premises, not giving it is a criminal offence.
- If you didn't, and you did work: the client pays nothing for work done in the cancellation period.
- If you gave it late: the 14 days run from the day they got it.
A cancellation clause buried in your terms and conditions instead of the clear information and the form. The rules set out what must be given; a line in small print isn't it.
Problems like this usually trace back to cash and contracts. The free 4-minute Construction Business Scorecard shows your weakest area first.
Still not sure what you can keep after a cancellation?
Book a free call with our team. We'll go through your quote, deposit and paperwork, and close the gaps for next time.
When the 14 days start and end
For a contract for work only, the 14 days end 14 days after the day the contract was made. But a contract to supply and fit goods (a kitchen, windows, a bathroom suite) counts as a sales contract here.
For those, the 14 days run from when the goods arrive with the client. That matters most for made-to-measure trades: see how window installers price and order around it.
| Contract | Cancellation period ends |
|---|---|
| Work only (labour, a service) | 14 days after the contract was made |
| Supply and fit (goods and work together) | 14 days after the goods come into the client's possession |
| Cancellation information not given | Up to 12 months after the normal end |
What you can keep and what you must refund
If the client cancels in time, refund all their payments within 14 days of being told. Use the same payment method and charge no fee.
| Situation | Deposit | Work done in the 14 days | Materials |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cancellation info given, no early-start request | Refund in full | You shouldn't have started; nothing to charge | Standard items: your risk |
| Info given and a written early-start request | Refund, minus a proportionate charge | Proportion of the contract price for what you supplied | Only as part of what you'd supplied |
| No cancellation information given | Refund in full | Nothing to charge | Your risk |
| Goods made to the client's specification | Take advice | Take advice | Can be outside the right to cancel |
The proportionate charge is worked out from the total price in the contract, in proportion to what you'd done when they told you. If your price is excessive, it's based on market value instead.
A client just cancelled on you? Book a free strategy call and we'll go through your paperwork with you.
The early-start request: wording you can use
Clients often want you to start next week, inside the 14 days. That's fine, as long as they ask in writing (paper or email) for a contract made at their home. Here is wording you can adapt for your own form.
Request to start work during the cancellation period
I/We, [client name], of [address], ask [your company] to start the work under our contract dated [date] before the end of the 14-day cancellation period. I/We understand that if I/we cancel during the cancellation period, I/we will pay an amount in proportion to the work carried out up to the time I/we tell you about the cancellation. I/We understand that once the work has been fully performed, I/we will lose the right to cancel. Signed: __ Date: __
Give it to the client together with the cancellation information and the model cancellation form from Schedule 3 of the Regulations. Keep a copy of all three in the job file.
Next 7 days: fix your quote and deposit paperwork
One bad cancellation is enough. Fix the process so it can't happen again.
- A signing pack for every contract made at a client's home or by email: cancellation information, the model cancellation form and your early-start request.
- Record the date the client received the pack, by email or a signed copy.
- No materials ordered inside the 14 days without a written early-start request, unless you're ready to carry them.
- Deposits that match the risk: for large orders, consider signing at your office, or ordering only after the 14 days. See how much deposit a builder should take.
- Qualify before you quote. Clients who cancel often showed the signs earlier: no budget, no decision-maker, "just getting prices".
Most cancellations start at the first conversation, not the contract. Our qualifying guide covers the questions that filter out clients who back out. Our sales process guide takes a client from first call to signed contract without surprises.
UK Builders' Qualifying Checklist
Qualify clients before you quote, so the ones who cancel or mess you around never get to the contract stage.
Get the free guideWant contracts and deposits that hold up?
Book a free strategy call.
Before you sign your next job at a client's home
This is general information on the UK rules as of October 2026, not legal advice. For your situation, speak to a solicitor. On the tools and under £500K a year? Watch our free training first.
Before you go
- The client gets the cancellation information and the model form before signing
- An early-start request is signed if work starts within 14 days
- You know whether it's a work-only or a supply-and-fit contract
- No materials are ordered in the 14 days unless you can carry the risk
- Refunds, if any, go out within 14 days by the same payment method
