The 14-Day Cancellation Period in the UK: Can You Start the Job Before It Runs Out?

You start on Monday, and on day 6 the customer cancels inside their 14-day cancellation period. Without their written request to start early, those two days of strip-out earn you nothing.

The customer can do that because they agreed to the job in their own home. A contract made there carries a 14-day cancellation period. You can start inside it only if they ask you to in writing. Get that request and the cancellation information right, and a customer who cancels on day 6 pays for the work done.

Take a £6,000 bathroom refit, including VAT, with figures made up for the example. The customer signs at the kitchen table on Wednesday 11 November. The quote shows £2,200 for a standard suite, shower and tiles, and £3,800 for eight days of labour. Strip-out and the skip make up £700 of that. The customer pays a £1,500 deposit and signs your written request to start on Monday 16 November.

The suite arrives boxed on the Monday morning, and you spend Monday and Tuesday stripping the room out. On Tuesday evening the customer emails to cancel.

Which jobs carry a 14-day cancellation period

The rules are the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, often shortened to the CCRs. They set out what a business must tell a consumer before a contract, and when the consumer can cancel. They are law across the whole of the UK, not a trade code. Trading Standards enforces them, and since April 2025 the Competition and Markets Authority can fine businesses directly too.

They apply when your customer is a householder acting for themselves. A landlord’s company or a letting agent is a business customer, and these rules don’t cover it. For those jobs, payment terms work differently, as our guide to late payment interest explains.

The cancellation right attaches to an “off-premises contract”. That is one you agree with the customer away from your business premises, usually in their home. It also covers a customer who signs your order form there. And it covers one who agrees by phone or email immediately after your visit.

It does not cover the quote you leave behind. The Trading Standards guidance on off-premises sales deals with the trader who visits, leaves a quotation and lets the customer decide later. That trader makes an on-premises contract, and the customer has no statutory right to cancel. A yes by phone a week later doesn’t change it.

When the 14 days start

Labour-only work, such as fitting a suite the customer bought themselves, has the simpler clock. The period ends 14 days after the day you agree the contract. Once you supply the goods as well, the job counts as a “sales contract”. Then the 14 days run from the day the goods reach the customer. If they arrive on different days, the clock starts with the last delivery. A boiler swap, a bathroom refit or new windows that you supply are usually sales contracts.

Your suite arrived on Monday 16 November, so the customer’s 14-day cancellation period runs to the end of 30 November. Tuesday’s email is in time. A customer can cancel by any clear statement, such as an email, a letter or a phone call. They don’t need a form or a reason. You then refund everything they’ve paid within 14 days, less any amount the rules let you keep for work done. You can’t charge a cancellation or restocking fee.

What goes to the customer before they sign

Before the customer is bound, you give them the information the Regulations list. It goes on paper or, if they agree, on another durable medium such as email. Most of it is ordinary quote detail, the things you price a job around. That means who you are, your address, the total price including VAT, the timing and any deposit. Three items concern cancellation:

• that the customer can cancel, the time limit and how to do it;
• who pays to return goods if they cancel;
• that if they ask you to start early and then cancel, they pay for the work done up to that point.

The simplest way to cover all three is the model cancellation instructions in Schedule 3 of the Regulations. Fill them in for your business and give the model cancellation form from the same schedule with them. Leave a copy of the signed contract with the customer before you start work.

Other pre-start paperwork runs to its own clock. A loft conversion or an extension in England or Wales may need a party wall notice weeks before the start date. The cancellation rules cover extensions too, though not building a new house from scratch.

Starting work inside the 14-day cancellation period

You must not begin inside the cancellation period unless the customer has expressly asked you to. For an off-premises contract, that request has to be on a durable medium: on paper, by email or by text. A spoken “yes, crack on” is not enough, however keen the customer sounds.

The Regulations give no set wording, so keep it plain. The bathroom customer’s request might read: “I ask you to start work on 16 November, before my 14-day cancellation period ends. If I cancel, I will pay for the work done up to then.” On a labour-only job, add one more line. In it, the customer acknowledges that they lose the right to cancel once you finish the work.

If you didn’t give the cancellation information, or started without a written request, the customer owes nothing for work done in the cancellation period. If the information never reached them at all, the 14 days stretch to 12 months. And failing to give it before an off-premises contract is a criminal offence under regulation 19. Courts can impose an unlimited fine in England and Wales, and up to £5,000 in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Jobs the right to cancel doesn’t cover

Tell the customer in advance which parts of the job it doesn’t cover:

• Urgent repairs the customer called you out for. A boiler that has failed in November is the obvious case. Extra work you offer on that visit, such as a new boiler instead of a repair, keeps the cancellation right.
• Goods made to the customer’s specification. Windows made to the measurements of their openings are the Trading Standards example. A standard-size unit from a trade counter is not bespoke.
• Small jobs. Off-premises contracts where the customer pays £42 or less fall outside these rules.

Goods you’ve fitted but could take out again, such as a dishwasher, usually stay returnable. The customer pays the agreed fitting charge if they asked you to start early and had the right information. Materials that become part of the job, like adhesive or plaster once you’ve used it, can’t go back.

What the bathroom customer owes for day 6

With the cancellation information given and the written request on file, the customer pays for two days of work. The Regulations say the amount should match the share of the work done, based on the agreed price. They set no formula. Two days out of eight would be £950. The quote’s own strip-out line would be £700, which is arguably closer to the work actually done. Base it on the labour only, not the whole £6,000, because the suite goes back for a separate refund. You collect the boxes, keep £700 to £950, and refund the rest of the £1,500 by 1 December.

Now suppose you started on the customer’s word alone, or never handed over the cancellation information. The customer owes nothing for the strip-out and gets the full £1,500 back. The difference between £700 and nothing is the sheet of paper you left on the kitchen table.