14 day cooling off If you sign up a customer - in their home - Value £42+

[Mrs Tara Plumbi]

In case you missed it change to the rules came in on 13th June 2014
- completely replacing the Cancellation of Contracts made in Consumers' Homes or Place of Work Regs 2008 - that required 7 days notice and we had to give the customer a special bit of paper with the details of their rights on.

now Consumer Contracts Regs 2013
Customers now have to have 14 days notice to cool off and the details on the paper work has changed. You have to give even more written details of the job.

For jobs value of £42 or more

It is relevant for all of us to know because there are changes to rules about buying stuff online too.

To explain Here is the Which? guide for customers :
Consumer Contracts Regulations - Which?

As I see it the way to avoid all this is NOT to book work when you are with the client away from your own premises. If possible, no matter how eager they are, get them to phone you after you have left their house or you can phone them later even if they want to book there and then you can have reasons to phone them back to confirm.
The biggest problem is for those of you who go do jobs there and then.
Otherwise the people can not pay you on this technicality!

You have to get a "Start Work Now" agreement in writing.

According to a leaflet I have "urgent repairs" are exempt but I am not sure this is true. I think for urgent work you have to give all the paperwork AND get a "Start Work Now" agreement.

Guideline from Gov are here see FAQ F https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&r...NPOnymwc3_T96mQ&bvm=bv.70138588,d.ZGU&cad=rjt

 

[Ray Stafford]

Be careful when buying online.

If you are buying in the course of your business, you DO NOT enjoy the statutory protections afforded to consumers.

So you can buy something for your hobby (consumer) and be protected, and then log on to Tradeonlyplumbing, screwfix or toolstation (business) and you only have the protections of normal contract law.

 

[WHPES]

Note:

If you request a service starts straightaway In this instance you will still have the right to cancel, but you must pay for the value of the service that is provided up to the point you cancel.
For example, if you buy a service like gym membership and start using the gym and then change your mind within this 14 day time period, you will be refunded but could be charged for the amount of gym time you used.
If the service is provided in full within 14 days The right to cancel can be lost during the cancellation period if the service is provided in full before the 14 days elapses.
Exemptions There are some contracts where you won’t have a right to cancel a service. For example, hotel bookings, flights, car hire, concerts and other event tickets, or where the trader is carrying out urgent repairs or maintenance.

 

[Mrs Tara Plumbi]

I have read the legislation because I want to make sure my business is not caught out -
I think we (almost) comply but
These new rules are far more wide reaching that the old ones
- so ignore some of what I said in my first post!

In now seems that if we go to a customers house and "sell" them a bathroom or a boiler if we do not give then a whole pile of written information they may be entitled to not pay us!

Now we do have to give them the cancellation notice etc EVEN IF the contract was not agreed at their home, but they phoned us (or we called them) later.

It doesn't apply to those jobs where we send a quote and they call us weeks later. It does apply to those customers who want to book us when we are there - or soon after we have left, perhaps before we've given them a written quote - in our case this is our regular repeat customers.

Emergency repair work is exempt (section 28 (e)) but not any not urgent work done at the same time.

Under section 11 Work under £170 in value may be exempt from giving all this paper work if ALL these conditions apply:
a) the tradesman has performed a "service" i.e. it is not a "sales contract"
(b) the consumer has explicitly requested the trader to supply the service for the purpose of carrying out repairs or maintenance,
(c) the obligations of the trader and the consumer under the contract are to be performed immediately.

Information
The info you have to provide is at schedule 2
and a model cancellation notice is at schedule 3 of Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013

 

[thorn]

Unfortunately it's just more paper work but could seriously catch you out if you don't give it the attention it deserves. If you are doing a big job, a customer can literally tell you on day 10 day, day 12 even day 14 that they no longer require your services and the law is in the favour of the consumer. Could seriously screw you over

 

[nobby]

I have a customer owing a sum in double figures over £35. He requested an urgent call to his boiler by phone, he wasn't there when I attended. He asked for the boiler stripping and checking, the gas valve was at fault but is obsolete. I sent him the bill for the time but he's refused to pay it saying as we attended to a differing breakdown in 2013 he's entitled to a warranty. There is a point of principal and I intended to chase him through the courts. So we are saying I cannot make him pay or should this job be exempt? Am I likely to be caught out by the job last year which was also an emergency but no cancelation notice was given. Any thoughts?

 

[Atouchofgas]

No warranty as you said it was a different fault and it was over a year ago. Chase the money

 

[IDCHAPPY]

Some people will do anything to get out of paying for work unfortunately 🙁

 

[SimonG]

Lots of things to go wrong with boilers. Just because you fixed one thing doesnt mean you are going to gaurantee the rest of the boiler. Chase him and get your pound of flesh.

 

[nobby]

I had one back in 2012. Again an intermittent fault thistime a Vokera. Changed the common parts likely to cause lockout, which improvedthings. Over a few months, it occasionally locked out so finally decided tochange the main pcb for one I had in the van, which was new, made it clear itwas to test and wasn’t paid for. All sorted, they seemed a decent couple until theydidn’t pay for the pcb. She tried all sorts to get out of paying, even claimedshe worked for the county court, gave me 48 hours to back down or she wouldcall Gas Safe. I did not back down and were paid in the end.