Disputes about the price of building work usually come down to one of three questions. Was the figure given at the start the agreed price? Was later work an extra that the customer agreed to pay for? And what is owed where no figure was ever agreed? This guide explains how the law of England and Wales approaches each one, and the right some consumers have to cancel a contract made at home or at a distance.
What was agreed is judged objectively
A contract for building work can be written, oral or implied from conduct; the Consumer Rights Act 2015 applies to all three (section 1(2)). The difficulty with an unwritten contract is proving its terms. Is my contract legally binding? explains how contracts are formed.
The Supreme Court set out the approach in RTS Flexible Systems Ltd v Molkerei Alois Müller GmbH [2010] UKSC 14, a commercial case in which work went ahead and the formal written contract was never signed. Whether there is a binding contract, and on what terms, depends 'not upon their subjective state of mind, but upon a consideration of what was communicated between them by words or conduct'.
The court looks at what passed between the parties: the quote, messages, payments and what each side did. See evidence in a builder dispute.
Quote or estimate
In everyday use, a quotation is taken to mean a fixed price and an estimate a best guess. The legal question is the one above: did the parties agree a fixed price for defined work, a way of working the price out (such as a daily rate plus materials), or no price at all? The heading on the document is evidence on that question, together with everything else that passed between the parties.
For a consumer (an individual acting for purposes wholly or mainly outside their trade, business, craft or profession) dealing with a trader, section 50 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 adds a rule. Anything said or written to the consumer, by or on behalf of the trader, about the trader or the service is treated as a term of the contract if the consumer took it into account when deciding to enter into the contract. Section 50(2) makes that subject to:
- anything that qualified it and was said or written to the consumer by the trader on the same occasion; and
- any change to it that has been expressly agreed between the consumer and the trader.
A figure given with a clear statement that it is provisional therefore carries that qualification. The remedies for a breach of section 50 are in your rights under the Consumer Rights Act.
Price information a trader must give a consumer
The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 require a trader to give a consumer certain information before the consumer is bound by the contract. It includes the total price inclusive of taxes or, where the price cannot reasonably be calculated in advance, the manner in which the price is to be calculated.
Under section 50 of the 2015 Act, information the trader provides in accordance with those rules is treated as a term of the contract, and a change to it 'is not effective unless expressly agreed between the consumer and the trader'.
The Regulations do not apply to a contract to the extent that it is for the construction of new buildings, or of substantially new buildings by the conversion of existing buildings (regulation 6). Regulation 6 does not list repair, maintenance or improvement work to an existing building among the excluded contracts.
Variations and extras
More money for the same work. The builder asks for more than the agreed price for work that was always part of the job. The starting point is the price that was agreed. Whether a customer who then agrees to pay more is bound by that later agreement is a separate legal question.
Extra work. The builder does work outside the original scope. The questions are then whether the item really was outside the original scope, whether the customer asked for it or agreed to it, and whether a price was agreed for it.
If extra work was asked for and nothing was said about cost, section 51 of the 2015 Act fills the gap. It applies where the consumer has not paid a price, the contract does not expressly fix a price or say how it is to be fixed, and nothing treated as a term under section 50 fixes one. The consumer must then pay 'a reasonable price for the service, and no more'. What is a reasonable price is a question of fact.
Where the customer is a business, section 15 of the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 does a similar job: where the price is not determined by the contract, there is an implied term that the customer will pay a reasonable charge.
The right to cancel some contracts
Part 3 of the 2013 Regulations gives a consumer a right to cancel a distance contract or an off-premises contract. Whether a contract is one of these depends on how and where it was concluded.
- An off-premises contract includes one concluded with the trader and consumer both physically present in a place that is not the trader's business premises.
- A distance contract is one concluded under an organised distance sales or service-provision scheme, without the two being physically present together, using only distance communication up to and including the moment the contract is concluded.
- A contract that is neither is an on-premises contract, and Part 3 does not apply to it.
Part 3 also does not apply to off-premises contracts under which the consumer pays not more than £42 (at the time of writing, October 2026), to the supply of goods made to the consumer's specifications, or to contracts where the consumer specifically requested a visit from the trader for urgent repairs or maintenance, though that last exception does not cover additional services supplied on the visit (regulations 27 and 28).
The period. For a service contract, the cancellation period ends 14 days after the day on which the contract is entered into. The Regulations define a sales contract to include a contract that has both goods and services as its object, and for a sales contract the 14 days run from the day the goods come into the consumer's physical possession or, where goods in one order are delivered on different days, the day the last of them does (regulation 30).
No cancellation information given. The period is extended. If the information is given within 12 months, the period ends 14 days after the consumer receives it. Otherwise it ends 12 months after the day on which it would have ended (regulation 31).
Cancelling. The consumer must inform the trader by a clear statement. In a dispute, it is for the consumer to show that the contract was cancelled in time (regulation 32).
Work started within the 14 days. The trader must not begin a service before the end of the cancellation period unless the consumer has made an express request and, for an off-premises contract, has made it on a durable medium such as paper or email (regulation 36). A consumer who made that request and then cancels must pay for what was supplied up to the time the trader was told of the cancellation, in proportion to the full contract. The consumer bears no cost if the trader failed to give the required information about the right to cancel or about that liability to pay, or if the work was not started at the consumer's express request. Where the contract is a service contract (one that does not also supply goods), the right to cancel is lost once the service has been fully performed, where it began at the consumer's request and with the consumer's acknowledgement that the right would then be lost (regulation 36(2)).
What a solicitor will want from you
- The quote or estimate, with its exact wording and any qualifications.
- Where and how the contract was agreed (at home, at the builder's premises, by phone or by email) and the date.
- Whether written cancellation information was provided, and any written request for work to start within 14 days.
- The drawings or specification showing the original scope.
- Every invoice, and every message about changes: who asked for each extra, when, and what was said about its cost.
This guide is general information about the law of England and Wales. It is not legal advice. What price was agreed, and whether a right to cancel applies, depends on exactly how, where and when the contract was made, and the cancellation periods are short.
Frequently asked
Is a builder's quote legally binding?
A figure given by a builder becomes the agreed price if, judged objectively from what the parties said, wrote and did, that is what they agreed. The heading on the document is part of that evidence, alongside everything else that passed between them. For a consumer, what the trader said or wrote about the service can be a term of the contract, read subject to anything the trader said on the same occasion to qualify it.
Do I have to pay for extra work if no price was agreed?
Where a consumer's contract does not fix a price for a service or say how it is to be fixed, section 51 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 says the consumer must pay a reasonable price, and no more. What is reasonable is a question of fact. For a business customer, the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 implies a term that a reasonable charge will be paid.
Can a contract with a builder be cancelled within 14 days?
Only some can. The Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 give a consumer a 14-day right to cancel a distance contract or an off-premises contract, which includes a contract concluded with the trader present somewhere other than the trader's business premises, such as the consumer's home. There are exceptions, and a contract that is neither a distance contract nor an off-premises contract carries no such right under the Regulations.
We never signed anything. Is there still a contract?
There can be. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 applies whether a contract is written, oral or implied from the parties' conduct. The difficulty with an unwritten contract is proving what was agreed, which is done from messages, invoices, payments and what each side did.