Can I Cancel a Builder After Signing? The 14-Day Cooling-Off Rule
Agreed a builder's quote at home? You can usually cancel within 14 days, or longer if they never told you. Accepted it by email after a site visit? Often not.
In short: You can cancel a builder's contract within 14 days without giving a reason only if it is an off-premises or a distance contract, and the usual example is a job you agreed while the builder was in your home. If they never gave you the cancellation information, that period can run for up to 12 months longer. But a common way to hire a builder, a visit to measure up followed by a quote you accept by email days later, is usually neither kind of contract, and then there is no statutory cooling-off period at all.
The rules are in the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013. They cover England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and they apply to contracts entered into on or after 13 June 2014. Each rule below names the regulation it comes from, so you can read the text yourself.
Which builder contracts have a cooling-off period
The right to cancel in regulation 29 applies only to off-premises and distance contracts (regulation 27). Regulation 5 defines both, and everything else is an on-premises contract.
| How the job was agreed | What the Regulations call it | Statutory right to cancel |
|---|---|---|
| With the builder present, in your home or anywhere else that is not their business premises | Off-premises contract | Yes |
| You made an offer to the builder while they were with you away from their premises, even if they only accepted it later | Off-premises contract | Yes |
| At the builder's premises, or by phone or email, immediately after they spoke to you in person somewhere other than their premises | Off-premises contract | Yes |
| Only by phone, email or online up to the moment the contract is made, through an organised distance sales or service scheme | Distance contract | Yes |
| At the builder's own business premises, with no approach elsewhere just before | On-premises contract | No |
| By phone or email some time after the builder visited only to measure up or give an estimate | Usually on-premises | Usually no |
Regulation 5 defines a trader's business premises as immovable retail premises where they carry on their activity on a permanent basis, or movable retail premises where they do so on a usual basis. Recital 22 of Directive 2011/83/EU, the EU law the Regulations were made to implement, explains that business premises include premises in whatever form that serve as a permanent or usual place of business, and that private homes are not business premises.
If the builder turned up at your door uninvited, our guide to spotting rogue builders covers the other warning signs.
The last row is the one that catches people
A contract counts as off-premises if it was made, or you made your offer, with the builder present away from their premises, or if it was made "immediately after" they spoke to you in person there. Recital 21 of the directive deals with the usual builder's routine directly. It says the definition should not cover a trader who "first comes to the consumer's home strictly with a view to taking measurements or giving an estimate without any commitment of the consumer", where the contract is agreed later at the trader's premises or by phone, email or post, if the consumer has had time to reflect on the estimate before agreeing.
It is also unlikely to be a distance contract. Regulation 5 requires a distance contract to be concluded "under an organised distance sales or service-provision scheme" with "the exclusive use of one or more means of distance communication up to and including the time at which the contract is concluded". If it is neither kind, it is an on-premises contract, and Part 3 of the Regulations, which holds the right to cancel, does not apply to it.
So if you are accepting an emailed quote after a site visit and want a way out, it will usually have to come from the contract itself. Ask for a cancellation period to be written in before you accept. Our guide to building contracts for homeowners explains the standard forms.
How long you have
For an off-premises or distance contract, you may cancel at any time in the cancellation period without giving any reason (regulation 29(1)). The period begins when the contract is entered into (regulation 29(2)). For a service contract, it ends at the end of 14 days after the day on which the contract is entered into (regulation 30(2)). If the trader does not give you the information on the right to cancel, the period is extended: it ends 14 days after you receive that information if it arrives within 12 months, and otherwise 12 months after the day it would have ended (regulation 31).
Two details change the count.
- The day you agree does not count. The period ends at the end of 14 days after the day the contract is entered into, so a contract agreed on 1 October can be cancelled until the end of 15 October.
- Goods can move the end date. Regulation 5 treats "any contract that has both goods and services as its object" as a sales contract. The period still begins when the contract is entered into, but for a sales contract it ends at the end of 14 days after the day the goods come into your physical possession, or after the last delivery if they arrive on different days (regulation 30(3) to (5)). If your contract supplies goods as well as work, check which rule applies before you rely on a date.
What the builder has to give you before you are bound
Before you are bound by an off-premises contract, regulation 10 requires the builder to give you the information listed in Schedule 2 and, where a right to cancel exists, a cancellation form. Both must be on paper or, if you agree, another durable medium, which regulation 5 defines to include email.
That information includes the conditions, time limit and procedure for cancelling, and the fact that you would have to pay reasonable costs if you cancel after asking for work to start early (Schedule 2, paragraphs (l) and (n)).
It also becomes part of your contract. Section 50(3) of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 treats information given under regulation 10 as a term of the contract, and section 50(4) says a change to that information is not effective unless you and the builder expressly agree it.
If you agree a job while the builder is in your home, look for the cancellation information and the cancellation form before you sign. Note the date you agreed. If neither document arrives, write the date down anyway: the cancellation period starts from it and can run much longer.
If the builder wants to start inside the 14 days
Regulation 36 says the builder must not start work during the cancellation period unless you have expressly asked them to, and for an off-premises contract that request must be on paper or another durable medium.
If you did ask, and then cancel:
- You pay for the work done so far. The amount covers the work supplied up to the time the builder is informed that you are cancelling, in proportion to the whole job. It is worked out from the total contract price, or from the market value of the work if the total price is excessive (regulation 36(4) and (5)).
- You pay nothing for it if the builder did not give you the information on the right to cancel, or on having to pay these costs (regulation 36(6)(a)).
- You pay nothing for it if the work was not started at your request (regulation 36(6)(b)).
- You lose the right to cancel once the work is fully finished, but only where it started at your request and you acknowledged that you would lose the right on completion (regulation 36(2)).
If a contract asks you to agree to work starting within the 14 days, that request decides whether you would pay for work done before you cancel. Read it before you sign it.
How to cancel
- Tell the builder clearly. Regulation 32 lets you use the model cancellation form in Schedule 3 or any other clear statement that you are cancelling the contract.
- Send it before the period ends. A communication sent within the period counts even if it arrives afterwards (regulation 32(5)).
- Keep proof. In a dispute it is for you to show that you cancelled in time (regulation 32(6)), so use an email or a letter you can prove you sent.
- Remember the linked agreements. Cancelling automatically ends any ancillary contract, which regulation 38 defines as a contract for goods or services related to the main contract, supplied by the builder or by a third party under an arrangement with the builder. Regulation 38(4) confirms that a financial services contract can be one of them.
Getting your money back
Cancelling ends both sides' obligations to perform the contract (regulation 33). Under regulation 34, the builder must refund the payments you made, apart from any extra you paid for a more expensive delivery option. For a service contract the refund is due without undue delay and no later than 14 days after the day the builder is informed that you are cancelling. It must go back by the same payment method unless you expressly agree otherwise, and the builder must not charge you a fee for it.
If you had asked for work to start early, you still owe the proportionate amount for the work done under regulation 36(4).
When there is no statutory right to cancel
- On-premises contracts, which usually include a quote accepted by phone or email some time after a measuring visit, as explained above.
- New buildings. Regulation 6(1)(e) excludes contracts "for the construction of new buildings, or the construction of substantially new buildings by the conversion of existing buildings". Recital 26 of the directive describes a substantial conversion as one comparable to building a new building, for example where only the facade of an old building is kept, and says service contracts for annexes to buildings, such as a garage or a veranda, and for repair and renovation other than substantial conversion, should be covered.
- Small jobs. The right to cancel does not apply to an off-premises contract where you pay £42 or less (regulation 27(3)).
- Urgent repairs you called them out for. Regulation 28(1)(e) excludes contracts where you specifically asked the builder to visit to carry out urgent repairs or maintenance. Regulation 28(2) keeps the right for other services they supply on that visit, and for goods beyond the replacement parts the repair needs.
- Goods made to your specification. Regulation 28(1)(b) excludes goods made to your specifications or clearly personalised.
- Finished work you asked to start early, as set out under regulation 36(2) above.
Where none of the statutory routes applies, what you have is the contract you signed. Our guide to consumer rights in building disputes covers what the Consumer Rights Act 2015 gives you once the work is under way.
Before you accept the next quote
Sources
Read on legislation.gov.uk on 14 September 2026.
- Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013: regulations 1, 5, 6, 10, 27 to 34, 36 and 38, and Schedules 2 and 3
- Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 50
- Directive 2011/83/EU on consumer rights, recitals 21, 22 and 26
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