Cancellation Policy

1. Cancelling or Rearranging a Booking

We understand that plans change. If you need to cancel or rearrange your booking, please tell us as early as possible, by phone, WhatsApp, text or email, so we can offer your slot to another customer. The charges below apply from the point your booking is confirmed with a deposit.

2. Your Statutory 14-Day Cancellation Right (Consumers Only)

If you are a Consumer (booking mainly for personal, non-business reasons) and you agreed to the job away from our business premises, including at your home or by phone, WhatsApp, our website or email, the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 gives you a right to cancel within 14 days of confirming the booking, for any reason, without giving a reason.

Within this 14-day period, you may cancel free of charge and receive a full refund of your deposit, provided work has not yet started.
Because many jobs need to be booked in and completed sooner than 14 days allow, we will ask you to expressly confirm that you want us to begin work before the 14-day period ends and to acknowledge that once the work is complete, you will lose your right to cancel. We will ask for this confirmation in writing (including by text, WhatsApp or email reply) before starting any job scheduled within the 14-day window.
If you cancel after expressly asking us to start within the 14-day period, but before the work is complete, you must pay us a proportionate amount for the work carried out and any materials already used or ordered up to the point of cancellation, calculated at our standard hourly rate and materials cost, this may be more or less than the 50% deposit and any balance owed will be invoiced to you.
This statutory right does not apply to work you specifically asked us to carry out as an urgent repair or emergency call-out, where regulation 28 of the CCRs allows us to begin immediately and this right does not apply once that work is complete.
Outside of this specific 14-day statutory scenario, the cancellation charges in section 3 below apply.

3. Cancellation Charges

Once you have confirmed a booking and paid your 50% deposit, the following charges apply if you cancel or if we are unable to carry out the work because you fail to provide access (see section 5):

More than 48 hours' notice before the scheduled start time: your 50% deposit is retained in full to cover the reserved slot and any materials already ordered. No further charge applies and the remaining 50% is not due.

48 hours or less notice, including cancelling on the day or a no-show/no-access (section 5): you remain liable for the full quoted price of the job. This reflects the fact that, at this notice, we will usually have already turned away other work for that slot, ordered or purchased materials and blocked out the time, it is very unlikely we can fill the slot from someone else at such short notice. Your deposit is retained against this amount and the remaining 50% becomes payable immediately as an outstanding balance.

Emergency / call-out bookings: because emergency call-outs are, by nature, booked and attended at very short notice, cancellation once a call-out has been accepted and a tradesperson dispatched is charged at a minimum of one hour at the emergency rate (£150), rising to the full quoted price if cancelled on arrival or after work has begun.

4. How Outstanding Balances Are Recovered

Where a cancellation charge exceeds the deposit already paid, we will issue an invoice for the balance, payable within 7 days.
If the balance is not paid by the due date, interest and recovery costs apply as set out in clause 5 of our Terms and Conditions and we reserve the right to pursue the debt through formal debt recovery or the small claims track of the County Court.
We will always try to resolve payment issues directly and reasonably with you before taking formal recovery action.

5. No Access / No-Show on the Day

If we attend at the agreed date and time and cannot gain access to the property or you are not present/available to grant access without having told us in advance, we will attempt to contact you. If we cannot gain access within a reasonable waiting period (typically 30 minutes), this is treated as a late cancellation under section 3 above and charged accordingly, as the slot, travel time and any materials cannot be recovered.

6. Rearranging Your Booking

Rearranging is different from cancelling. If you give us more than 48 hours' notice, we will do our best to offer an alternative date at no extra charge and your deposit will simply carry forward. Rearranging with less than 48 hours' notice is at our discretion and may, where we are unable to fill the original slot, be treated as a late cancellation of the original date under section 3, with a new deposit required to confirm the replacement date.

7. If We Need to Cancel or Rearrange

If we need to cancel or postpone your booking (for example due to illness, vehicle breakdown or an emergency call-out that must take priority), this is not treated as your cancellation. We will contact you as soon as possible and you may choose either a full refund of your deposit or to carry it forward to a rearranged date, at no extra cost to you.

8. Business Customers

The 14-day statutory cancellation right in section 2 applies only to Consumers and does not apply to Business Customers. Business Customers are bound by the cancellation charges in section 3 from the point a booking is confirmed, as a matter of ordinary contract.

9. How to Cancel

To cancel or exercise any cancellation right referred to in this policy, please contact us by phone on 07391 512497, by WhatsApp or by email at thevalleyshandyman1@gmail.com, quoting your name, address and booking date. We recommend cancelling in writing (text, WhatsApp or email) so there is a clear record of the date and time of cancellation for both parties.