The building quote template #
The cancellation section and form at the end are for a householder who agrees the job with you at their home or anywhere else that is not your business premises. For a business customer, delete them. The template is a starting point: read it against the rules below before you send it.
Click anything in brackets to type over it, then copy, print or download the result. Nothing you type leaves this page.
Quotation
| From | [Your business or trading name] [Your full business address] [Phone number and email address] |
|---|---|
| Quote number | [Q-0001] |
| Date | [Date of this quote] |
| Valid until | [Date: after this we will re-quote] |
| Prepared for | [Customer name] [Address where the work will be done] |
| Site visit | [Date you surveyed the job] |
| VAT registration number | [If VAT registered] |
The work
[Describe the job in the order it will be done: what you will remove, supply, build or fit, and make good. Name the materials and finishes, and who supplies what.]
Not included: [for example skip hire, redecoration, or anything hidden behind walls or under floors at the survey]
Price
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| [Labour] | [£0.00] |
| [Materials] | [£0.00] |
| [Waste removal] | [£0.00] |
| Price excluding VAT | [£0.00] |
| VAT at [20] per cent | [£0.00] |
| Total price, including VAT | [£0.00] |
This is a fixed price for the work described above. If you ask for changes, or we find something that could not be seen at the survey, we will tell you the cost in writing and will not do the extra work until you have agreed to it.
Timing, payment and after the job
| Start and finish | We expect to start on [date] and finish by [date]. |
|---|---|
| Deposit | [£0.00 on acceptance, or none] |
| Stage payments | [Amounts and the stage each one is due at, or none] |
| Balance | [Due within 0 days of completion], by bank transfer to [account details] |
| Guarantee | [What you guarantee, for how long, and any insurance-backed guarantee] |
| Goods | [If we supply goods: we are under a legal duty to supply goods that are in conformity with the contract.] |
| Certificates | [Any certificate or building control sign-off you will provide] |
| Complaints | [How to raise a complaint, and any trade association or dispute scheme you belong to] |
Your right to cancel
You have the right to cancel this contract within 14 days without giving any reason. The 14 days end 14 days after the day you accept this quote. [If we are also supplying goods for you to keep, such as a kitchen or windows: they end 14 days after the day the goods come into your possession.]
To cancel, tell us clearly before the 14 days are up, by letter or email to [your name, address and email]. You can use the form below, but you do not have to. It is enough to send your message before the time runs out.
If you cancel, we will refund what you have paid within 14 days of the day you tell us, using the same payment method unless you agree otherwise, and without any fee.
We will not start work within the 14 days unless you ask us to in writing. If you do ask, and then cancel, you will pay for the work done up to the time you told us, in proportion to the whole job. Once the work is finished at your request, you can no longer cancel.
Cancellation form
Complete and return this form only if you wish to cancel the contract.
To [your business name, geographical address and email address]:
I/We [*] hereby give notice that I/We [*] cancel my/our [*] contract of sale of the following goods [*]/for the supply of the following service [*],
Ordered on [*]/received on [*],
Name of consumer(s),
Address of consumer(s),
Signature of consumer(s) (only if this form is notified on paper),
Date
[*] Delete as appropriate.
Acceptance
I accept this quotation.
[Tick only if wanted:] I ask you to start work before the 14 day cancellation period ends. I understand that if I cancel, I will pay for the work done up to then, and that I lose the right to cancel once the work is finished.
| Signed | Name | Date |
Quote or estimate #
A quote
- A price you commit to for the work described
- Business Companion: "normally a fixed price"
- Citizens Advice tells consumers you cannot charge more because your own costs went up
- Needs a validity date, because materials do go up
An estimate
- Your best guess at what the work will cost
- Business Companion: "generally a rough guess"
- If nothing fixes the price, the customer pays a reasonable price and no more
- Section 50 still applies to what you write in it
Whichever you call it, section 50 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 treats anything you say or write about the work, which the customer takes into account when deciding to go ahead, as a term of the contract. Where no price is fixed at all, section 51 says the customer pays a reasonable price. The words on the page are the contract, which is why the template spells out the work, what is not included and what happens if the job changes.
What a householder must be told #
When the contract is made with a consumer in person anywhere other than your business premises, including their kitchen table, it is an off-premises contract. The same list applies to a distance contract, agreed without meeting as part of an organised way of selling at a distance. Before the customer is bound, regulation 10 requires the information in Schedule 2, on paper, or by email or another durable medium if they agree, and legible. For a building job, the lines that matter are these:
- The main characteristics of the work
- Your identity, such as your trading name, your geographical address, and your phone number and email address where you have them
- The total price inclusive of taxes, or, where it cannot reasonably be worked out in advance, how it will be calculated
- Any additional charges, or the fact that there may be some
- How payment works, and when you will do the work
- Your complaint handling policy, where you have one
- The right to cancel: its conditions, time limit and how to use it, with the cancellation form
- That a customer who asked you to start early and then cancels pays reasonable costs for the work done
- Where there is no right to cancel, or it can be lost, that fact
- Where the job includes goods, a reminder that you must supply goods that conform to the contract
- Any guarantee or after-sales service, any deposit, and any out-of-court complaint scheme you belong to
The template’s cancellation wording is our plain English version for a service contract. The Regulations also publish model instructions in Part A of Schedule 3, and a trader who gives those, correctly filled in, is treated as having given this part of the information. If the job includes goods, the model instructions also cover returning them and when the refund falls due, so use them for that part. The cancellation form in the template is the one Part B sets out, word for word.
When the 14 days start, and when there is no right to cancel
For a contract for services, the cancellation period ends 14 days after the day the contract is entered into. The Regulations count a contract that includes goods as a sales contract, and for those the 14 days run from the day the goods come into the customer’s physical possession.
There is no right to cancel where the customer specifically asked you to visit to carry out urgent repairs or maintenance, although any further services, or goods other than the replacement parts the repair needed, that you supply on that visit are still covered. Goods made to the customer’s specification are also outside the right to cancel.
The information rules do not apply to an off-premises contract where the customer pays £42 or less, and the Regulations as a whole do not apply to the construction of new buildings.
Starting inside the 14 days #
Under regulation 36 you must not start the work in the cancellation period unless the customer has made an express request, and for an off-premises contract that request has to be on paper or another durable medium, such as an email. The optional tick in the template’s acceptance section is that request.
If they then cancel, they pay an amount in proportion to the work done up to the time they told you, measured against the whole contract. Once the service has been fully performed at their request, and they acknowledged they would lose the right, they can no longer cancel.
What quoting by hand costs #
Most of a quote is the same every time: your details, the terms, the cancellation wording, the arithmetic on labour, materials and VAT. The part only you can do is the survey and the price. Typing the rest out again for every job is how a quote ends up sent a week late or missing its cancellation notice, and both of those cost more than the time saved.
The quote turnaround calculator works out what is sitting unsent in your quote queue, and following up a quote covers what happens after it goes. The rest of the office side of a building or installation firm is in trades and installers.