Terms and conditions for an Irish trades business

Terms and Conditions

Last updated: [date]

1. Who we are

These terms apply to all work carried out by [trading name]. [Trading name] is a business name registered in Ireland under registration number [number]. The proprietor is [your own name]. Our address is [address]. You can reach us on [phone] or at [email]. Our VAT number is [VAT number].

These terms form part of our agreement with you. We will point you to them when you book, and we will give you a copy on request.

2. Quotes, estimates and callouts

An estimate is our best view of the likely cost before we have seen the job. It is not fixed. Drainage and plumbing faults are often not visible from the outside and the cost can change once we can see what is actually wrong. A quote is a fixed price for a described piece of work, and a written quote from us stands for [number] days from its date.

Our callout charge is [amount] including VAT. That covers [what it covers]. Work beyond that is charged at [amount] including VAT per hour, or at the quoted price where we have given you a quote. Work outside normal hours, at weekends and on bank holidays is charged at [uplift].

Every price we give you includes VAT. If we ever quote you a figure without VAT we will say so plainly at the time.

The callout charge is payable whether or not we are able to fix the problem on the visit. If we cannot fix it we will tell you what we found and what it would take to put right.

If, once we can see the job, the work needed goes beyond what was quoted, we will stop and tell you the revised price before continuing. We will not carry out extra chargeable work without your agreement.

3. Carrying out the work

We will carry out the work with reasonable care and skill, using materials of satisfactory quality, and within a reasonable time. This reflects your rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2022 and nothing in these terms reduces them.

You agree to give us safe access to the property and to the working area, to tell us about anything we could not reasonably be expected to know about, for example the location of concealed pipework, cables, a septic tank or a private drain, and to make sure any pets and children are kept clear of the work area.

If we find something unsafe. If we find asbestos, an unsafe structure, live services where we did not expect them, or anything else that makes it unsafe to continue, we will stop work and tell you what we found and what needs to happen next. The callout charge still applies to the visit, and we will not charge you for work we did not do.

Permissions. Some drainage work needs the agreement of the local authority, Uisce Éireann or a neighbouring owner. Getting that agreement is your responsibility unless we have agreed in writing to do it.

Where you do not own the property. If you are a tenant, or the property belongs to someone else, please make sure the owner has agreed to the work before we start. We are entitled to assume you have that agreement.

People we use. We sometimes use other qualified trades to carry out part of a job. Where we do, they are working for us, and we remain responsible to you for their work.

4. Your right to cancel

Where you are a consumer and you agreed the work at your home, at your door, or over the phone or online rather than at our premises, you have a legal right to cancel within 14 days without giving a reason. That right comes from the Consumer Rights Act 2022.

We will give you a written notice about this right, and a cancellation form, when you agree the work. You do not have to use our form. You can cancel by telling us in any clear way, in writing. If you cancel, we will refund you within 14 days of being told, using the same payment method you used.

Emergency and urgent work. If you want us to start inside the 14 day period, we need you to ask us to, in writing. We will send you a short form by text or email before we start. It asks you to confirm two things: that you want us to begin straight away, and that you understand you will lose the right to cancel once the work is finished. Please answer it before we start.

If you have asked us to start early and you then cancel before we have finished, you pay for what we have already done, in proportion to the whole job. If we have completely finished the work inside the 14 days at your express request, and you confirmed you understood the right would be lost, then the right to cancel is used up and no refund is due.

Cancelling a booked visit. Separately from the legal right above, if you want to cancel or move a booked appointment, please give us at least [number] hours notice and there is no charge. If we attend at the agreed time and cannot get access, or nobody is there, we may charge [amount] for the wasted journey. We will always tell you this charge exists when you book.

We may cancel or reschedule a visit ourselves, for example where the weather makes the work unsafe or a part is not available. We will tell you as soon as we can and will not charge you for a visit we cancelled.

5. Payment

Unless we have agreed otherwise in writing, payment is due on completion of the work.

For larger jobs we may ask for a deposit towards materials before we order them. We will tell you the amount before you commit, and it comes off the final bill. If we cancel the job, or we do not carry out the work, we refund the deposit in full.

Materials we have delivered to your property but not yet installed remain our property until you have paid for them in full. Once materials are fitted or fixed in place they become part of your property. We have no right to enter your property to remove them and we will not attempt to do so. If an invoice goes unpaid we will deal with it as a debt, not by taking anything back.

6. Guarantee on our work

We guarantee our workmanship for [number] months from the date the work is completed. If something we did fails in that time because of the way we did it, we will put it right at no charge. We will give you this guarantee in writing with your invoice. Manufactured parts and materials carry whatever guarantee the manufacturer gives them, and we will pass that guarantee on to you and help you use it.

The guarantee does not cover:

• fair wear and tear;
• damage caused by misuse, or by something being put into a drain or a system that should not have been;
• new blockages or faults from a different cause to the one we attended;
• work that someone else has since altered, repaired or interfered with;
• problems we told you about in writing and which you asked us not to fix, or which fall outside the work you asked us to do.

Where we have cleared a blockage, the guarantee covers the clearing work. It is not a guarantee that the drain will never block again. Where a drain keeps blocking because of its condition or its design, we will tell you, and putting that right is separate work.

This guarantee is in addition to your legal rights and does not affect them.

7. Certificates

Where the work needs a certificate, we will give it to you when the work is done, at no extra charge.

8. Our liability

We hold public liability insurance with [insurer] to a limit of [amount]. A copy of the certificate is available on request.

We are responsible for loss or damage that we cause by failing to use reasonable care and skill, and for anything that cannot lawfully be excluded. Nothing in these terms limits or excludes our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that Irish law does not allow to be limited. Nothing in these terms affects your statutory rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2022.

Subject to that:

• We are not responsible for pre-existing defects in the property, or for the condition of pipework, drainage or fittings that we did not install, except where we made them worse.
• Where we have to lift flooring, cut into a wall or excavate to reach a fault, we will make good to a reasonable standard. We cannot guarantee an exact match of tiles, flooring, paint or paving, and matching decorative finishes is not included unless we have quoted for it.

9. Your rights as a consumer

You have rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2022 that these terms cannot take away. The service we supply must be carried out with reasonable care and skill, within a reasonable time, and any materials we supply must be of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose and as described. If we fall short, you can ask us to do the work again, or to reduce the price, and in some cases to end the contract. Tell us first and give us a fair chance to put it right. You can read a plain-English explanation of these rights on the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission website at ccpc.ie.

10. Complaints

If you are not happy with the work or with how you were treated, tell us. Contact us at [email] or [phone] with your name, the address the work was done at, the date, and what went wrong. We will acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days and give you a substantive answer within 20 working days.

If we cannot sort it out between us, the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission at ccpc.ie can tell you about your rights, though it does not settle individual disputes. You can bring a claim yourself through the Small Claims procedure at courts.ie, which is designed to be used without a solicitor, or through the courts generally for a larger claim.

11. Data protection

We are the controller of the personal information we hold about you. We handle it in line with our privacy policy at [website]/privacy-policy/, which explains what we collect, why, how long we keep it, and how to ask for a copy or ask us to correct or delete it.

12. General

We work in [service area].

If something outside our reasonable control stops us doing the work, such as severe weather, an accident, illness or a supplier failing to deliver, we will tell you as soon as we can and agree a new date with you. If it cannot be done at all, you pay only for what has already been done.

If any part of these terms turns out to be unenforceable, the rest still applies.

We may update these terms. The version on our website at the time you agree the work is the version that applies to that work.

These terms are governed by the law of Ireland. Nothing in these terms affects your right as a consumer to bring proceedings in the courts of the country where you live.