Buying materials through a builders’ merchant instead of a DIY shed typically saves 10–35% on core lines, but only if you know how trade pricing, accounts and delivery actually work. A standard flat-bed delivery costs £20–£80; a HIAB crane offload for heavier loads runs £150–£350. Opening a trade account costs nothing and typically unlocks 30-day credit plus prices 10–30% below the cash rate, simply for having one.

What follows is the whole picture in one place: how merchants make their money, what a trade account really changes, how VAT distorts every quote you will be shown, what your legal rights are over materials that turn up wrong, and the small number of decisions that account for most of the money saved or wasted. The linked guides go deeper on each, but you should not need to click any of them to know what to do next.

How Builders’ Merchants Work

A builders’ merchant sells construction materials wholesale to trades and the public rather than retail like a DIY shed. How builders’ merchants work explains that you don’t need a trade account to buy, you can walk in and pay cash or card, and that prices still run 10–35% below DIY retail on core lines. Builders’ merchant vs DIY store sets out where that saving is biggest, structural materials, 15–35% cheaper, versus where a DIY shed’s convenience still wins for small quantities.

The saving is not generosity. A merchant’s business model is volume at thin margin, with the counter price adjusted by who you are and how much you buy, whereas a DIY retailer runs a single shelf price for everybody. That single difference explains almost everything else about the way merchants behave: the reluctance to publish prices, the willingness to negotiate, the account terms, and the fact that two people can walk out of the same branch on the same morning having paid materially different amounts for the same pallet of blocks.

Four formats sit under the same “merchant” label and they do not behave alike. A traditional counter-service branch such as Travis Perkins or Jewson holds stock in a yard, quotes per line, and expects a conversation. A cash-and-carry warehouse such as Selco is self-service with shelf-edge pricing and no negotiation. A trade counter chain such as Screwfix or Toolstation is closer to catalogue retail, fast and fixed-price, and is where you go for the fixings and consumables a yard sells badly. And a genuinely trade-only supplier will not sell to you at all: Howdens states plainly that it only sells to the trade, so a builder is essential in order to purchase its products, across more than 800 depots.1 If your kitchen quote names Howdens, the units are being bought by your builder and are being resold to you.

Buying outside a physical branch is increasingly common too: are online builders’ merchants cheaper covers the 10–25% saving on some lines that delivery charges can quietly erode on smaller orders. Where a price genuinely moves for reasons other than negotiation, it is usually the underlying commodity moving rather than the branch. The Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade publishes a monthly building materials and components series carrying price indices and monthly data on bricks and concrete blocks, with quarterly figures on sand, gravel, slate, roofing tiles and ready-mixed concrete, and annual cement data.2 That is the place to check whether a merchant telling you timber has moved is describing the market or describing their margin.

What a Trade Account Actually Changes

A formal trade account is the biggest single lever on price. How to open a builders’ merchant trade account covers the proof-of-business, two trade references and credit check most merchants require for 30-day terms and prices 10–30% below cash rates. Plumbers’ merchants run the same two-tier system, plumbing merchant trade account covers Wolseley, City Plumbing, Williams and BSS specifics, including why negotiating discounts per category beats a blanket rate.

Understand what you are actually being given, because two separate things are bundled into the phrase “trade account” and they carry different consequences.

The first is a discount structure. This is almost never one number. A merchant prices by category, so your account might carry a deep discount on timber, a moderate one on aggregates and almost nothing on branded plumbing goods where the manufacturer sets the floor. This is why asking for “your best discount” gets you a shrug and asking for “your rate on C24 carcassing and on plasterboard” gets you numbers. It is also why a headline discount percentage quoted by one merchant is not comparable to another’s without the category detail behind it.

The second is credit, and credit is a legal relationship, not a perk. Thirty-day terms mean the merchant is lending you the value of the materials for a month, which is why the application asks for references and runs a check. Late payment between businesses attracts statutory interest at 8% plus the Bank of England base rate, although statutory interest cannot be claimed where the contract sets a different rate of interest, which merchant account terms very often do.3 Read the interest and charging clause before you sign, because that clause displaces the statutory rate rather than sitting alongside it.

Not ready for a credit account? How to get trade prices without a trade account covers cash accounts and other routes to a similar 10–35% discount. A cash account is the sensible default for a homeowner running a single project: it gives you the account pricing and the account number for deliveries and returns without the credit check, the references or the personal exposure. Free loyalty schemes are a smaller but genuine top-up: trade cards and loyalty schemes covers the 5–15% discounts on offer at merchants like Screwfix, Toolstation and Selco.

Opening a Business Account Can Cost You Your Consumer Rights

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 defines a consumer as an individual acting for purposes that are wholly or mainly outside that individual’s trade, business, craft or profession, and puts the burden on a trader claiming otherwise to prove it.4 The Chartered Trading Standards Institute’s official business guidance is explicit about the consequence: where someone presents themselves as a business, for example by opening a business account, they lose those protections.5 A homeowner who sets up a limited company or trades as a sole trader to get the account rate has swapped a strong statutory position for a commercial one. The discount is rarely worth it on a single project.

VAT: Where Most Merchant Quotes Are Misread

Almost every merchant figure you will be shown is quoted excluding VAT, and almost every homeowner budget is built including it. That gap alone is 20%, because the standard rate has stood at 20% since 4 January 2011, with a reduced rate of 5% and a zero rate applying only to specific supplies.6 A £12,000 materials schedule at trade prices is £14,400 out of your bank account. How to read a builders’ merchant quote explains why figures are almost always ex-VAT, priced by unit rather than project quantity, and can hide delivery or small-order surcharges, comparing two or three merchants like-for-like typically saves 5–15%.

Three further VAT points decide real money on a renovation.

Materials bought loose are always standard-rated. The zero rate on energy-saving materials that ran from 1 May 2023 and reverts to the reduced 5% rate after 31 March 2027 applies to the installation of those materials, and HMRC states that if you supply energy-saving materials without installing them the supply is standard-rated.7 Buying insulation over the counter yourself and handing it to a fitter converts a potentially zero-rated supply into a 20% one. Where insulation is a large line, ask the installer to supply and fit rather than fitting your own materials, and check our note on VAT for home renovations for the reclaim routes.

Some whole projects are not standard-rated at all. Work to an existing building is normally 20%, but HMRC’s Notice 708 sets a 5% reduced rate for the renovation or alteration of a single household dwelling that has been unoccupied for at least two years before work starts, and for conversions that change the number of dwellings, with new qualifying dwellings zero-rated.8 Where your project qualifies, the contractor charges 5% on labour and on the materials they supply, which is a further reason not to buy materials yourself.

The merchant’s own VAT status is worth a glance. A business must register for VAT once taxable turnover for the last 12 months goes over £90,000, or where it expects to exceed £90,000 in the next 30 days.9 A small local supplier quoting you a genuinely VAT-free price is either below that threshold or is doing something you do not want to be part of. On a reclaimed or salvage purchase, the difference matters: see reclamation yards.

Getting, and Reading, a Quote

Prices are rarely fixed: how to negotiate with builders’ merchants covers the volume-order and branch-manager conversations that can cut a further 10–30% on some lines. Two structural facts make negotiation work. Branch managers usually hold discretion over their own margin within a corridor set centrally, and a merchant would rather hold a customer at a thinner margin than lose the account to the yard down the road. Quoting a competitor’s number for a specific line, in writing, is the single most effective move available to a private buyer.

Treat the piece of paper you get back as an offer, not a contract. Merchants routinely reserve the right to vary the price before the contract becomes binding, and to accept or decline an order after you have placed it. Our note on whether quotes and estimates are legally binding sets out where the line falls. In practice: get the validity period stated on the quote, get lead times stated per line rather than for the order as a whole, and get the delivery charge stated as a figure rather than as “carriage at cost”.

Specialist Merchants: Timber, Roofing, Plumbing, Electrical and More

General builders’ merchants don’t stock everything, and the specialists are usually cheaper within their own category. Timber merchants typically undercut DIY sheds by 15–35% on structural and joinery timber and add machining services a shed can’t. Roofing merchants run 15–30% below general merchants on tiles, slate and flat-roof materials, and plumbing and heating merchants offer 20–40% off DIY prices on pipework and heating components. Electrical wholesalers like CEF and Edmundson run a similar 20–40% below retail on cable and accessories, though a new circuit, a consumer unit replacement or an addition or alteration to circuits in the space around a bath or shower still needs a registered competent person, a registered third party or a building control notification.10

For finishes rather than fixings, tile shops and tile merchants covers the gap between sub-£10/m² trade tiles and £100+/m² showroom pricing, aggregate and sand suppliers explains why a loose tipper load is 20–40% cheaper per tonne than bulk bags above 5–6 tonnes, and reclamation yards covers what to check when buying salvaged brick, timber or fittings that match a period property’s character.

Whatever the source, the product itself is regulated. The Office for Product Safety and Standards has been the UK regulator for construction products since April 2021, enforcing the Construction Products Regulations 2013 as amended by the Construction Products (Amendment) Regulations 2022, and it responded to over 100 non-compliance allegations in 2023.11 That is the body to check when a price looks impossible for a product that carries a performance claim, and the reason a declaration of performance is worth asking for on anything structural, fire-rated or thermal.

Your Rights When Materials Turn Up Wrong

This is the part of merchant buying that homeowners consistently underuse, and it is worth more than any discount.

The 30-day short-term right to reject. Where you buy as a consumer, the short-term right to reject faulty goods runs to the end of 30 days beginning with the first day after ownership has transferred, the goods have been delivered, and, where the trader was to install them, you have been told that is done.12 Any agreement under which that right would be lost sooner is not binding on you. The clock also stops while you wait for an agreed repair or replacement. Merchants routinely publish 28-30 day goodwill returns policies, and builders’ merchant returns and account terms explains the usual window, why special orders are typically non-returnable, and the 15–25% restocking fee you can expect if a return is agreed anyway. The statutory right sits underneath that policy and is not reduced by it.

The refund itself is regulated. Once a trader agrees you are entitled to a refund it must be given without undue delay and in any event within 14 days, using the same means of payment unless you expressly agree otherwise, with no fee imposed in respect of the refund, and the trader must bear the reasonable costs of returning the goods except where you choose to return them in person to where you took possession.13 A restocking fee applied to a rejection of faulty goods is not lawful; a restocking fee applied to a change of mind on stocked goods generally is.

Ordering online adds a separate right. For a distance sale, the cancellation period ends 14 days after the day the goods come into your physical possession, and where an order arrives in several deliveries the 14 days run from the last one.14 This is a change-of-mind right, not a fault right, and it runs alongside the 30-day rejection right rather than replacing it.

The exclusions are the ones that catch people out. The cancellation right does not apply to goods made to your specifications or clearly personalised, and it ends where goods become mixed inseparably with other items after delivery.15 That is precisely why cut timber, made-to-order windows, mixed mortar and a tipped load of aggregate are not returnable, and why a merchant marking a line “special order, non-returnable” is usually stating the law rather than inventing a policy.

Pay the deposit on a credit card. Where a purchase is financed by a credit agreement, the creditor is jointly and severally liable with the supplier for misrepresentation or breach of contract, except where the claim relates to a single item with a cash price of £100 or less, or more than £30,000.16 On a £4,000 bathroom order from a supplier that later fails, putting any part of the payment on a credit card gives you a second party to claim against. Debit cards do not carry this.

If the work as well as the goods goes wrong, take it up with the trader who arranged it even if they subcontracted the job, gather receipts, photographs and dated notes first, and be aware that asking for something like 5% off as a goodwill gesture for inconvenience is a normal opening position rather than an outrageous one.17 Our builder disputes guide covers the escalation route from there.

Comparing Merchants, and Deciding Who Buys

Not all merchants operate the same way. The big builders’ merchants compared sets out how national groups like Travis Perkins and Jewson differ from Selco’s cash-and-carry warehouse format and the more relationship-led regional model at MKM and Huws Gray. At the smaller trade-counter end, Screwfix vs Toolstation compares two chains similar enough that running accounts with both costs nothing and covers more stock gaps.

And before any of this matters, it’s worth settling who buys the materials, you or the builder: builders typically mark materials up 10–25%, so buying direct can save money but shifts procurement risk and warranty responsibility onto you.

Here is the honest way to make that decision. Buying direct pays when the schedule is short, the items are commodity lines you can specify without ambiguity, delivery can be received and checked by someone who knows what was ordered, and the job is not on a tight critical path. It loses when any of those fail. A builder who orders the wrong lintel owns the problem; a homeowner who orders the wrong lintel owns the problem, the return, the restocking fee and the week of standing time. Against a 10–25% markup on, say, £15,000 of materials, you are gambling £1,500 to £3,750 of saving against a single mis-specified structural item and a delayed programme. On a small, well-defined package such as tiles, sanitaryware, paint or flooring, take the saving. On structure, roofing and anything the builder has to warrant, let them buy it.

A useful middle position is to open the account in your own name, let the builder order against it, and pay the merchant directly. You capture the trade price, the builder keeps the specification responsibility, and there is no markup to argue about. Put it in the contract in writing, along with who signs for deliveries: see building contracts and how to get and compare building quotes.

Delivery, Returns and Disputes

Getting materials to site is its own cost line. Builders’ merchant delivery costs and lead times covers the £20–£80 flat-bed drop, £150–£350 HIAB crane offload, and lead times from same-day on stocked commodities to 3–6 weeks on special orders.

Three practical rules cut most delivery losses. Book the offload method, not just the delivery: a pallet of blocks on a flat-bed with no crane and no forklift becomes your problem at the kerb. Nominate someone who can actually check the load against the order before signing, because signing unchecked makes a shortage argument far harder later. And where a load is going onto a public highway or a shared drive, sort the access, the parking suspension and the skip or waste arrangements before the lorry is booked rather than after.

Merchant TypeTypical Saving vs DIY RetailWhat Drives It
General builders’ merchant10 – 35%Volume pricing and account discount by category
Timber merchant15 – 35%Buys graded stock direct; machining on site
Roofing merchant15 – 30%Specialist stockholding, full-load deliveries
Plumbing & heating merchant20 – 40%Deep manufacturer terms on pipework and boilers
Electrical wholesaler20 – 40%Trade-only supply chain on cable and accessories
Tile merchant (vs showroom)20 – 35%No showroom overhead or design service
Online builders’ merchant10 – 25% (before delivery)No branch cost; eroded by carriage on small orders

Ask for the Trade Price Even Without an Account

You don’t need a formal 30-day credit account to avoid paying full retail, many branches will move closer to trade pricing at the counter if you ask directly, buy in reasonable quantities, or mention you’re comparing quotes elsewhere. It costs nothing to ask before you pay.

The Expensive Mistakes, and Why They Happen

Budgeting from ex-VAT quotes. The single most common and most expensive error, and it happens because merchants quote the way their trade customers think and homeowners read the way retail has trained them. Add 20% to every merchant figure before it enters your budget.6

Buying materials to save money on a job where you are not the specifier. The markup you avoid is visible; the mis-order, the delayed trade and the warranty gap are not. This is the mistake that turns a 15% saving into a net loss.

Treating a special order as returnable. Cut, mixed, made-to-order and inseparably mixed goods sit outside the cancellation right by law, not by policy.15 Measure twice, and where a line is genuinely uncertain, order the stocked equivalent even if it costs more.

Signing for a delivery nobody checked. A signature on a delivery note is the merchant’s evidence that the load arrived complete. Shortages found three days later are a negotiation; shortages found at the tailgate are a redelivery.

Chasing a headline discount instead of a category rate. A “20% trade discount” on a list price the merchant sets itself is worth less than a modest discount on a keenly priced line. Compare landed prices for the actual items you need, not percentages.

Turning yourself into a business for the discount. Consumer protection is lost the moment you present as a trade buyer, and it is worth far more than the differential on a single renovation.5

Where to Start

If you’re buying materials for the first time, start with how builders’ merchants work to understand the basics before you walk into a branch. Spending regularly enough to justify credit terms? Opening a trade account is the single change most likely to cut your costs. And before you commit to any large order, run it past how to read a builders’ merchant quote, it’s the fastest way to catch hidden charges before they hit your invoice.

References (17)

Figures in this note were checked against the sources below on 30 September 2026. Superscript numbers in the text point to them. Every source the site cites, by topic.

  1. 1technicalsupplier figureHowdens, a page from the body itself.RN-0YMTU2Howdens' own explanation of its trade-only model: it states plainly that it only sells to the trade, so a builder is essential in order to purchase its products, and that although it does not directly recommend tradespeople its depot staff can help a customer locate a professional in the area. Says it has more than 800 depots nationwide. Sets out the buying sequence: get a builder on board, choose products from a range it describes as more than 100 kitchens plus thousands of completing products, book a free design appointment online or in store with one of its designers, and then have products supplied from local stock so a project can start without delay, with changes handled quickly through aftersales. This is the authoritative source for the claim that a homeowner cannot buy directly from Howdens.
  2. 2technicalvery strongDepartment for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade.RN-QB50Q9The official accredited statistics series on UK building materials, published monthly by DBT and BIST, first collected here on 2 October 2013 and last updated 5 August 2026 with the July 2026 bulletin. Each edition has a commentary plus Excel and ODS data tables. It carries monthly data on material price indices and on bricks and concrete blocks, quarterly data on sand and gravel, slate, concrete roofing tiles, ready-mixed concrete and imports and exports of construction products, and annual cement data. Methodology, a calendar of future publication dates and DBT's statistics error policy are on the same page. This is the source for verifiable claims about material price movement rather than merchant marketing figures.
  3. 3technicalvery strongGOV.UK, guidance.RN-1VTP3WSets statutory interest for late payment between businesses at 8% plus the Bank of England base rate. Statutory interest cannot be claimed where the contract sets a different rate of interest, and a lower rate cannot be used in a contract with a public authority. The worked example on a 1,000 pound debt with a 0.5% base rate gives annual statutory interest of 85 pounds (1,000 x 0.085), daily interest of 23 pence (85 divided by 365) and 11.50 pounds after 50 days. A new invoice should be sent if interest is added to the sum owed. This is the rule behind the interest clause in a merchant's trade account terms and behind a builder's claim for late payment of a stage payment, but it applies business to business, not to a consumer paying a builder.
  4. 4technicalvery strongThe National Archives (legislation.gov.uk), legislation.RN-T10BARSection 2 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, the key definitions. A trader is a person acting for purposes relating to their trade, business, craft or profession; a consumer is an individual acting for purposes wholly or mainly outside theirs. These definitions decide whether the Act's protections apply at all, which is the first question in any homeowner-versus-builder dispute and the reason a landlord or a limited company may not get them.
  5. 5technicalstrongChartered Trading Standards Institute, Business Companion, guidance.RN-Z3SQTDCTSI's official business guidance on Part 1 Chapter 4 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, which governs the supply of services to consumers, including where goods are supplied as part of a contract for work and materials. Sets out what the consumer can expect as statutory rights, and the tiered remedies for breach: repeat performance first, then price reduction, then other remedies. Defines a trader as a person acting for purposes relating to their trade, business, craft or profession, including a partnership, company, charity, government department, local authority or public authority, and makes a trader responsible for contracts made in its name by someone acting on its behalf. Also covers exceptions where the consumer cannot claim, time limits for court action, unfair contract terms, negligence, misrepresentation and the trader's identity. Guidance is for England and Wales.
  6. 6technicalvery strongHM Revenue & Customs (GOV.UK), guidance.RN-4W7T33Sets the three UK VAT rates: standard 20% on most goods and services, reduced 5% on some goods and services such as children's car seats and home energy, and zero 0% on zero-rated goods such as most food and children's clothes. The standard rate rose to 20% on 4 January 2011 from 17.5%. Some supplies are exempt rather than rated, including postage stamps and financial and property transactions. This is the reference for converting a merchant's ex-VAT trade quote into the figure a homeowner actually pays.
  7. 7technicalvery strongHM Revenue & Customs, guidance.RN-1HRJJ7Section 2.1 sets a zero rate of VAT on the installation of energy-saving materials in residential accommodation from 1 May 2023 to 31 March 2027, after which the rate reverts to the 5% reduced rate; section 2.22 extended it to buildings used solely for relevant charitable purposes from 1 February 2024. Section 2.7 lists the qualifying materials: central heating and hot water controls, draught stripping, insulation to walls, floors, ceilings, roofs, lofts and pipes, solar panels, wind turbines, water turbines, ground source heat pumps, air source heat pumps, micro combined heat and power units and wood-fuelled boilers, with water source heat pumps, batteries for energy storage and smart diverters added on 1 February 2024. Section 2.3 is the critical rule for a renovation note: relief applies to an installation service, or materials supplied and installed together, but materials bought without installation stay standard-rated at 20%.
  8. 8technicalvery strongHM Revenue & Customs, guidance.RN-KBNHMBHMRC's main VAT notice for building work, last updated 26 August 2026. Sets out that construction of a new building and work to an existing building is normally standard rated at 20%, with exceptions: 0% for new qualifying dwellings and for housing association conversions of non-residential buildings, and 5% for a 'changed number of dwellings' conversion (section 7) and for renovation or alteration of a dwelling not lived in during the 2 years immediately before work starts (section 8, conditions at 8.1.2 and 8.3). Cites the law: VAT Act 1994 section 30 and Schedule 8 Group 5 for zero rating, section 29A and Schedule 7A Groups 6 and 7 for the reduced rate. Also explains the developer input tax block on goods that are not building materials (VAT (Input Tax) Order 1992 articles 2 and 6) and points self builders to the DIY housebuilders refund scheme.
  9. 9technicalvery strongHM Revenue and Customs (GOV.UK), a government page.RN-J2B1F3When a business must register for VAT: the taxable turnover threshold, the backward and forward look tests, and voluntary registration. This is why a small builder's quote may carry no VAT at all while a larger firm's carries 20% on the same work, which is a genuine price difference and not a discount.
  10. 10technicalvery strongMinistry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.RN-JYJ3I5The document that decides what electrical work a homeowner may legally do themselves, and the exact list of notifiable jobs. Regulation 12(6A), reproduced at paragraph 2.5, makes only three things notifiable: the installation of a new circuit, the replacement of a consumer unit, and any addition or alteration to existing circuits in a special location. Regulation 12(9) defines special location as, in a room containing a bath or shower, the zone extending vertically from finished floor level to 2.25 metres (or the shower head position if higher) and horizontally 600mm from the edge of the bath tub or shower tray. Paragraph 2.7 states that all other electrical installation work is not notifiable, namely additions and alterations to existing installations outside special locations, and replacements, repairs and maintenance anywhere. Paragraph 2.8 gives worked examples: a built-in cooker is not notifiable unless a new cooker circuit is needed, and connecting an electric gate or garage door to an existing isolator is not notifiable but running a new circuit from the consumer unit to that isolator is. Paragraph 2.2 confirms Part P reaches outdoor work including fixed garden lighting, pond pumps and outbuildings such as sheds, detached garages and domestic greenhouses. Notifiable work must be certified by self-certification by a registered competent person, third-party certification, or a building control body (paragraph 3.1), with the compliance certificate issued within 30 days (paragraph 3.4). Note that Approved Document P is a source of guidance rather than a ban: non-notifiable work still has to comply with BS 7671.
  11. 11technicalvery strongOffice for Product Safety and Standards and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, guidance.RN-Y19S87Names the Office for Product Safety and Standards as the UK regulator for construction products and most consumer goods, a role it took on in April 2021, funded by and acting on behalf of MHCLG. Confirms the enforced legislation is the Construction Products Regulations 2013 as amended by the Construction Products (Amendment) Regulations 2022, which gave OPSS its enforcement powers. Records that the Grenfell Tower Inquiry final report was published on 4 September 2024, the Government response on 26 February 2025 accepting all 58 recommendations, and a Construction Products Reform White Paper on 25 February 2026 proposing reform of testing, certification, product information and enforcement. OPSS carries out product testing, site inspections and technical documentation reviews, responded to over 100 non-compliance allegations in 2023, and publishes construction product safety alerts, reports and recalls.
  12. 12technicalvery strongThe National Archives (legislation.gov.uk), legislation.RN-85A077Section 22(3) sets the short-term right to reject at the end of 30 days beginning with the first day after all of the following have happened: ownership or, for hire, hire purchase or conditional sale, possession has transferred to the consumer; the goods have been delivered; and, where the contract requires the trader to install the goods or take other enabling action, the trader has notified the consumer that this has been done. Section 22(4) shortens the period for goods that can reasonably be expected to perish sooner. Section 22(2) makes any agreement shortening the 30 days not binding on the consumer, while 22(1) allows the trader and consumer to agree a later deadline. Section 22(6) stops the clock for the waiting period where the consumer requests or agrees to repair or replacement, and 22(7) then gives either 7 days after the waiting period ends or the original limit extended by the waiting period, whichever is later. This is the statutory floor a merchant's own 30-day goodwill returns policy sits alongside.
  13. 13technicalvery strongThe National Archives (legislation.gov.uk), legislation.RN-0UBLTSSection 20(4) lets the consumer reject goods and treat the contract as at an end under the short-term right to reject (subject to section 22), the final right to reject (subject to section 24) or the section 19(6) right. Section 20(5) and 20(6) say the right is exercised by indicating rejection to the trader in words or actions clear enough to be understood. Section 20(7) then imposes a duty on the trader to give a refund and on the consumer to make the goods available for collection or return them as agreed, and section 20(8) makes the trader bear any reasonable costs of return except where the consumer chooses to return them in person to the place they took possession. Section 20(15) requires the refund without undue delay and in any event within 14 days beginning with the day the trader agrees the consumer is entitled to it, section 20(16) requires the same means of payment unless the consumer expressly agrees otherwise, and section 20(17) forbids any fee for the refund. Applies to materials bought from a merchant by a consumer, not to a trade account purchase made in the course of a business.
  14. 14technicalvery strongThe National Archives (legislation.gov.uk), legislation.RN-514PQFRegulation 30(2) sets the cancellation period for a service contract, or a contract for digital content not supplied on a tangible medium, at the end of 14 days after the day the contract is entered into. Regulation 30(3) sets it for a sales contract at the end of 14 days after the day the goods come into the physical possession of the consumer or a person other than the carrier identified by the consumer. Where multiple goods ordered in one order are delivered on different days (30(4)), or goods consisting of multiple lots or pieces are delivered on different days (30(5)), the 14 days run from the last delivery; for regular delivery over a defined period of more than one day (30(6)) they run from the first. Regulation 31 extends the period where the trader has not given the required cancellation information. This is the cooling-off clock for a builder's contract signed at the homeowner's house.
  15. 15technicalvery strongThe National Archives (legislation.gov.uk), legislation.RN-DOFH7QRegulation 28(1) removes the Part 3 cancellation rights for goods or services whose price depends on financial market fluctuations outside the trader's control, for goods made to the consumer's specifications or clearly personalised, for goods liable to deteriorate or expire rapidly, for certain alcohol contracts, for contracts where the consumer specifically requested a visit for urgent repairs or maintenance, for newspapers, periodicals and magazines other than subscriptions, for contracts concluded at a public auction, and for accommodation, transport of goods, vehicle rental, catering or leisure services tied to a specific date or period. Regulation 28(2) preserves cancellation rights for any additional services or for goods other than replacement parts necessarily used, supplied during an urgent repair visit. Regulation 28(3) ends the rights where sealed goods unsuitable for return on health or hygiene grounds are unsealed, where sealed recordings or software are unsealed, or where goods become inseparably mixed with other items after delivery. The made-to-measure and mixed-goods exclusions are why cut timber, mixed mortar, made-to-order windows and delivered aggregate cannot be cancelled.
  16. 16technicalvery strongThe National Archives (legislation.gov.uk), legislation.RN-JFS7HZSection 75(1) gives the debtor under a debtor-creditor-supplier agreement within section 12(b) or (c) a like claim against the creditor for any misrepresentation or breach of contract by the supplier, making creditor and supplier jointly and severally liable. Section 75(2) entitles the creditor to be indemnified by the supplier. Section 75(3) sets the limits: the section does not apply to a non-commercial agreement, nor so far as the claim relates to any single item with a cash price not exceeding 100 pounds or more than 30,000 pounds, nor to certain short-period running-account credit agreements. Section 75(4) preserves the claim even where the debtor exceeded the credit limit or breached a term of the agreement, and section 75(5) lets the creditor join the supplier to the proceedings. This is the basis for claiming a builder's default from a credit card issuer where any part of the payment was made on the card.
  17. 17technicalfairCitizens Advice, guidance.RN-K22APCCitizens Advice guidance for England on what to do when work at home goes wrong. Says the problem must be taken up with the trader who arranged the work even if they subcontracted all or part of it, and to gather paperwork and receipts, take photographs as evidence and note dates and times first. Where the job is poor, it explains that the Consumer Rights Act 2015 requires reasonable care and skill and gives the consumer the right to ask the trader to fix the problem where goods were supplied with the service, or to get a refund and stop the trader doing more work where only a service was supplied. Provides wording a homeowner can use when complaining, suggests asking for money off for inconvenience such as 5% of the cost as a goodwill gesture, and states the trader should fix the problem within a reasonable time and at no extra charge.

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  2. Building materials and components: monthly statistics, Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, accessed 7 September 2026. gov.uk

  3. Late commercial payments: charging interest on a commercial debt, GOV.UK, accessed 7 September 2026. gov.uk

  4. Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 2: key definitions, legislation.gov.uk, accessed 7 September 2026. legislation.gov.uk

  5. Supplying services, Chartered Trading Standards Institute (Business Companion), accessed 7 September 2026. businesscompanion.info

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