Terms and conditions for an aquarium maintenance business

An aquarium maintenance business needs terms that deal with what actually happens on the round: the tank that crashes between visits, the customer who overfeeds, the key you hold for an empty house, the chiller that fails on a Friday, and the monthly plan somebody wants to stop paying for tomorrow. I draft those terms for a fixed fee of £995, delivered in five working days.

Who this is for

Aquarium and pond maintenance businesses in England and Wales, from a single technician with a domestic round to a company servicing office receptions, dental practices, restaurants and schools. Most have both consumers and business customers on the books, and the law treats those two groups very differently, so one set of terms has to be written with both in front of you.

What matters in aquarium maintenance terms

What a visit actually includes

Most arguments start with a customer who assumed the visit covered something it did not: the algae on the back glass, the sick fish they expected you to treat, the pump they wanted stripped down. Your terms should set out the scope of each visit, the tests you run, the maintenance you carry out, what you report afterwards and what is charged as additional work. Where you have taken over a tank somebody else set up, say plainly that you are not responsible for the stocking levels, plumbing or equipment you inherited until the customer agrees to put them right.

Livestock losses and water quality

Fish die, and the customer will look at you first. Your terms should make clear that you maintain an environment rather than guarantee the health of livestock, and that feeding, dosing, top-ups, new stock bought elsewhere and anything done by the customer or their staff between visits sit outside your control. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 you must perform the service with reasonable care and skill and cannot limit liability for a service to less than the price, so a blanket exclusion will not do the work. Recorded parameters at each visit will.

Access, keys and unattended premises

Much of the round involves letting yourself into a house, a surgery or an office reception. The terms should cover key holding and alarm codes, who else has access, what happens when you arrive and cannot get in, and the customer's duty to tell you about building works, power cuts and heating failures. Water and electricity in somebody else's property is where the large claims live: a split hose or a failed seal soaks the floor below. State your public liability cover, and make the customer responsible for where the tank stands and what it stands on.

Service plans, payment and cancellation

A monthly plan collected by direct debit is the sensible model, but it needs terms: the notice required to stop it, what happens to prepaid visits, holiday cover, and how you raise prices. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 treats one-sided variation rights and keeping prepayments without a matching obligation as suspect, so both need careful drafting. For business customers the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 gives you interest and fixed compensation on unpaid invoices. Under the Consumer Rights (Payment Surcharges) Regulations 2012 you cannot add a card surcharge for a consumer.

Equipment, livestock and installations you sell

If you supply heaters, pumps, lighting, reverse osmosis units or the fish themselves, you are selling goods as well as a service. For consumers the Consumer Rights Act 2015 requires goods to be of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose and as described, with a short-term right to reject within 30 days, which needs thought where the goods are living animals already acclimatised into the customer's tank. Pass manufacturer warranties through rather than offering your own, say who carries the risk of an equipment failure, and remember that certain electrical work must be certified or notified under the Building Regulations.

Domestic sign-ups, cancellation rights and waste

Where a domestic customer signs up at home, by phone or by email, the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 apply: pre-contract information and a fourteen-day cancellation right, extended by up to 12 months where you do not give the cancellation notice. Start work inside that period only at the customer's express request, and they pay a proportionate amount if they then cancel. If you carry old tank water, spent filter media or dead livestock away from site, you need to be registered as a waste carrier with the Environment Agency.

What it costs

Customer or supplier terms and conditions, £995. One set of terms, customer-facing or supplier-facing, drafted around your business. Five working days.

Review of your existing terms, £495. You already have terms and want to know how much of a problem they are. Returned marked up with my amendments and an explanation of the changes. Three working days.

Buying online forms the engagement on payment. The scope is what the terms and conditions drafting page describes, you accept the Terms of Service at checkout, and I email you within four working hours to get started. If you would rather ask something first, email me.

What you get

• A full set of terms drafted around your business, not a template with your name inserted
• A covering note in plain English explaining every commercial choice I made and why, so you can defend the terms in a negotiation without ringing me
• Liability, payment, termination and IP provisions set at a level that will survive a procurement review
• Consumer-facing wording drafted to be enforceable where you sell to consumers
• Guidance on how to incorporate the terms properly, which is where most businesses actually fail
• One round of amendments after you have read them

What is not included

• Negotiating your terms with individual customers
• Sector-specific regulatory compliance beyond the contract terms themselves
• Website privacy notice and cookie compliance, which I quote separately
• Terms governed by the law of another country

Questions I am often asked

The fish died a week after my visit. Am I liable?

That turns on whether the loss came from something you did, or failed to do, without reasonable care and skill. Good terms draw the boundary before it is tested: you record parameters and observations at each visit, the customer feeds and watches the tank between visits, and disease introduced with stock bought elsewhere is not your risk.

Can I charge when nobody lets me in?

You can charge for a wasted visit where the terms say so and the charge reflects the time and travel you have actually lost. A consumer charge that looks like a penalty rather than a genuine cost risks being treated as a disproportionate default charge, so it must be proportionate, flagged before sign-up and applied consistently.

Can I cap my liability for water damage?

You can cap it for business customers, subject to the reasonableness test under the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977, and a cap set by reference to your insurance cover usually survives that test. Against consumers, nothing excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, and a service claim cannot be limited to less than the price paid.

Related guidance and services

• Terms and conditions drafting, £995, the service this page describes
• Contract review, £495
• Ask Caesar, £495 a month
• Terms and conditions for a dog groomer
• Terms and conditions for a mobile hairdresser or beautician

This page is general guidance for businesses in England and Wales, not advice on your own circumstances. Last reviewed: September 2026. Email geoffrey@caesar.co.uk.