Terms and conditions for a carpenter and joiner

A joinery business needs terms that deal with bespoke work: the wardrobe built from measurements taken in the customer's bedroom, the oak that moves once the heating goes on, the main contractor holding retention, and the drawings a customer takes to a cheaper workshop. I draft customer terms for a fixed fee of £995, delivered in five working days.

Who this is for

Carpenters and joiners in England and Wales: first and second fix on site, bespoke workshop joinery, staircases, fitted furniture, doors and windows, whether you trade as a sole trader or a limited company. Most sell to homeowners and also to main contractors, developers and shopfitters. Consumers and business customers are treated very differently, so one set of terms has to address both.

What matters in a carpenter's terms

Bespoke work and the consumer's right to cancel

Measure up in a customer's kitchen, or agree the job by email and phone, and the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 apply, giving the homeowner fourteen days to cancel. There is an exception for goods made to the consumer's specification or clearly personalised, which covers genuinely bespoke joinery, but it does not cover stock doors, ironmongery or the fitting service. Where the cancellation information is not given the period can extend by up to twelve months, which is a long time to be holding a fitted bookcase nobody else wants.

Drawings, measurements and who owns the design

The terms should say who is responsible for the measurements, and whether you cut from an architect's or kitchen designer's drawing without checking on site or price a survey visit first. Openings are rarely square and plaster is rarely where it was drawn. Design ownership matters just as much: under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 drawings you produce remain yours unless you assign them in writing, so the terms should state whether a customer who pays for a design may hand it to another workshop to make more cheaply.

Timber movement, finishes and matching

Timber shrinks, cups and moves with moisture, and a hardwood door hung in a house that is still drying out behaves nothing like the sample in your workshop. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 requires goods to be of satisfactory quality and as described, so the description you give is the description you are held to. Say that natural timber varies in grain and colour and will not match a sample or an existing installation exactly, and set out what the customer must do about heating, humidity, finishing and sealing cut ends after handover.

Deposits, workshop time and getting paid

Bespoke joinery ties up your money long before anything is delivered, so take a deposit against timber and workshop time, with stage payments on larger jobs and the balance due on completion rather than when the customer's decorator finally finishes. For business customers the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 gives you interest and fixed compensation on overdue invoices. Retention of title over materials is worth including but does little once a staircase is fixed or a wardrobe is scribed to the wall, because it has become part of the building.

Subcontracting to builders and shopfitters

Joinery for a builder, developer or shopfitter is a construction contract, so the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 gives you a right to adjudication, staged payments where the work runs for forty-five days or more, payment notice rules and protection from pay-when-paid clauses. Contracts with a residential occupier are outside it. Your terms should deal with retention and when it is released, with standing time when the site is not ready, and with what you charge when you are stood down because the plastering has run late.

Certification, snagging and liability

Fire doors, staircases and structural timber sit in territory where certain building work must be certified or notified under the Building Regulations, and the terms should say who carries that responsibility and who supplies compliant ironmongery and seals. Add a snagging process: a period for the customer to list defects, and a right for you to return and put them right rather than receive another joiner's invoice. Cap your liability to business customers. The Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 tests that cap for reasonableness, and no cap covers death or personal injury caused by negligence.

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

Can a customer cancel a fitted wardrobe once I have started making it?

Goods made to the consumer's specification or clearly personalised fall outside the fourteen-day cancellation right, so genuinely bespoke joinery usually does. The difficulty is proving it later. Your order paperwork needs to record the specification the customer chose, and the terms need to explain the position clearly before they commit to the order.

A main contractor wants me to work on their subcontract order. What should I check?

Their order form will usually win the battle of the forms, so read the retention, payment dates, set-off and delay provisions before signing anything. Where you can, quote on your own terms and attach them to every estimate. Incorporation is where most joiners lose: terms sent out after the first fix has started rarely form part of the contract.

The customer wants to supply their own timber. Where does that leave me?

Your terms should let you refuse customer-supplied materials, and where you accept them, record that you are not responsible for their quality, moisture content or quantity, nor for the cost of remaking anything that fails because of them. Price labour separately in that situation and make wastage allowances the customer's problem, in writing, before you cut.

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 kitchen and bathroom fitter
• Terms and conditions for a builder doing domestic work

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.