Terms and conditions for a CCTV installer

A CCTV installer needs terms that deal with the part of the job that is not cable and brackets: who decides where the cameras point, who is responsible for the recordings once you drive away, what a monitoring plan actually covers, and what you are not promising the system will do. I draft those terms for a fixed fee of £995, delivered in five working days.

Who this is for

Security and CCTV installers in England and Wales, from a one-van business fitting domestic systems to firms covering retail units, yards, schools and landlords with several sites. Most installers sell to homeowners and to businesses. The law treats those two customers differently, so a single set of terms has to be written with both of them in front of it.

What matters in a CCTV installer's terms

Surveys, quotes and what is behind the plaster

A CCTV price is usually given after a walk round with a torch. The cable route through a cavity wall, a loft void or across a yard is rarely what the survey suggested, and you may find no viable route back to the recorder, asbestos, or a mounting height that needs a tower rather than a ladder. Your terms should set out what the quoted price assumes, what is chargeable as an extra, and that variations are agreed in writing before the work continues. On commercial sites, permits, out of hours access and working at height arrangements should be the customer's responsibility.

Camera positions and who operates the system

Once you leave site the customer runs the system: they decide what is recorded, who views it and how long it is kept. Your terms should record the agreed camera positions in a schedule the customer signs off, confirm that you install to their instructions, and place responsibility for signage, for the use of recordings and for answering anyone who objects on the customer as operator. A camera overlooking a neighbour's drive or a shared access road produces a complaint months later, and without a signed position schedule that complaint arrives at your door rather than theirs.

What you are not promising the system will do

Customers buy cameras expecting burglaries to stop and a face to appear in evidence. Your terms should say plainly what the system is: recording equipment, not a guarantee against crime, not monitored unless you are paid to monitor it, and dependent on power, broadband and available light. Image quality at night, in glare and in heavy rain varies. For business customers you can cap liability and exclude consequential loss, subject to the reasonableness test under the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977. Against consumers the Consumer Rights Act 2015 stops you limiting liability for a service below the price, and nothing excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence.

Monitoring, cloud recording and recurring charges

If you sell remote monitoring, cloud storage or a maintenance plan, that is a continuing contract and it needs its own section: what the fee covers, how fast you respond, how it renews, how either side brings it to an end, and what happens to stored footage when payment stops. Consumers must see the full mandatory cost at the outset, because the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 treats drip pricing as a banned practice, and further subscription rules are being introduced under it. For business customers, interest and compensation under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 is worth writing in.

Homeowners and the fourteen day cancellation right

Almost every domestic installation is agreed in the customer's home or over the phone and by email, which brings it within the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013. The customer has fourteen days to cancel. If you order the kit and start running cable inside that period without their express request, you may recover nothing for it, and where the cancellation information was never given the period can extend by up to twelve months. Urgent repairs the customer asked for are treated differently. Your terms and your order paperwork have to work together, which is the part most installers get wrong.

Equipment, handover and the things outside your control

Hardware carries the manufacturer's warranty and depends on the manufacturer's app, firmware and servers. When support for a model ends, or the customer swaps their router and remote viewing stops, that should not be treated as your breach. The terms should separate your installation guarantee from the equipment warranty, explain how you pass warranty claims through, and list what is handed over at completion, including recorder and app credentials. Retention of title over equipment does little once it is fixed to the building, so the clause drafted under the Sale of Goods Act 1979 should support payment timing rather than repossession.

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 customer wants a camera covering a shared access road. Where does that leave me?

The position is the customer's decision, and the terms should record it as such. I draft a schedule of agreed camera positions for the customer to sign, with a clause confirming that responsibility for how the system is used, and for dealing with anyone who objects, sits with them as operator of the system.

How should an annual cloud storage fee be handled for a homeowner?

Recurring charges belong in their own section, with the full annual cost stated before the customer commits rather than appearing afterwards, a clear renewal mechanism and notice on both sides. The terms should also say what becomes of stored footage once the plan ends, because customers assume it remains available and it usually does not.

A customer's app stopped working two years after installation and they want a free visit. What then?

That turns on what your guarantee promised. A workmanship guarantee covers your installation, not the manufacturer's software, the customer's broadband or a router they replaced themselves. I draft the guarantee to state what it covers, for how long, and that call-outs caused by anything outside it are chargeable at your published rate.

Related guidance and services

• Terms and conditions drafting, £995, the service this page describes
• Data protection agreements and privacy terms, £795
• Consultancy and contractor agreements, £595
• Terms and conditions for an electrician
• Terms and conditions for a locksmith

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.