Terms and conditions for a chimney sweep

A chimney sweep needs terms that deal with bookings taken over the phone, a price quoted before anyone has seen the flue, the customer who is out when you arrive, and the extra work that only appears once the soot is down. I draft customer terms around how your business actually books and charges, for a fixed fee of £995, delivered in five working days.

Who this is for

Sole trader and limited company chimney sweeps in England and Wales, including businesses that also fit cowls, bird guards and liners or carry out camera inspections. Most of your customers are homeowners, who are consumers in law, but you will also work for landlords, letting agents, holiday let owners, pubs and estates, who are business customers. One set of terms has to handle both.

What matters in a chimney sweep's terms

What the quoted price actually covers

Most sweeps quote a figure over the phone for a standard sweep of one flue. The terms need to say what that figure includes and what it does not: a second flue, a stove that has to be stripped down, heavy tar, a nest, or a booking that turns into two visits. The workable structure is a clear base price, a stated list of chargeable extras, and a term requiring any extra to be agreed with the customer before you carry it out. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 the price escapes the fairness test only if it is transparent and prominent, so vagueness costs you.

Bookings and the fourteen-day cancellation right

Appointments taken by phone, email or through your website are distance contracts, and anything agreed on the customer's doorstep is an off-premises contract. Both bring in the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, which give a consumer fourteen days to cancel and require cancellation information to be given before they commit. Where you sweep inside that period, you can charge only if the customer expressly asked you to start early, and a consumer who made no such request pays nothing. Off-premises bookings of £42 or less fall outside the regulations, which will cover very few sweeps.

Access, readiness and the visit you cannot complete

You lose a slot when nobody is in, the stove is still warm, the hearth is buried under furniture or there is nowhere to park. The terms should put those things on the customer, list what has to be ready before you arrive, and set a charge for attending and being unable to work. That charge must be stated before the customer books and should reflect what the lost appointment costs you, because the Consumer Rights Act 2015 treats disproportionate default charges as a hallmark of unfairness. I agree the figure with you and explain the reasoning in the covering note.

The limits of what you are contracting to do

Terms should define the deliverable: sweeping the flue, a check of what you can reasonably see, and the written record you leave behind. They should be equally clear that you are not contracting to pass judgment on parts of the structure you cannot reach, and that repairs, relining and installation are quoted and ordered separately. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 you must perform the service with reasonable care and skill, you cannot limit your liability for it to less than the price, and no term can exclude liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence.

Landlords, agents and commercial accounts

Letting agents and holiday let managers book in volume, ask for an account and pay slowly. For them the terms need payment days, a clause saying who owes the money when the agent books and the landlord owns the property, and interest and fixed compensation on late payment under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998. Because these are business customers you can also cap liability and exclude consequential loss, subject to the reasonableness test in the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977. Those same limits will not do the same work against a homeowner.

Getting the terms in front of the customer before the booking

Terms bind a customer only if they had a real chance to see them, and the Consumer Rights Act 2015 lists binding a consumer to terms they had no real opportunity to read among the terms that raise fairness concerns. For a sweep taking bookings by telephone that means a confirmation message linking to or attaching the terms, sent before the appointment rather than handed over with the invoice. The Provision of Services Regulations 2009 also expect your terms, insurance details and contact details to be made available. I set out how to do this in the covering note.

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 one set of terms cover homeowners and letting agents?

One document can serve both if it is built with a consumer section that applies only to householders and account terms that apply only to business customers. What fails is handing a homeowner a set of trade terms, because the clauses you are relying on most, the liability cap and the charges, are the ones a consumer's statutory rights cut across.

I take card payments at the door. Can I add a fee for that?

Card surcharges to consumers are prohibited by the Consumer Rights (Payment Surcharges) Regulations 2012. Separately, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 bans drip pricing, so a headline price advertised to consumers should include the mandatory charges everyone pays. Genuinely optional extras are different, and the terms should make plain which of your charges is which.

What if I find the chimney needs work I do not carry out?

The terms should say that reporting a defect is information, not an undertaking to put it right, and that any repair, lining, cowl or camera survey is quoted and ordered as a separate job. Sweeps get drawn into arguments when a customer treats a note on the paperwork as a promise to come back. Drawing that boundary in the terms closes it off.

Related guidance and services

• Terms and conditions drafting, £995, the service this page describes
• Ask Caesar, £495 a month
• Employment contracts and handbooks, £595
• Terms and conditions for a gas engineer
• Terms and conditions for a handyman service

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.