Terms and conditions for a garden building and shed installer

A garden building business sells goods and a service in the same contract: a building you make or buy in, and an installation on the customer's ground. The arguments come from the base, the access and the behaviour of timber. I draft customer terms around how you quote, deliver and install, for a fixed fee of £995, delivered in five working days.

Who this is for

Shed, summerhouse, log cabin, garden office, workshop, greenhouse and timber garage suppliers and installers in England and Wales, whether you manufacture yourself or fit buildings bought in. Most sell mainly to homeowners, and also to schools, holiday parks, letting agents and developers. Consumers and business customers are treated differently in law, so one set of terms has to be written with both in view.

What matters in a garden building installer's terms

Base, levels and ground preparation

Most failed installations are base failures. Your terms should state exactly what base you require, that it must be level, square and built to the dimensions you specify, that it must be ready and cured before the installation date, and who is responsible for measuring it. If your crew arrives to a sloping slab or a base built short, the terms need a revisit charge and a rule on who pays for packing, shimming or a new base. Where the customer is a consumer, that charge has to reflect your actual costs, because the Consumer Rights Act 2015 treats disproportionate default charges as unfair.

Access, the installation day and the old shed

Panels, beams and roof sections have to reach the back garden. The terms should make the customer responsible for confirming gate widths, side passages, overhead cables, parking and standing space, and should say what happens if the building will not go through: delivery to the nearest accessible point, a surcharge for a hand carry or a crane, or cancellation with your costs paid. Add wording on reasonable marking of lawns and borders from moving materials. If you take the old shed away you are transporting waste, which means registration with the Environment Agency under the Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011.

Bespoke buildings, deposits and cancellation rights

A sale agreed in the customer's garden, or by phone and email, is off-premises or distance, so the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 give a fourteen-day cancellation right, and a missing cancellation notice can extend that by up to twelve months. Goods made to the consumer's specification or clearly personalised sit outside the right, which may cover a cabin cut to a measured opening but not a standard shed taken off the yard. Your terms and your order form need to say which you are relying on, and what happens to the deposit once the timber has been cut.

Timber, roofs and what the guarantee covers

Timber moves. Knots, shakes, resin, shrinkage gaps in dry weather, swollen doors in wet weather and colour fade are normal, and the terms should describe them as characteristics of the material rather than defects, with tolerances stated. Set out the customer's treatment and maintenance obligations, ventilation in a garden office, and what voids the guarantee. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 goods must be as described and information the consumer relies on is binding, so the show site display, the brochure photograph and what your salesperson said about the felt roof all count.

Planning permission, boundaries and services

Your terms should put responsibility for planning permission, permitted development limits, conservation area and listed building consents, restrictive covenants and neighbour agreement on the customer, with a clear statement that any comment from your surveyor is not planning advice. The same clause should cover the boundary position, building over drains and inspection covers, and the location of buried cables and pipes. If you run power or lighting into the building, some of that work must be certified or notified under the Building Regulations, so the terms should record who is doing it and what certificate the customer receives.

Payment, title and trade customers

For a made-to-order building take a deposit at order and the balance before or on installation, and say plainly that installation dates are estimates that depend on manufacture and weather. Retention of title over the materials is worth little once the building is bolted down and sitting on a base as part of the land, so the protection has to come from payment timing rather than from taking things back. For schools, holiday parks and developers you can charge interest and fixed compensation under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998, and cap liability with consequential loss excluded, though no cap reaches 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 I charge a customer whose base is not ready when we arrive?

You can, provided the terms set the base requirement out before the order and price the revisit at what a wasted day actually costs you. Asking for photographs and dimensions of the finished base a week before installation prevents most of these visits. Charging a homeowner a round sum bearing no relation to your loss invites an argument you will lose.

My prices are advertised as 'from', with delivery and installation added later. Is that a problem?

Prices shown to consumers must include charges that are not genuinely optional, because drip pricing is a banned practice under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 and the Competition and Markets Authority enforces consumer law directly. Delivery and installation that every buyer pays belong in the headline figure. Genuine extras, such as a crane lift, can be priced separately.

Do I need different terms for garden centres, holiday parks and schools?

One set will serve both audiences if it carries a section that applies only to consumers and a section that applies only to business buyers. Trade buyers push on lead times, liability caps and payment days, and the business section is where you hold your line. Handing a homeowner a trade document is the mistake that costs money.

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 landscaping business
• Terms and conditions for a driveway and paving contractor

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.