Should you take a deposit before starting a job? A UK tradesman's guide
18 September 2026
Short answer: yes, on anything where you're buying materials or blocking out more than a day. Here's how much, how to ask, and the one legal wrinkle that most tradespeople have never heard of.
How much is normal
There's no law setting a maximum deposit in the UK, so it comes down to what's reasonable and what customers expect. In practice:
10–25% is standard for most jobs. It covers your materials and shows the customer is serious.
30–50% is common for anything made to order — a fitted kitchen, bespoke joinery, a specific boiler on order — because you're carrying the cost of parts that can't go back.
Nothing for small same-day work under a couple of hundred pounds. Asking for £20 up front on a £120 job costs you more in goodwill than it protects.
The number matters less than the fact it's written down. A deposit that's stated on a proper quote, with the balance and when it's due, is a term of the contract. A deposit you mentioned on the phone is a favour the customer may or may not remember.
How to ask without it feeling awkward
Don't ask. State it. The deposit is part of the price, not a separate negotiation:
"Total £1,840. 25% deposit (£460) to book the date; balance on completion."
Written like that on the quote, it reads as normal — because it is. Customers push back on deposits when they feel like a demand. They don't push back when it's simply how the job is priced.
The rule that catches people out
If you agree a job at the customer's home — which for most trades is every job — the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 give the customer a 14-day cooling-off period during which they can cancel. That's fine on its own. The problem is what happens if you start work inside those 14 days.
If you start early without the customer's clear written request to do so, and they then cancel, you can find yourself unable to charge for work already done. The fix is simple: your quote should include a line where the customer asks you to start before the cooling-off period ends and agrees to pay for work done if they cancel. Signed, that line protects you. Missing, it's an open door.
This is exactly the sort of term that should be on the quote automatically, not remembered on the day.
What to do with the deposit once it lands
Treat it as theirs until the work's done. Pay for the materials it was for. And remember what it's really for: a customer who has paid a deposit has skin in the job, which is why the ones who never pay are almost always the ones who never paid anything up front. If a job falls through before you've bought anything, refund it without a fuss — the reputation is worth more than the £460.
Making it painless to pay
The deposit should be as easy to pay as the quote was to sign. A bank link that opens the customer's own banking app with the amount and reference already filled in gets paid the same evening. A "please transfer to sort code…" line gets paid when they get round to it.
QuoteNod writes the deposit into the quote your customer signs, includes the start-early consent as a standard term, and sends a pay-by-bank link the moment they approve — the money goes straight from their bank to yours. Free for 14 days.