The final bill, when the work has problems

The question most people arrive with is whether they can hold back the final payment. The Act does not answer yes or no. It sets out a ladder of remedies that starts with the trade returning to put things right, and deducting money on your own judgement is a step taken at your own risk: an invoice for completed work is enforceable, and an unpaid bill can end in court in either direction. What the law does give you is the ladder below, and what protects you in any version of events is the written record.

The Act's words: every contract to supply a service is to be treated as including a term that the trader must perform the service with reasonable care and skill. That standard is what the rest of the ladder measures against. Where a service falls short of that standard, the Act's first remedy is repeat performance: the trader performs the service again to the extent necessary to bring it into conformity, within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience, bearing any necessary costs including labour and materials. It cannot be required where completing performance in conformity is impossible, and what counts as a reasonable time or significant inconvenience is judged by the nature and purpose of the service. The statute itself gives an honest trade the chance to put things right. The price-reduction right is a right to require the trader to reduce the price by an appropriate amount, which may where appropriate be the full price. Where the repeat-performance right also exists, the Act allows a price reduction in only two situations: repeat performance is impossible, or it was required and the trader did not do it within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience. Where a refund follows, the Act requires it without undue delay and within 14 days of the trader agreeing it is due, by the same means of payment and with no fee. What an appropriate amount is in any real case is not something a webpage can say.

Both sides of this page are true at once. A trade who has finished the work is owed the money, and chasing an unpaid invoice through the courts is their right. A consumer whose work falls short has the remedy ladder. Most disputes end with neither: a written snag list, a return visit, and a final payment that follows the fix. Citizens Advice's England guidance says a problem normally needs a conversation with the trader and an agreement. It identifies paperwork and receipts, photos, and dated notes as useful evidence before that conversation. Its separate guides cover card-payment protection and possible alternative dispute resolution. These links provide current guidance, not an assessment of a particular job.

Where the contract does not fix a time for the service and none is fixed by the required pre-contract information, the Act treats the contract as including a term that the trader must perform the service within a reasonable time, and what is reasonable is a question of fact.