Should I Take a Deposit? How Much, and How to Ask

↑ Part of the Getting Paid series · Getting Paid On Time

For most jobs with real materials cost: yes. A deposit covers what you have to buy before you start, so you're not lending the customer money for their own job, and it proves commitment on both sides before you turn other work away. Asking for one isn't rude and isn't unusual. It's how a business protects its cash, and serious customers expect it.

It's one corner of getting paid on time, and our guide to getting paid sets the wider scene. The two questions that matter here are how much, and how to ask, and both have calmer answers than most trades think.

Part 1Why take a deposit at all?

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Start a £6,000 bathroom with nothing up front and look at what you've actually done: bought a suite and tiles with your own money, booked out two weeks you can't sell twice, and turned down other work to hold the slot. You've become the customer's lender and their insurer in one move, and they haven't committed a penny.

A deposit rebalances that. It covers your outlay, it makes the booking real, and it quietly filters people for you: a customer who hesitates over a fair, explained deposit is telling you something useful about how the final invoice will go. Losing a job because you asked for a reasonable deposit is rare; losing money because you didn't is common enough to have its own section in every guide to getting paid.

Part 2How much should the deposit be?

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There's no magic legal percentage. The honest way to size it is against your exposure: what will this job cost you before the first payment lands?

• Materials you must buy up front. The suite, the boiler, the timber. This is the core of most deposits.
• A slice for the booking itself, if you're reserving significant time in the diary.

For many domestic jobs that lands somewhere between 10% and 30% of the job, higher where the materials are a big share of the price (a kitchen with the units in it) and lower where it's mostly labour. Two sense-checks keep it fair in both directions: a deposit far beyond your real exposure looks alarming from the customer's side, and one that leaves you funding thousands of pounds of their materials means you've priced the risk to yourself at nothing. On bigger jobs, the deposit is just the first of several stage payments, and the same logic runs through the whole schedule: never let the unpaid work get bigger than you can afford to lose.

Part 3How to ask without it being awkward

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The discomfort mostly comes from asking as if it's a favour. It isn't; it's a normal term of the job, so state it the way you'd state a start date, with a reason attached:

"It's £1,800 on acceptance to book you in — that covers the suite and the tiles, and it comes straight off the total. Balance is staged like it says on the quote."

Said plainly, that reassures more than it deters, because a trade with clear money habits reads as a trade with clear work habits. Put it on the quote itself (deposit, stages, final balance, due dates), get the quote accepted, and issue a receipt when the deposit lands, saying what it's held against. The customer knows exactly where they stand, which is the thing nervous customers are actually buying.

Part 4The cooling-off trap on doorstep-agreed jobs

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One rule catches trades out here. Agree a contract with a consumer in their home, off your business premises, and they usually have a 14-day cooling-off right under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, and you're required to tell them about it. Take a deposit and start buying materials inside that window without the customer's clear, recorded request to begin early, and a cancellation can leave you badly exposed: miss the required notice altogether and the window can stretch to as much as 12 months.

The practical routine is simple: give the cancellation notice, and if the customer wants you to start inside the 14 days, get their request to begin early in writing, even as an email or a signed line on the quote. The rules are specific, so for the exact wording check GOV.UK or take advice. The fuller picture is in quote vs estimate, which covers the cooling-off rule in detail.

Part 5Deposits build trust both ways

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It's worth seeing the deposit from the other side of the kitchen table for a second. The customer is handing money to someone they may have met twice, in an industry they've read horror stories about. What makes that easy is never the size of the deposit, it's the paperwork around it: a proper quote with the deposit stated, a clear reason ("covers the materials"), a receipt when it's paid, and stage payments that mean neither side is ever far ahead of the other. Do that and the deposit stops being a hurdle and becomes the first proof you run your business properly.

Common questionsShould I take a deposit: quick FAQ

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How much deposit should a tradesperson ask for?

Size it to your exposure: the materials you must buy before starting, plus something for reserving the diary. For many domestic jobs that's 10% to 30%, higher when materials dominate the price. A deposit far beyond your real outlay looks worrying from the customer's side.

Is asking for a deposit normal?

Completely. Serious customers expect a fair deposit on any job with real materials cost, and a clear, explained one signals professionalism rather than need. The customers who bristle at a reasonable deposit are disproportionately the ones who'd have been trouble at the final invoice.

Is a deposit refundable if the customer cancels?

It depends on the terms both sides agreed and, for contracts agreed in the customer's home, on the cooling-off rules, which can be generous to the consumer. Spell out the cancellation position in your terms, and for a live dispute over real money, get advice rather than relying on a guide page.

When should the deposit be paid?

On acceptance of the quote, before you order materials or lock the diary. "Work is booked once the deposit is received" is a clean, fair line, and it means every pound you spend on the job is committed money, not hope.

Should the deposit be on the quote?

Yes, always: the amount, when it's due, and what happens after it (stage payments, final balance). Terms agreed on an accepted quote protect you; terms produced later protect nobody.

This guide is general information for UK tradespeople, current to the best of our knowledge in 2026. Rules, rates and thresholds change, and how they apply depends on your specific circumstances. It is not tax, accounting or legal advice. Always confirm your position with HMRC, a qualified accountant or a solicitor before relying on it. TradeDraft accepts no liability for decisions made on the basis of this guide. Questions: hello@tradedraft.co.uk.

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