Doorstep Selling Terms & Conditions UK Guide

Overview

Doorstep selling, known in law as an off-premises contract, covers any sale agreed away from the trader's usual business premises. That includes visits to a customer's home or workplace, sales made during an excursion organised by the trader, and contracts concluded in the customer's presence somewhere other than a shop or showroom.

Because these sales happen outside a trading environment the consumer chose to enter, Parliament has given buyers extra protection under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013. A set of doorstep selling terms and conditions is the written contract that sits behind the sale.

It records what is being supplied, at what price, on what delivery or performance terms, and how the statutory cancellation right works. A well-drafted set reduces disputes, gives the consumer the pre-contract information the law requires, and gives the trader a clear basis to get paid.

A poorly drafted set, or no terms at all, can make the contract unenforceable against the consumer and expose the trader to criminal liability in some cases.

Key steps

1. Confirm the sale is off-premises. Work out whether the contract is being concluded at the consumer's home, workplace, or another location away from your normal premises. If it is, the 2013 Regulations apply in full and the consumer gets a cancellation right. Getting this classification wrong at the start is the single most common mistake I see.
2. Give the pre-contract information in a durable medium. Before the consumer is bound, you must supply the full suite of prescribed information, including a description of the goods or services, the total price, delivery arrangements, your identity and contact details, and the cancellation right. It needs to be in a form the consumer can keep and refer back to, such as paper or email.
3. Provide a cancellation notice the consumer can actually use. The Regulations set out a model cancellation form, and your terms should either reproduce it or make the equivalent information clear. The consumer generally has 14 days from delivery of goods, or from the day the contract was made for services, to change their mind without giving a reason.
4. Tailor the clauses to what you are selling. Fixed-price goods, consumables, short-life perishables, and services priced by measurement or usage all need different drafting. Perishables may fall outside the cancellation right, consumables raise questions about partial use, and variable pricing needs a transparent mechanism so the final figure cannot be challenged as unfair.
5. Sign, date, and hand over a copy. Both parties should sign the terms and the consumer must receive a copy on paper or by email at or shortly after the point of sale. Without that confirmation in a durable medium, the cancellation period can be extended significantly and you may not be able to recover the price.

Common questions