If a tradesperson has done a bad job, one route to compensation for bad workmanship is asking for a price reduction, a right set out in the Consumer Rights Act 2015, and if that reduction is agreed as a refund it must be paid within 14 days.
What counts as bad workmanship
Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 49, every contract to supply a service is treated as including a term that the trader must perform the service with reasonable care and skill. If a builder, plasterer, roofer or any other tradesperson has not met that standard, you have a basis for a complaint. This post sets out what the law allows you to ask for, and when a refund must be paid once one is agreed.
Your first right: repeat performance
Section 55 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 gives you the right to ask the trader to put the work right. They must do this within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience to you, and they must bear any necessary costs, including the cost of labour or materials. This right does not apply if completing the work properly is impossible.
In practice this usually comes first. Most disputes start with the homeowner asking for the defects to be fixed, not with a demand for money.
What a price reduction is
Section 56 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 gives you the right to require the trader to reduce the price by an appropriate amount. This right becomes available if you cannot require repeat performance, or if the trader has not completed it within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience.
A price reduction is not a fixed sum set out in the Act. It is an amount that reflects the shortfall between the work you paid for and the work you actually received. What counts as appropriate will depend on the facts of the job, and this post does not suggest a figure or a method for calculating one.
The 14 day refund rule
If a price reduction results in money being owed back to you, section 56 is specific about timing. A refund due must be paid without undue delay, and in any event within 14 days beginning with the day the trader agrees you are entitled to it. It must be paid by the same means you used to pay, and the trader cannot charge a fee for making it.
The 14 day clock starts from agreement, not from the date you first raised the complaint. If the trader disputes that you are entitled to a reduction, the 14 days has not started.
Evidence, time limits and if it goes further
Whichever route you take, you will need to show what was agreed, what was delivered, and where the two differ. Dated photographs of each defect, taken as you walk the property, matter more than a general description written weeks later. SayScope lets you photograph each defect, circle it on the photo, and record a short note on what is wrong, then leaves you with a report grouped by room and by trade that you can put to the trader or keep as your record.
The Limitation Act 1980, section 5, sets a long stop for this kind of claim: an action founded on simple contract cannot be brought after six years from the date the cause of action accrued. That is a backstop, not a target. Raise defects as soon as you find them.
If the matter cannot be resolved directly and you end up in court, the Civil Procedure Rules Part 27 generally route claims up to £10,000 through the small claims track. Under rule 27.5, no expert can give evidence without the court’s permission. Standard directions require each party, at least 14 days before the final hearing, to file and serve copies of all documents they intend to rely on. The strict rules of evidence do not apply and the court need not take evidence on oath.