The 14-day cooling-off period, in plain English

The 14-day cooling-off period, in plain English

Irish consumer law gives you 14 days to change your mind after agreeing to a service contract concluded online or by phone. This is the cooling-off period defined in the Consumer Rights Act 2022. On WorkMate it works like this.

Before the provider starts

From the moment you accept a quote, you have 14 days to cancel for any reason. No penalty, no questions, no reason required. The card authorisation is released, the provider is notified, and the job is closed. The right is unconditional.

After 14 days, before work begins

Past the 14-day mark, cancellation moves into the platform's late-cancel rules. If the provider has not started, you can still cancel — but a 10% fee applies to the agreed quote amount. The WorkMate service fee is excluded from that calculation.

Once work has started

Once the provider has begun the work — keys collected, tools on site — cancellation as such is no longer the right concept. You would open a dispute instead, and the standard 14-day post-completion dispute window applies. Held funds are not released while a dispute is active.

The detail you do not have to memorise

These dates and percentages live in one place in our code, and the same source feeds the Terms, FAQ, Happiness Pledge, and this page. If the numbers ever change, every public surface updates together. We learned the hard way that drift between policy and documentation is a problem.

When this rule does and does not apply

The 14-day right applies to distance-concluded contracts — i.e. you accepted the quote from your phone or laptop without meeting the provider face-to-face. Emergency works requested explicitly within the cooling-off window can fall outside it; in practice this matters for plumbers, locksmiths, and similar urgent call-outs. We err on the side of the customer in ambiguous cases.

If you ever need to invoke this, message us through the dashboard and we will process it the same day.