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% late-cancellation fee applies, calculated on the agreed quote amount.

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. If something goes wrong, use Report a problem on the job instead. While your payment is still held by WorkMate — up to 5 days after the job is marked complete — reporting a problem pauses the release so our team can review it. Held funds are not released to the provider while a reported problem is open.

The detail you do not have to memorise

These dates and percentages match the figures in our Terms, FAQ, and Happiness Pledge — we work hard to keep them consistent across the site. We learned the hard way that drift between policy and documentation is a problem, so if you ever spot a number on this page that disagrees with our Terms, treat the Terms as the binding version and tell us — we will fix the page.

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.