How Much Deposit Should a Kitchen Fitter Take?

For installers

There isn't one percentage I can give you and say every kitchen fitter should use it.

Ten per cent might be right for one job. Thirty per cent might work for another. On a larger installation with materials, subbies and several weeks blocked out of the diary, the whole payment structure may need to look completely different.

I actually learned this one the hard way. In a previous installation business I ran, we didn't take deposits at all. In fact, I used it as part of the sell. The customer didn't pay us a penny upfront and didn't pay until they were happy.

At the time I thought that showed how confident we were in the work. Looking back, it was a massive risk.

We got away with it because we were good at what we did, we had a strong reputation and, if something went wrong, we genuinely weren't going anywhere until it was sorted. But the business was carrying almost all of the financial risk.

The same thinking applies to bathroom installers. The payment stages need to reflect the job, the commitments you make before starting and the risk each side is carrying.

I eventually changed the way we got paid

Years later I followed a plumber in Canada who used a 30/50/20 payment system. Thirty per cent when the job was agreed, another 50% before the work started and the final 20% at completion. I liked the thinking behind it and introduced a similar structure into the installation business I was running at the time.

I expected customers to push back. Very few did. By then we had years of trading behind us, plenty of reviews and a reputation people could check. We also had proper paperwork and terms around the job, so we weren't simply sending someone a message asking them to transfer thousands of pounds into our bank account.

That is how I ran the business then, not a payment schedule I would tell somebody to copy today. Taking 80% before work starts puts a great deal of risk on the customer. Citizens Advice currently advises homeowners to keep an unavoidable deposit as low as possible and not agree to more than 25%. That is consumer guidance rather than a universal legal cap, but it is a useful reminder to justify advance payments and keep later payments tied to progress.

The lesson for me was something much simpler. Having a payment structure was considerably safer than having no payment structure at all.

The deposit isn't really the professional bit

Anybody can ask a customer for money upfront. That doesn't make the business professional. What matters is what sits around it. Before somebody hands you a deposit, they should be able to understand:

• what you've agreed to do
• what the job costs
• what the deposit covers
• when the rest of the money is due
• what happens if the work changes
• who is responsible for other trades
• what happens if the customer cancels
• what happens when there are snags or something still outstanding

This is where proper quotations, terms and conditions and a clear payment schedule become important. If the only agreement is a WhatsApp message saying, “£2,500 deposit please mate”, you can understand why a customer might be nervous.

The deposit isn't the professional bit. The process around the money is.

Your diary has a value too

Deposits aren't only about buying materials. If I've booked your kitchen in for three weeks, those three weeks are no longer available to somebody else. I've probably arranged the electrician, plumber or other subbies around those dates as well.

If you cancel a few days before we're due to start, I might suddenly have a fairly large hole in the diary that I can't fill. That's a real business cost.

That does not mean you can label every deposit non-refundable and keep it automatically. CMA guidance says cancellation charges should generally reflect the actual loss directly caused, allowing for reasonable steps to reduce that loss. If you can fill the dates or avoid a cost, that matters too. A fair agreement recognises a real commitment without giving either side a blank cheque.

How the contract was agreed matters as well. Many service contracts agreed online, by phone or at the customer’s home carry a 14-day cooling-off right, subject to the applicable rules and exceptions. Starting early needs the correct request and information; writing “non-refundable” does not remove statutory rights. Citizens Advice explains cancellation of building work, including what may be payable for requested work already carried out, with links to advice for each UK nation.

Don't use the customer's deposit to fix your cash flow

There's another side to this. If you need the deposit from next month's kitchen to pay the bills from the kitchen you're fitting this week, you've got a bigger problem.

The point of a deposit isn't to keep a struggling business moving from one job to the next. It should be part of a sensible payment process around that particular project. That distinction matters.

Stage payments often make more sense on larger jobs

Once a project gets bigger, I prefer the thinking behind staged payments. Not necessarily the same percentages for every job, but clear points where everybody knows what has happened and what is due next. That might mean a booking deposit, another payment when the project begins and further payments as agreed parts of the work are completed.

The important bit is that none of it should be a surprise. Put it in the quote. Put it in the terms. Talk the customer through it before they agree to anything.

A customer should never discover halfway through the job that you suddenly need another £4,000 by Friday. And you shouldn't reach Friday wondering how you're going to pay the electrician because you forgot to think about when the customer's next payment was due.

I have been on the other end of this too

Even with payment stages in place, you can still leave yourself exposed at the end. I remember one large project where my installation business had £15,000 still outstanding as the final payment. The customer withheld it because when an integrated washing machine in a large island reached its full spin cycle, some china in an adjacent cabinet faintly rattled.

£15,000 held back over a rattling teacup.

Meanwhile, the electricians, plumbers and other subbies still had to be paid. They'd done their work for my company. The fact the customer hadn't paid me wasn't their problem.

That's an extreme example, but it taught me something. Customers absolutely need protection. So do installers.

A £100 snag shouldn't automatically mean several thousand pounds of completed work goes unpaid for weeks. Equally, an installer shouldn't be demanding the final penny when there is meaningful work still unfinished. A good payment process has to work both ways.

There is another way of dealing with this

One of Every Install's trusted partners is Trusted Payments. It is designed around exactly this problem: how do you protect the customer without expecting the tradesperson to finance the job?

The system brings the agreement, payment stages and project records into one process. Stages are agreed before work starts, with payments authorised as the work progresses and access to independent dispute resolution. Its current terms distinguish the 10% completion payment held by the Dispute Resolution Ombudsman from other payments handled through the platform. That is more specific than saying every payment sits in escrow.

There are also warranty arrangements, with eligibility rules, time limits, exclusions and financial limits. They are not a promise that every possible loss will be refunded. Read the current service terms and warranty details before offering a particular protection to a customer, and make sure the costs and arrangements are understood.

For an installer, I think that's interesting for another reason too. It can become part of the way you sell the business. Instead of asking somebody to trust you because you say you're trustworthy, you can show them how the job and the money will be handled.

Find out how Trusted Payments works →

So how much deposit should you take?

Don't begin by asking another fitter what percentage he uses. Start with the job in front of you.

Think about what you're committing before you start, what money you're spending, how much diary time you're reserving, what other trades you're responsible for and how much of the job you could realistically afford to be left carrying if a payment was delayed.

Then build a payment structure around that. And put it in writing. That last bit matters just as much as the number.

Want to tighten up your own payment process?

The full Take Action library inside Every Install Pro includes practical guidance around deposits, quoting, getting paid and the customer side of running an installation business. If this article has made you realise that you've never really had a proper payment process, that's the bit I'd look at next.

Explore the Every Install Take Action library →

This article is general business information rather than legal advice. Consumer and cancellation rules can vary depending on the job and how the agreement was made.