Terms & Conditions

Last updated: 20 August 2026

These terms apply whenever you book a job with The Kensington Handyman Ltd ("we", "us", "our"), whether by phone, WhatsApp, email or our website booking form. Sections 1 to 18 apply to everyone. Section 19 sets out additional terms that apply to business and commercial customers.

1. Who we are

The Kensington Handyman Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales, company number 14925361, registered office Flat C, 8 Powis Gardens, London W11 1JG. Our VAT registration number is 492 1044 07.

Contact: TheKensingtonHandyman@gmail.com / 020 33 55 1344.

2. What we do — and what we don't

We are general handymen. We take on a wide range of repairs, installations and small maintenance jobs around homes and business premises, and we bring broad practical experience to all of them.

We are not electricians, plumbers, carpenters, gas engineers or any other specialist trade, and we don't hold ourselves out as being any of those things. There are jobs that fall outside what a general handyman can properly and safely do, and where that's the case we'll say so.

We reserve the right to decline any job, or to stop work on a job already started, where we judge that it is beyond our scope, unsafe, or requires a qualified specialist. If we do, you'll only be charged for the time and materials used up to that point. Where we can, we'll point you towards a trusted specialist instead (see section 20).

3. Rates and how we charge for time

Our current rates are set out when you book, and we'll confirm them to you in writing before any work begins. Rates cover our labour; parking, congestion charge, materials and sourcing time are charged in addition, as set out in the sections below.

We charge by the hour, and we count the time. Time runs from the moment our handyman arrives at your property until the moment he leaves, with the work done. Our first hour is charged as a single block; time after that is charged in half-hour blocks. Part half-hours are rounded up to the next half hour, save that an overrun of five minutes or less is disregarded.

We don't give fixed time estimates unless we really have to. We're often asked how long a job will take, and the honest answer is that we rarely know exactly. Every property is different, and what looks like a twenty-minute job can turn into an hour once a panel comes off. Where we do give an indication, treat it as a rough one.

There's a reason behind this beyond honesty. Once a handyman is working to a stated time, the job stops being about doing it properly and starts being about beating the clock — and that's when corners get cut, holes end up in slightly the wrong place, and the work gets rushed. We'd much rather our handymen concentrate on doing the best job they can, at a steady pace, than race a stopwatch. Our customers are people who would rather have a job done properly than done quickly.

For private customers, the rates we quote are inclusive of VAT. For business customers, see section 19.

4. Tools and equipment

We arrive fully equipped. Our handymen carry the professional machinery and hand tools needed for the work — you don't need to provide anything, and you don't need to have tools waiting for us.

If a job requires specialist equipment we don't normally carry (for example, hired access equipment), we'll discuss this with you before booking and agree any hire cost in advance.

5. Materials

Basic fixings. Our handymen carry standard screws, wall plugs and similar small fixings. Where these are used on your job, a minimum charge for materials from our stock applies.

Everything else. All other materials are either supplied by you, or sourced locally by us once we've seen the job. We don't hold general stock beyond basic fixings.

A word of warning about buying materials in advance. We'd strongly encourage you not to order materials online before we've inspected the job. In our experience this is the single most common cause of a wasted visit: fixings that don't suit the wall construction, brackets that don't fit the fitting, parts that turn out to be the wrong size, standard or generation. If materials you've bought in advance turn out not to be suitable, the visit is still chargeable, and a return visit will be needed once the correct materials are available.

If you'd like us to use materials you've already bought, please tell us in advance so we can flag any concerns before we arrive.

Materials we supply or purchase are itemised separately on your invoice or WhatsApp total.

6. Sourcing, shop trips and ordered parts

Buying materials before we arrive. We generally don't like doing this, and we'll usually say so. Until we've seen the job we don't know exactly what's needed or how much of it — so buying in advance tends to mean either the wrong thing, or a second trip anyway. Occasionally a job is clear-cut enough that we do know in advance. Where that's the case and we agree it with you, sourcing before arrival is charged in half-hour blocks, with a half-hour minimum. Any material beyond basic screws and fixings that we buy in advance is charged for on this basis.

Shop trips during the job. Our charging runs from when we arrive at your property to when we leave, with the work finished and any shopping done in between. If we need to go to a shop part-way through, that time is simply part of the job — the clock keeps running, and there's no separate sourcing charge.

Parts that have to be ordered online. Where something has to be ordered in and delivered, we finish what we can, and that job ends there — it is invoiced and payable that day in the normal way. When the parts arrive, we come back, and that return visit is treated as a new job, with the first-hour minimum applying again. We're not able to hold a job open across a delivery window.

Research, design and sourcing away from the job. Time spent away from the job — tracking down a discontinued part, working up options for you — is charged in half-hour blocks at our sourcing rate. We'll always tell you before spending meaningful time on this, so you can decide whether you'd rather source it yourself.

7. Parking, congestion charge and travel

Where parking is chargeable at or near the job address, and where the London Congestion Charge or a similar charge applies to the visit, these are added to your total. Congestion charge is passed on at cost.

Please tell us at the time of booking what the parking situation is at your address — it helps us plan the visit and it can save you money. In particular, let us know if:

• there is free or private parking available at the property
• you hold visitor permits we can use
• there is parking on site that can be arranged through a concierge, porter or building manager
• parking is restricted, permit-only, or particularly difficult in your street

8. Arrival times

Arrival times are approximate, and we give an arrival window rather than a fixed time. Our handymen travel between jobs across West London, and traffic and parking both affect timing — but the main reason is simply that we never know exactly how long the job before yours will take. Rather than give you a precise time we can't honour, we'd rather give you a window we can.

We aim to contact you by text message or phone when our handyman is on his way. If we're running significantly late, we'll let you know.

If you aren't there when we arrive and we have to wait for you, our charging starts from the time we arrived, not from the time you let us in.

9. Access and someone on site who knows the job

Someone who understands the job needs to be at the property when we arrive, and to stay contactable while we're there. That's either you, or someone you've put in charge of showing our handyman what needs doing.

This matters far more than it sounds. A great many jobs involve decisions only you can make — which wall, which height, which of two options — and we'd much rather ask than guess. What happens otherwise is that we arrive and there's nobody who knows what the work actually is. We end up leaving things out because nobody could tell us about them, or fitting something in a place that turns out to be the wrong place. That wastes your time as much as ours, and it usually ends with a return visit.

So, to be clear: if there's nobody on site who can tell us what needs doing and where, we can't accept responsibility for work being missed or for things being fitted in the wrong position, and a return visit to put it right will be charged as a new job.

Please also make sure the work area is reasonably clear and accessible before we arrive.

If we're unable to gain access at all, or unable to start work through no fault of ours, our full first-hour charge becomes payable (see section 12).

10. Waste and rubbish removal

Removal of waste, packaging and old fittings is not included in our service. We'll leave the work area tidy, but we don't take rubbish away with us.

If you'd like waste removed, we can arrange collection through a licensed waste carrier on your behalf. Their charge is passed on to you at cost, together with an administration charge of one half-hour block for arranging it.

We can't confirm the collection cost in advance. Licensed carriers weigh the load on scales on their own truck at the point of collection, so the price is only known once it's been taken away. As a rough guide, collections of this kind typically come to somewhere between £100 and £150, but this is an indication only and the actual figure is set by the carrier, not by us.

11. Booking and confirmation

A job is confirmed once we've agreed a date, arrival window and scope of work with you, and you've confirmed you're happy to proceed on these terms.

To book, we'll ask you for your full name, phone number and the job address including any door or bell number. Business customers — see section 19 for what we'll need from you.

12. Cancelling, rearranging and wasted visits

Your statutory right to cancel. If you book with us other than in person — by phone, WhatsApp, email or through our website — and you are a consumer (booking for yourself or your home, rather than for a business), you generally have the right to cancel within 14 days of booking under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013.

Most of our customers want work done sooner than that. If you ask us to begin work before the 14-day period ends, we'll ask you to confirm that request expressly, in writing (a WhatsApp message or email is fine). Once you've done so:

• If we complete the work in full before the 14 days are up, your right to cancel ends once the work is complete.
• If you cancel part-way through, you'll be charged for the work carried out and any materials used up to that point.

Cancelling or rearranging an appointment. Please give us at least 24 hours' notice if you need to cancel or move a confirmed appointment, so we can offer the slot to someone else. Where less than 24 hours' notice is given, our full first-hour charge becomes payable.

Wasted and part-wasted visits. The same applies where our handyman attends at the agreed time and is unable to gain access, or is unable to start work for a reason outside our control. In particular:

• If you have ordered materials for the job and they haven't arrived by the time we attend, the visit is still chargeable.
• If we start a job and then discover that parts are missing, or that materials supplied are not suitable, so that we can't carry on, the time spent is still chargeable and the return visit is treated as a new job.

13. Payment

We invoice at the end of each working day. Payment is due on receipt of your invoice or WhatsApp total, by bank transfer to the account shown on it, unless we've agreed something different with you in writing.

We pay our handymen every day, so prompt payment genuinely helps us — and it's the reason our terms are payment on receipt rather than a longer credit period.

Please note that our handymen do not handle pricing, do not quote, and do not take payment. Please don't discuss prices with them on site, and please don't ask them to carry out work for you privately — all pricing and invoicing goes through the office.

14. Late payment, interest and recovery costs

If an invoice is not paid by its due date, we reserve the right to charge interest on the overdue amount and to recover the reasonable costs we incur in collecting it. Those costs may include the fees of a debt recovery agency, solicitors' costs, and court fees, whether or not the matter ends up in court.

Business customers: statutory interest and fixed statutory compensation under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 apply automatically to overdue commercial invoices, together with reasonable recovery costs.

Private customers: interest is charged at 8% per year above the Bank of England base rate on the overdue amount, running from the due date until payment. We may also recover the reasonable costs of collection as set out above. These charges apply because you have agreed to them as part of these terms before the work was booked.

We'd always rather talk than escalate, and we don't apply these charges lightly. If there's a problem with an invoice, or you need a little time to pay, tell us — we're reasonable people and we'd far rather sort it out directly.

15. Our guarantee

We guarantee our workmanship for one month from the date the work is completed. If something we've fitted, fixed or installed fails within that month because of poor workmanship on our part, let us know and we'll come back and put it right free of charge.

We're general handymen and we take on a wide range of jobs. We always aim to get things right first time, but we can't guarantee that every problem can be solved, or that every repair will be possible — where we don't think we can fix something properly, we'll tell you honestly rather than leave you with a job half-done. This guarantee covers the quality of our own work; it doesn't cover the failure of parts or materials supplied by you or by others, normal wear and tear, or problems arising from something outside the work we carried out.

This is in addition to, and doesn't affect, your statutory rights. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, services we provide must be carried out with reasonable care and skill, within a reasonable time, and for a reasonable price where one wasn't agreed in advance.

16. Insurance

We are fully insured. Cover is arranged through FSB Insurance Service Ltd and underwritten by XA

Underwriting Solutions Limited:

• Public liability: £5,000,000 indemnity limit
• Employers' liability: £10,000,000 indemnity limit

A copy of our insurance confirmation is available on request — property managers and managing agents are welcome to ask for it before we attend.

17. Liability

We are responsible for damage we cause to your property through our negligence, and our public liability insurance is there for exactly that.

We are not responsible for: pre-existing faults or defects; normal wear and tear; the failure of materials or parts supplied by you or by a third party; problems arising from the condition of the property that we could not reasonably have known about; or issues arising from work outside the scope you asked us to carry out.

Nothing in these terms limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be limited.

18. If something goes wrong

We want to put things right, and we'd much rather hear about a problem than not. If you're unhappy with any aspect of a job, contact us at TheKensingtonHandyman@gmail.com or 020 33 55 1344 as soon as you can — ideally while it's still fresh and easy to fix — and we'll do our best to resolve it promptly.

19. Additional terms for business customers

Where you are booking on behalf of a company, landlord, letting agent, managing agent or other business, the following applies in addition to the terms above:

• Who is responsible for payment. The person or business who books the job is responsible for paying for it. If you are booking on behalf of someone else — a landlord, a client, a tenant, a property owner — you confirm that you have their authority to commit them to this work and to these terms. If it turns out you didn't, the invoice remains payable by you.
• VAT. Rates quoted to business customers are exclusive of VAT. VAT is added to your invoice at the applicable rate.
• Consumer rights. The cancellation rights in section 12 that arise under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 apply to consumers only, and do not apply to business bookings. The 24-hour cancellation and wasted-visit provisions in section 12 do apply.
• What we'll need to book: company name, registered address, email and phone number; a purchase order number if your accounts team requires one on the invoice; and the site address together with an on-site contact name and number.
• Invoicing. We invoice at the end of each working day, with payment due on receipt. We're happy to invoice a managing agent or head office rather than the site, provided we have those details at the time of booking.
• Late payment. Statutory interest and compensation under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 apply to overdue commercial invoices, together with reasonable recovery costs.

20. Referrals

For work outside our scope — larger building or structural work, flooring, electrical installation and similar — we may recommend a trusted third-party tradesperson we've worked alongside before.

Any work you go on to agree with them is a separate contract between you and them. We're not responsible for work they carry out or for their terms of business.

21. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. The terms that apply to your job are the ones in force at the time you book, and the "last updated" date above shows when this page was last revised.

22. General

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and any disputes will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales. If any part of these terms is found to be unenforceable, the remainder will continue to apply.