Hiring a landscaper

A new patio, a fence or a fresh lawn often starts with a landscaper walking round the garden with you. Before anyone starts digging, there are a few things to agree and a few rules to check.

What to agree in writing

Citizens Advice writes for England here. It says you make a contract as soon as you tell a trader you would like them to do the work, even if nothing is written down. It suggests getting the contract in writing before that point. If the landscaper's own contract leaves something out, you can write your own, and it does not need legal language.

Citizens Advice suggests a contract should set out these things:

In a garden, the rubbish can mean soil, turf, old slabs and cuttings. The materials can mean plants, paving and timber. Name them in the contract.

Fences, walls and gates

In England, the Planning Portal explains when a new fence, wall or gate needs no application. Beside a road used by vehicles, or the pavement next to it, it can be up to 1 metre high. Anywhere else the limit is 2 metres, measured from the ground. An existing fence that is already taller can be mended or replaced, as long as it gets no higher.

A listed building changes this, and so does a boundary with one. So does a council decision that removes the right. In a conservation area, taking a fence or wall down may itself need permission. Outside these limits, the owner needs to apply to the council for planning permission.

A hedge needs no planning permission as such. A planning condition or a covenant on the house can still limit what is planted.

Paving a front garden

In England, since 1 October 2008, paving a front garden has had its own rule. GOV.UK's guidance on it says a new or replacement driveway of any size needs no permission if water can soak through it. Gravel, permeable block paving and porous asphalt all work that way. A driveway can also be built so that the rain runs off onto a lawn or border and drains there.

Over 5 square metres, a traditional surface that lets no water through, with nowhere for the water to drain, needs planning permission.

The guidance also explains why the rule exists. Rain running off paved gardens adds to the water in the drains, which can raise the risk of flooding in a street. The same guidance says its ideas can be used for patios and other paved areas around a house.

Decking and raised platforms

In England, the Planning Portal sets three main conditions for decking that needs no planning application. It is no higher than 30cm off the ground. With any extensions and garden buildings added in, it leaves at least half the garden free. And none of it sits forward of the main wall of the house that planners call the principal elevation.

These allowances are for houses. They do not apply to flats or maisonettes, and no decking is allowed in the grounds of a listed building. National Parks and some other protected areas have tighter limits. A planning condition or an Article 4 direction can also remove the right, and converted houses may not have it.

Trees, and protected trees

Some trees are protected by a Tree Preservation Order, which a council in England makes. Felling such a tree, uprooting it, topping it or lopping it needs the council's written consent first. So does damaging or destroying it on purpose. The government's guidance treats cutting the roots as needing consent as well.

A landscaper or tree surgeon can apply for that consent on the owner's behalf. A copy of each Order is kept at the council's offices, where anyone can look at it.

In a conservation area, a tree with no Order still has some protection. Before certain work on it, the owner, or someone acting for them such as the landscaper, has to give the council 6 weeks' notice, called a section 211 notice, unless an exception applies.

Some work on protected trees is exempt. Before relying on an exception, the government suggests asking a qualified arboriculturist (a tree specialist), or the council itself.

Garden waste, and who takes it away

The government's code of practice on waste applies in England and Wales. It says a tradesperson working on your property is responsible for the waste they produce, including carrying it away and disposing of it. The cost of disposal should be included in what they charge for the work. The code gives landscape gardeners as an example of people who carry their own waste.

Your own household waste is different. If you add it to the landscaper's skip, or pay someone to take it, you have a duty to take reasonable steps to make sure it goes only to an authorised person. That includes a business that turns up and offers to take it.

The code says a registered carrier who takes other people's waste has a registration number starting CBDU. In England, you can check a carrier on the Environment Agency's public register, by registration number, business name or postcode. In Wales, Natural Resources Wales keeps the register.

Your rights as a consumer

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 applies throughout the UK. Its rules on services apply to a business supplying a service to a consumer, meaning a person acting mainly outside their own trade or business. A householder paying for work on their own garden fits that description.

Under section 49, the landscaper must do the work with reasonable care and skill. If the contract fixes no time, section 52 says it must be done within a reasonable time.

Cancelling a contract agreed at home

The Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 are UK-wide too. They give a consumer the right to cancel an off-premises contract. That includes a contract agreed with the landscaper in person at your home, or offered there. It also includes one agreed at the landscaper's yard, or by phone, straight after they spoke to you at home. The right does not cover an off-premises contract where you pay £42 or less.

When the contract is for the work alone, you have until 14 days after the day you agreed it. Many garden projects also supply goods, such as turf, plants or paving slabs. A contract for goods and work together counts as a sales contract, and its 14 days usually start when the goods come into your hands.

For a sales contract, the right also ends once goods such as topsoil or gravel are mixed in with other material and can't be separated. It doesn't cover goods made to your own specification.

The landscaper should give you the information about the right to cancel. Where that information was left out, you can have up to 12 months more to cancel. If the landscaper hands it over late, you then have 14 days from the day you receive it.

The landscaper cannot start inside the cancellation period unless you ask them to. For a contract made at home, you make that request in a form that lasts, such as a letter or an email. If you cancel after work has started at your request, you pay for the part done so far, in proportion to the full contract. You pay nothing for it if the landscaper never gave you the information about the right to cancel.

For a contract for the work alone, the right to cancel ends once the work is complete, where it started early at your request and you accepted that you would lose the right.

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