Whether you’re starting your own landscape gardening business or already have one up and running, it is important that you have legal terms and conditions in place with your clients. Clear legal terms and conditions will help build your credibility and set out the key terms and expectations that are required for working together with your clients and will help you to minimise risk and disputes so you can continue to focus on what you do best.
What are the key features of well drafted landscape gardener client terms?
The key features that you would typically expect to see in landscape gardener client terms include:
- Payment: the right to be paid within a certain timeframe; the right to suspend services if you are not paid; and a right to charge interest on overdue amounts.
- Scope: the right to revise your fee estimates if the scope of works changes to prevent scope creep;
- Access and safety: setting out the clients’ responsibilities including access and safety;
- Planning Permits and Permissions: establishing that the client is responsible for obtaining planning permits and neighbor permissions;
- Underground Hazards: establishing the process for identifying underground hazards and limiting your liability for damage caused to underground hazards;
- Supply of plants and materials: the process for the ordering and supply of plants and other materials;
- Intellectual Property: that the intellectual property rights in any designs developed by your business are owned by your business and are provided to the client only for the purpose of their premises and only once they have paid you. This stops your client from using your ideas on other projects.
- Photos and Social Media: the right to take photos and videos of the work for use on your social media accounts, website and general promotions; and
- Complaints: a clear process in the event of any complaints or issues with your services.
Cherrypicka offers a Landscape Gardener Client Terms template that you can tailor to suit your business needs. The terms have been designed so that they can easily be included in your existing Scope of Work or Quote template.
Or check out our Landscape Gardener Essentials pack which contains a few other little gems to keep your whole landscape gardening business on track.