Terms Of Trade For Landscaping Businesses

Yes, your landscaping business should have written terms of trade before you start quoting, planting, paving or maintaining gardens for customers.

The nuance is that landscaping work is rarely just one simple service. You might be supplying plants, arranging subcontractors, dealing with weather, working around other trades, installing irrigation, or doing weekly garden maintenance. Your landscaping terms of trade in NZ need to match how your jobs actually run.

Clear terms help your customer understand what they're paying for, when they need to pay, what happens if the brief changes, and where responsibility sits if things don't go to plan. That can make your jobs feel smoother from the first quote to the final clean-up.

Do Landscaping Businesses Need Terms Of Trade In New Zealand?

Yes, you should have terms of trade if you quote for landscaping, garden maintenance or outdoor project work in New Zealand.

Your terms of trade set the commercial rules for your jobs. They don't replace doing good work, communicating well or meeting your legal obligations, but they give you a written baseline when questions come up.

For a landscaping business, useful terms can cover:

• How your quotes work and how long they're valid for
• Whether a deposit is needed before you book the job
• When progress payments and final payments are due
• How changes to the scope, design, plants or materials are approved
• What happens if bad weather delays the work
• Who is responsible for site access, pets, children, power and water
• Whether plant survival is guaranteed, and on what conditions
• How customer-supplied materials are handled
• Cancellation, rescheduling and call-out fees
• Limitations on liability where the law allows them

Without written terms, you may still have a contract, but it can be much harder to prove what was agreed. That matters when a customer says the quote included extra paving, or they don't want to pay because heavy rain pushed the job out by a week.

Templates can be a starting point, but landscaping terms work best when they're tailored to the way your business prices, schedules and delivers work.

What Should A Landscaping Contract In New Zealand Cover?

A landscaping contract should clearly set out the scope, price, timing, responsibilities and rules for changes.

For smaller jobs, your contract might be made up of a quote plus your standard terms of trade. For larger design, construction or staged outdoor projects, you may need a more detailed project agreement, or a short heads of terms before the full contract is signed.

Scope Of Work

Your scope should be specific enough that both sides know what is included. For example, instead of saying garden makeover, your quote might say:

• Remove existing lawn from the front garden area only
• Prepare soil to a depth of 150mm
• Supply and install 18 native shrubs from the agreed plant schedule
• Install 25 square metres of ready lawn
• Remove green waste created by your team during the works

It also helps to state what is excluded. Common exclusions for landscapers include council fees, engineering reports, hidden services, contaminated soil, rock breaking, extra drainage work, and maintenance after completion unless separately agreed.

Plans, Designs And Assumptions

If your quote is based on plans, measurements or information given by the customer, say that clearly. If the customer later changes the design or the site turns out to be different, your variation process should apply.

For example, Ana runs a small landscaping business in Hamilton. She quotes to build garden beds based on photos and measurements supplied by the customer. When her team arrives, they find an old concrete slab under the soil. Ana's terms say hidden site conditions are excluded from fixed prices and must be quoted separately, so she can pause, explain the issue and price the extra removal work before continuing.

Acceptance Process

Your terms should explain how the customer accepts your quote. This might be by signing the quote, replying by email, paying the deposit, or clicking accept through your quoting software.

Make sure the customer receives your terms before acceptance, not after the job has already started. If you send terms only with the final invoice, it may be difficult to rely on them.

How Should Quotes, Deposits And Progress Payments Work?

Your payment terms should be clear, practical and tied to how cash flows through your jobs.

Landscaping often involves upfront costs. You may need to order plants, soil, timber, pavers, irrigation supplies or machinery before you can begin. If your terms don't deal with this, you can end up funding the customer's project from your own pocket.

Quotes

Your quote should say whether prices are fixed, estimated or subject to change. This is especially useful where supplier pricing, plant availability or site conditions may change.

You can include details such as:

• How long the quote is valid for, such as 14 or 30 days
• Whether prices include or exclude GST
• What materials, labour and services are included
• Whether delivery, disposal or equipment hire is included
• Any assumptions used to calculate the price

Be careful with advertising and quote wording. Under the Fair Trading Act 1986, you shouldn't make misleading claims about price, inclusions, timing or results. If the price may change, say so before the customer accepts.

Deposits

A deposit can help you secure the booking and cover upfront costs. There's no single legal deposit percentage that fits every landscaping job, but the amount should make sense for the work and be explained clearly.

Your terms should cover:

• When the deposit is due
• Whether it's refundable, partly refundable or non-refundable
• What costs the deposit covers
• Whether the job is booked only after the deposit is received

For consumer customers, be careful with blanket non-refundable deposit wording. If you cancel the job or can't deliver what was agreed, you usually can't just keep the deposit regardless of the circumstances. A fairer approach is to say you may deduct reasonable costs you have already incurred, such as special-order plants or materials.

Progress Payments

For larger landscape project terms, progress payments can be much safer than waiting until the end. Your terms might require payment:

• On acceptance of the quote
• When materials are ordered
• When site preparation is complete
• When hard landscaping is complete
• On practical completion

You can choose payment due dates that suit your business, such as 7 days from invoice, payment before the next stage starts, or payment on completion for small maintenance jobs. The key is to write it down before work begins.

If your work falls within the Construction Contracts Act 2002, there may also be a statutory payment claim process available for construction work. Some landscaping work may fall within that Act, especially where it involves structures, retaining, drainage, paving, earthworks or work that becomes part of land. If you plan to use payment claims, they need to be prepared properly and include the required information.

What Happens If Weather Or Site Conditions Delay The Job?

Your terms should say that weather, unsafe site conditions and events outside your reasonable control can affect timing.

This is one of the biggest pressure points for landscapers. Outdoor work depends on dry ground, safe access, suitable temperatures, supplier delivery times and sometimes other trades finishing first.

Your terms can explain that timeframes are estimates unless you expressly agree to a fixed date. They can also say you won't be liable for delay caused by things outside your reasonable control, such as:

• Heavy rain, storms, flooding, extreme heat or high winds
• Ground that's too wet or unsafe to work on
• Discovery of hidden pipes, cables, rock, concrete or contaminated soil
• Delays by suppliers, subcontractors or other trades
• Customer delays in approving variations or making payments
• Lack of access, locked gates, aggressive pets or parked vehicles blocking the work area

This doesn't mean you can ignore agreed deadlines. If you promise a customer the courtyard will be finished before a specific event, such as a wedding or open home, be very careful about putting that date in writing unless you're confident you can meet it.

A practical clause might say you'll use reasonable efforts to meet estimated timeframes, but dates may change due to weather, site conditions, supply issues or customer delays. You should also reserve the right to reschedule work where conditions would make the job unsafe or likely to fail.

How Do You Handle Variations And Extra Work?

You should require written approval before doing work outside the original quote, unless there's an urgent safety issue.

Variations are common in landscaping. A customer might ask for an extra garden bed, different pavers, more mature trees, extra drainage or a larger lawn area once they see the site taking shape.

The problem is that informal changes can easily turn into unpaid work. A customer may say, I thought that was included, while your team remembers a casual conversation on site.

Your variation process should cover:

• How changes are requested
• Whether you need to provide a written price before starting extra work
• Whether email, text message or quoting software approval is enough
• How variations affect timing and progress payments
• What happens if urgent work is needed to protect safety or prevent damage

For example, if the customer asks your team to add a stepping stone path, your terms might say that extra work is charged at your hourly rate plus materials, unless you agree a fixed variation price in writing.

It also helps to give your team a simple internal rule: don't do extras until the customer has approved the price in writing. That one habit can prevent a lot of awkward invoice conversations.

Who Is Responsible For Plants, Materials And Access?

Your terms should divide responsibility for plants, materials and access in a way that matches what you can actually control.

Plant Survival

Plant survival is a sensitive issue because many problems happen after you've left the site. Watering, drainage, soil quality, pests, pets, heat, frost and customer maintenance all matter.

If you offer a plant survival guarantee, be clear about the limits. Your terms might say the guarantee applies only if:

• You supplied the plants
• The customer follows your written care instructions
• The customer waters and maintains the plants properly
• The plant failure isn't caused by weather events, animals, pests, disease, neglect or third-party damage
• The customer notifies you within a set period and gives you a chance to inspect

If you don't offer a guarantee, say that too. You still need to meet your obligations under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 where it applies, but you can make it clear that you don't guarantee plant survival where failure is outside your control.

Customer-Supplied Materials

Customers sometimes want to supply their own plants, pavers, mulch, lighting or irrigation parts. That can be fine, but your terms should protect you from being blamed for poor-quality or unsuitable items.

Your terms can say that where the customer supplies materials:

• The customer is responsible for quality, suitability, quantity and delivery timing
• You may refuse to install unsafe, damaged or unsuitable materials
• Delays caused by missing or late materials may lead to extra charges
• You don't provide warranties for materials you didn't supply

If you notice an obvious issue, tell the customer before installing. For example, if pavers are cracked or plants look diseased on delivery, it's much better to pause than to install them and argue later.

Site Access And Safety

Your customer should be responsible for giving you safe, reasonable access to the work area. Your terms can require them to:

• Unlock gates and provide access during agreed hours
• Keep children and pets away from the work area
• Tell you about underground services, irrigation, drainage, septic systems or hazards they know about
• Provide access to water and power if needed
• Move vehicles, outdoor furniture and personal items before work starts

If access isn't available, you may want the right to charge a call-out fee, reschedule the job or recover reasonable costs. Say this upfront so it doesn't feel like a surprise.

How Do The Fair Trading Act And Consumer Guarantees Act Apply?

New Zealand consumer laws can apply to landscaping work, especially when you provide services to residential customers.

The Fair Trading Act 1986 applies to trade conduct. For your landscaping business, this means your quotes, advertising, website, social media, before-and-after photos and sales conversations shouldn't mislead customers.

Be careful with claims like:

• Maintenance-free garden
• Guaranteed to last forever
• Completed in one week
• All council approvals included
• Lowest price in town

If a claim depends on conditions, explain those conditions clearly.

The Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 may also apply when you provide services or goods to consumers. For services, the guarantees include that you'll carry out the work with reasonable care and skill, that services will be fit for a particular purpose made known to you, and that work will be completed within a reasonable time if no time is agreed.

You generally can't contract out of the Consumer Guarantees Act for consumer customers. For business customers, you may be able to contract out in some situations if the agreement is in writing and it's fair and reasonable. Similar limits can apply to contracting out of certain Fair Trading Act provisions in business-to-business contracts. This is an area where tailored advice is worth getting if your work includes commercial maintenance, body corporate sites, builders or developers.

Your terms can still help by setting expectations clearly. For example, if a customer asks for a low-maintenance garden in a windy coastal area, your quote can state what low maintenance means, what care is still required, and what risks sit outside your control.

Do Garden Maintenance Agreements Need Different Terms?

Yes, ongoing garden maintenance agreements need terms that deal with repeat visits, scheduling and ongoing payments.

A one-off landscaping project is different from weekly, fortnightly or monthly maintenance. If you run maintenance rounds, your garden maintenance agreement should cover:

• The services included, such as mowing, pruning, weeding, fertilising or green waste removal
• How often you attend and how long each visit lasts
• Whether visits are rescheduled for rain or public holidays
• Whether unused time rolls over
• What is outside the maintenance package
• How either party can cancel or change the arrangement
• How price increases are handled

For example, your garden maintenance agreement might say that standard visits don't include tree removal, irrigation repairs, pest treatment, major pruning, storm clean-up or supply of plants unless quoted separately.

If you charge a monthly fee, explain whether it's averaged across the year or based on actual visits. Customers can get frustrated if they pay the same amount in a quiet winter month unless your pricing model is clear from the beginning.

You may also want permission to take photos of completed work for your records or marketing. If people, house numbers, vehicle plates or private areas are visible, think about privacy. The Privacy Act 2020 can apply when you collect and use personal information, so it's safest to get clear consent before using customer photos publicly.

Key Takeaways

• Your landscaping terms of trade should cover quotes, deposits, progress payments, variations, delays, access, materials and plant survival.
• Weather delays, hidden site conditions and customer changes are easier to manage when your terms explain what happens before the job starts.
• Use written variation approvals so extra work doesn't turn into unpaid work.
• Be careful with plant guarantees, non-refundable deposits and claims about timing or results, especially for consumer customers.
• Ongoing garden maintenance agreements need their own rules for repeat visits, cancellations, inclusions and price changes.
• Consumer laws such as the Fair Trading Act 1986 and Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 can affect what your terms can and can't say.

If you'd like help with your landscaping terms of trade, garden maintenance agreements, payment terms or variation process, you can reach us at 0800 002 184 or team@sprintlaw.co.nz for a free, no-obligations chat.