For anyone reading this who owns or manages a landscaping business, we trust that one of your core principles is to deliver for your clients what you agreed to in the service agreement or contract you made with them.
In addition, we assume further that you honour any guarantees that form part of that commitment.
For those of you to whom the first paragraph applies, it may well be that your guarantees and warranties far exceed what would otherwise be considered the minimum expected.
As such, we hope that you gain the increased business that should follow from your reputation for great service and the referrals which we are sure many of your existing landscaping clients send to you.
When it comes to the guarantees a business provides for its customers, and we include landscaping businesses in that, Australian consumer law has stipulations about these.
As such, all businesses must be compliant in adhering to what consumer legislation lays out regarding consumer guarantees whenever they sell a product or service to a customer or client.
Definition Of Consumer Guarantees
Consumer guarantees are essentially the minimum rights that customers and clients of businesses have as given to them under Australian consumer law.
Consumer guarantees are not optional for businesses, and they are regarded as being automatically applied whenever a product or a service is purchased.
Some businesses try to circumvent consumer guarantees by adding terms to a sale. Examples of these are:
- Posting signs or notices that state ‘No refunds’, or ‘No returns’.
- Denying responsibility for anything which goes wrong with a product or service they have sold.
- Making a customer sign an agreement that states they relinquish their consumer rights.
All of these are contrary to Australian consumer law and would be dismissed as a defence if a claim under consumer law were made against a business using them.
Who Do Consumer Guarantees Protect?
Consumer guarantees are not just for the protection of individuals as they are also applicable to businesses who purchase products or services.
This would mean that if you did landscaping on business premises, the company that is your client would be protected by consumer guarantees.
Consumer Guarantees For Goods And Products
This applies to physical goods and in the case of your landscaping clients they would have consumer guarantee for goods such as physical features including ornaments, lighting, fencing, walls, pathways, decking, patios, and any other of the many physical items that you might include in a landscape design.
The consumer guarantees which apply state that goods must…
- Be of an acceptable quality
- Have an acceptable appearance
- Be durable
- Be safe
- Be free of defects
- Be fit for their intended purpose
- Match the advertised description
- Match any product sample that was shown to the customer
- Meet expressed warranties relating to the performance, construction, and quality
Consumer Guarantees For Services
The services you provide your clients could include designing their landscaping, the construction and installation of their landscaping, repairs and maintenance, and you may also offer consultative or advisory services. In all cases, these come with guarantees which will mean that your landscaping services must…
- Be provided with due care
- Be executed with the necessary skills
- Meet the standards which have been advertised or stated in a service agreement
- Be provided to the client within a reasonable or the agreed time
Implications Of Not Honouring Consumer Guarantees
Whilst we are sure you would never deliberately wish your landscaping company to be seen not to be fulfilling its obligations regarding consumer guarantees, it is still worth it for you to know what the possible remedies would be if it ever did happen.
In most cases where a product or service does not meet consumer guarantees, the client would be entitled to a repair, a replacement, a refund, or the right to cancel their agreement with you. In addition, should a failure to meet consumer guarantees result in a client suffering loss or damage, such as a poorly installed fence falling and injuring them, or damaging something else on their property, they would be entitled to compensation.