Booking Terms & Conditions

Last updated 10 October 2026

1. About these terms

These terms apply to every booking with Moorstead Limited, trading as Moorstead Home & Garden, company number 17417762, registered office Fair View Farm, Farm Avenue, Adlington, Chorley, PR6 9ND (“Moorstead”, “we”, “us”), whether you book online, by phone or in person. By booking, you agree to them.

If anything in them isn’t clear, ring us before you book and we’ll explain it.

2. What we do, and what we don’t

We provide practical, non-medical help around the home and garden:

• Garden & Outdoor
• Odd-Jobs & DIY
• Decluttering & Clearance
• Lifts & Errands
• Home Tech Help

We are not a care agency. We do not provide personal care, medical care, medication support, or anything requiring registration with the Care Quality Commission. We are not electricians, gas engineers or roofers, and we won’t carry out work requiring those qualifications. We work from ground level or from a ladder at single-storey height only: we do not access roofs of any kind — including flat roofs, conservatory roofs, garage roofs and dormers — and we do not carry out ladder work at two-storey height. Gutters and windows above single-storey height are cleared from the ground with specialist equipment where that is possible, and otherwise cannot be undertaken.

3. Who does the work

Work is carried out by self-employed helpers engaged by Moorstead. Before their first booking, every helper is interviewed in person, and we check their right to work in the UK and see their Basic DBS certificate. Every helper also holds their own public liability insurance of at least £2,000,000, which they confirm to us in their signed agreement with Moorstead. Helpers providing Lifts & Errands also hold Hire & Reward motor insurance.

Bookings are offered to every helper who covers your area and does that work, and the first one free takes it. If you have had someone before and would like them again, give their first name — or write “same as last time” — in the booking form. If they cover that work and your village, we offer them the booking on their own for two hours (30 minutes if the visit is less than 48 hours away) before anyone else sees it. We cannot guarantee they will be free. You are told who is coming before they arrive. Your slot is a four-hour window, not a fixed time, and your helper will contact you the day before with a tighter arrival time.

4. Prices

There is no call-out fee. You buy a block of time — one, two, three or four hours depending on the service — and the price is those hours at the rate above, shown in full before you pay. You are booking time rather than a finished job: your helper will tell you what is realistically achievable in it, and you decide what matters most. If it needs longer they will stop and ask. The request, with its price, is sent in writing to the person who made the booking — or to whoever they named — and nothing extra is done or charged unless it is approved (section 15). We will never simply carry on and bill you for it.

Mileage. Where a booking involves driving — Lifts & Errands, or taking garden or household waste away — job miles are charged at 55p a mile, the approved mileage rate published by HMRC for 2026–27. For a lift or errand, job miles are the miles from your address to your destination or destinations and back. For waste, they are the round trip from your address to the waste site, for each load. The helper’s journey to reach you is not charged. Miles are measured by the shortest practical road route. If HMRC changes its approved rate, we will change ours to match from the date it changes and update this page.

Waste disposal. Garden and household waste we take away goes to a licensed waste site, which charges for each load. You pay exactly that charge, at cost, as shown on the site’s ticket, which we will send you on request. We will tell you which site we will use and its current charges when we agree your day. Fridges, freezers, mattresses and televisions carry a separate charge at the site, which we will tell you before anything is loaded. If you would rather keep garden waste for your own garden waste bin or compost, tell us and there is nothing to add.

Your own bin first. Unless you tell us otherwise, garden waste goes in your own garden waste bin first, filled as far as the council’s rules allow, and only what does not fit is taken to a waste site. We recommend a garden waste bin if you do not have one: in the Chorley Council area it is £40 per bin a year (2026–27); in Horwich and Blackrod the Bolton Council green bin comes with the standard collection, and a second bin is £36 to set up plus £37.50 a year.

Rough guide to site charges. As a guide only (October 2026, based on our nearest site’s prices, including the VAT the site charges): garden waste about £54 a tonne; general household waste about £240 a tonne; bulky furniture about £300 a tonne; mattresses, sofas and other upholstered seats from about £54 each; most loads have a minimum charge of half a tonne. Moorstead is not VAT-registered and adds nothing to the site’s charge. What you pay is the amount on the site’s ticket for your load.

Materials are charged at cost and agreed with you in advance.

Introductory offer. New customers get 10% off their first booking with the code WELCOME26, entered at the checkout. One use per household, on the first booking only, on any service. It cannot be combined with a member discount or credit. We may withdraw the code at any time; a booking already made with it is not affected.

5. Your right to cancel — 14 days

This is a legal right and it is separate from the notice period in section 6.

Because you will normally have booked by phone, online, or with us at your door, you have the right to cancel the contract within 14 days, starting the day after the contract is made, without giving a reason. This right comes from the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013.

To cancel, just tell us — ring us (Horwich & Blackrod: 01204 588749; Adlington, Chorley, Anderton & Coppull: 01257 822489), or email hello@moorstead.co.uk. You may use the cancellation form we give you when you book, but you don’t have to. Telling us clearly is enough.

If you want us to start within those 14 days — and most people do — we will ask you to confirm that in writing, and to acknowledge that once we have fully carried out the service you will no longer be able to cancel it. If you then cancel part-way through, you pay a proportionate amount for what we have already done, and nothing more.

Refunds are made within 14 days of you cancelling, using the same method you paid by.

6. Changing or cancelling a booking after that

Once the 14-day period has passed, or once a service has been fully performed at your request:

• More than 24 hours’ notice: no charge. Move it or cancel it, as often as you need to.
• Less than 24 hours’ notice: we may charge 50% of the booked value, because the helper has held the time and turned other work down.
• If a visit can’t go ahead because of something on your side — nobody home, no way in, a key that doesn’t work, or the person at home doesn’t want the visit — your helper rings you before leaving. The first and second time this happens at the same address, we charge only the minimum time for that service (two hours for Garden & Outdoor, Decluttering & Clearance and Gutter Clearing; one hour for everything else) and refund the rest. From the third time, we charge the time booked in full, because the helper has held the time and is paid for it. We count visits at the same address over 12 months.
• If we decide not to start because we’re worried about the person at home, you are refunded in full.

We apply these charges sparingly and never for illness, a hospital appointment, a bereavement, or anything else outside your control — ring us or reply to our email and say so, and that visit won’t count.

If we have to change a booking, we will tell you as soon as we know, by phone, and offer you alternatives. We don’t charge you for a change we caused, and where the disruption is significant we’ll put something right by way of apology.

7. Payment

You pay for your block of time when you book it, by card. If you book by phone or email, we send you a secure link to pay by card, or our bank details if you would rather pay by transfer, and payment is due before the visit. Extra time approved in writing on the day (section 15), mileage and waste-site charges (section 4) are itemised and invoiced after the visit, and are due within 7 days. The order button shows the total before you press it, and pressing it commits you to pay.

Helpers never take cash, never accept a gift or tip, and never hold your bank card or PIN. If anyone working for us asks for any of those things, please tell us the same day.

We may charge statutory interest on significantly overdue invoices, though that is a last resort and not a first step.

8. Your responsibilities

Please give us safe access, tell us about anything we should know — a temperamental boiler, an aggressive dog, an alarm code, asbestos you’re aware of — and be honest about the scale of the job so we can allocate enough time.

We may decline or stop work if it isn’t safe to continue, if the job turns out to be materially different from what was described, or if a helper is treated abusively. We’d tell you why.

9. Membership

Moorstead Membership comes in three tiers — Essential at £68 a month, Standard at £128 and Premium at £240.

What you get.

• A monthly credit to spend on any service — £71.60, £142.25 or £282.40. The credit is in pounds rather than hours, so it is worth the same whichever service you spend it on, and it is spent at our standard rates in section 4. Credit and the member discount apply to time only: mileage and waste-site charges are paid separately at the rates in section 4
• Your credit costs less than it is worth — £68 buys £71.60, £128 buys £142.25, £240 buys £282.40. That is where your 5%, 10% or 15% saving comes from
• Priority booking — your booking is offered first to the helper who did your last visit, on their own, for two hours (30 minutes if the visit is less than 48 hours away). If they cannot take it, it is offered at once to helpers across every village we cover and moves to our last-minute helper rate after two hours rather than twelve. This gives member bookings the best chance of being covered; it is not a guarantee that a helper will be free
• The same 5%, 10% or 15% is then taken off any work you book beyond your credit, on every service. So you are never charged the standard rate, whichever side of your credit the work falls

Your credit, and how long it lasts.

• Unused credit rolls over for one month and then expires. Credit added in March can be spent in March or April, and expires at the end of April. You therefore always have two months to spend each month’s credit
• We will email you seven days before any credit expires, telling you how much it is and the date, so you have the chance to book. Where more than £50 is about to expire we will ring you as well
• We always spend your oldest credit first, so the credit closest to expiring is used before newer credit
• Credit is added on the day your monthly payment clears. If a payment fails, no credit is added for that month
• If you lose credit in two consecutive months we will contact you and suggest a smaller tier. A membership you are not using is one you should change or stop, and we would rather say so than take the money
• Credit can only be spent on Moorstead services. It is not money: it cannot be exchanged for cash, refunded, or transferred to anyone else. This does not affect your rights in section 5 or the refund position below

Paying, pausing and stopping.

• Billed monthly in advance on the date you joined, by card, automatically. We will email you before each renewal showing the amount and the date
• How member bookings are paid for. When you book through your members’ link, nothing is taken at the time of booking. Within a minute we work out the price at our standard rates, take it from your credit first, apply your member discount to anything beyond it, and charge only that remainder to the card you gave us when you joined. We email you an itemised breakdown every time. If the card is declined we do not spend your credit; we contact you to arrange payment
• You can pause your membership for up to two months in any twelve. Billing stops, and your credit stops counting down towards expiry while you are paused
• You can change tier from your next billing date, up or down
• You can cancel at any time, effective at the end of the month you have paid for, by ringing us or emailing hello@moorstead.co.uk. No notice period, no cancellation fee, no need to give a reason. If you signed up online you can cancel online
• When you cancel, no further credit is added. Credit you already hold keeps its normal life and can be spent until it expires. Unspent credit is not refunded, except under the 14-day right below
• Membership carries the same 14-day cancellation right as any other booking (section 5). If you cancel within 14 days of joining we refund your payment in full, less the value of any work we have already carried out for you
• If we change the price or what’s included, we’ll give you at least one month’s notice and you can cancel before it takes effect

10. If something goes wrong

Tell us. Ring us (Horwich & Blackrod: 01204 588749; Adlington, Chorley, Anderton & Coppull: 01257 822489), or email hello@moorstead.co.uk.

We will acknowledge any complaint within 2 hours during business hours, and aim to resolve it within 3 to 5 business days. Our full complaints procedure is at moorstead.co.uk/complaints.

Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, services must be carried out with reasonable care and skill, within a reasonable time, and for a reasonable price where none was agreed. If we fall short, you are entitled to have it put right or to a price reduction. Nothing in these terms affects those rights.

11. Damage and insurance

Every helper holds their own public liability insurance of at least £2,000,000. They confirm this to us in their signed agreement before taking any booking, and we ask them to confirm it again at least once a year.

If we damage something, tell us the same day if you can. We will acknowledge it within 24 hours, investigate, and handle the insurance claim ourselves wherever possible so you are not left chasing anyone.

We are not responsible for pre-existing faults, fair wear and tear, or problems outside the scope of the work booked. Where the risk of damage is inherent in the job — an old fence panel that may not survive being leaned on, a tile that may crack — we will tell you before we start.

11A. Work at height and access

Loft, garage and shed clearance is carried out only where there is a fixed loft ladder and a boarded floor. If the hatch is reached by a leaning ladder, or the loft is unboarded, we will decline the booking — we would rather tell you on the phone than send someone who has to turn round at your door.

Fence, gate and boundary repair is carried out at ground level. We repair and replace panels, posts and gates like for like; we do not build new fences. A replacement over two metres needs planning consent, which is the householder's to obtain.

The Winter Garden Programme covers dormant pruning, fruit tree pruning, hedge cutting, bed clearing, mulching and bare-root planting between November and March. Hedges and branches are cut from the ground with a pole, to a three-metre limit. Anything higher is referred to a tree surgeon.

We carry out work from ground level or from a ladder at single-storey height only. We do not access roofs of any kind, including flat roofs, conservatory roofs, garage roofs and dormers, and we do not carry out ladder work at two-storey height. Gutters, windows and similar work above single-storey height are carried out from the ground using specialist equipment where that is possible, and otherwise cannot be undertaken.

Where work at height cannot safely be carried out because of wind, rain, ice or light conditions, we will reschedule that part of the booking to the next mutually convenient date at no additional charge and with no cancellation fee. A booking rescheduled by us on safety or weather grounds is not a cancellation. This does not affect your statutory right to cancel within 14 days, nor the short-notice charge, which applies only to cancellations by you.

If, on arrival, the work proves to require access outside the above, we will complete any part of the booking that can safely be carried out and will discuss the remainder with you. We may decline the remainder, and we will not charge for work we have not carried out.

You agree to tell us at the time of booking about anything affecting safe access, including the number of storeys, the ground surface, fragile roofs or outbuildings, overhead cables, and any pets or hazards in the working area.

12. Our liability

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

Subject to that, our total liability for any one booking is limited to the greater of the price of that booking or the amount recoverable under our public liability insurance. We are not liable for losses that were not reasonably foreseeable, or for business losses, since our services are supplied for domestic and private use.

13. Your information

We handle your personal information in line with our Privacy Policy at moorstead.co.uk/privacy.

14. Photographs

We sometimes photograph completed work, and we would like to use those photographs on our website, on our Facebook page, on our Google listing and in printed leaflets. We will always ask before we take one, and we will tell you where we mean to use it.

Saying no changes nothing. It is not a condition of the booking, it does not affect the price, and it does not affect how quickly we come back next time. You do not have to give a reason, and nobody will ask you for one.

What we will never photograph. Any person, including a helper, without asking them separately and getting a clear yes — and never a child. Anything that shows where you live: a house number, a street sign, a vehicle registration, a piece of post on the side. The inside of your home during a decluttering or clearance booking — including a “before” photograph of a cluttered room — unless you have specifically agreed to that particular photograph. Anything valuable enough that a picture of it would be of interest to the wrong person.

Changing your mind. Email hello@moorstead.co.uk or ring us, and we will take the photograph down from anything we control within five working days and not use it again. You do not need to explain why. Two honest limits: we cannot recall a leaflet that has already gone through letterboxes, and we cannot undo the fact that someone may have shared or saved a post while it was up. That is how the platforms work rather than a policy of ours, and it is worth knowing before you say yes.

How long we keep them. For as long as we are using them, and we stop when you tell us to. Our Privacy Policy sets this out alongside everything else we hold.

Our helpers are self-employed, and their agreement with us does not permit them to take or post photographs of your home or your work on their own accounts. If one ever asks to, please say no and tell us.

15. Booking for someone else, consent and safeguarding

Booking for a relative or friend. Many bookings are made by a son, daughter or friend for someone else — often someone older, or living alone. That is welcome. When you book for someone else, you are our customer: you pay, and these terms are between you and us. Before you book, please make sure the person at home knows about the visit and is happy for it to go ahead — the booking form asks you to confirm this. Give us their name and, if they have one, their phone number, so the helper can let them know who is coming.

The person at home always has the final say. If they weren’t expecting us, don’t want the visit, or ask the helper to stop or to leave, the helper leaves straight away and we ring you. We never carry on with a visit, or any part of one, that the person at home doesn’t want. Where a visit doesn’t go ahead for that reason, section 6 explains what is charged: only the minimum time the first two times, and the full booking from the third, so please check they’re happy before you book again. We tell you each time it happens.

Extra time and changes on the day. If the job needs longer, or the person at home asks for something different, the helper sends a request with the price. It goes to you — or, if you told us when booking that the person at home should decide, to them by text — and nothing extra is done or charged unless it is approved in writing. If the helper is unsure the person at home can make that decision on the day, the request comes to you instead. Each approval gives you the cancellation rights in section 5, and we email you a copy. Helpers never ask the person at home for money and never take payment from them.

A code word for the door. You can choose a code word when you book. The helper says it at the door, and we put it in your confirmation email so you can pass it on. Anyone who cannot give it should not be let in — ring us. We delete the code word 30 days after the visit.

What our helpers will never do. Personal care of any kind (helping someone wash, dress, eat or use the toilet); handling or prompting medication; taking cash, bank cards, PINs or passwords; accepting gifts, loans or tips; witnessing or helping with wills, powers of attorney or financial documents; or taking instructions about someone’s money or property from anyone other than the person who booked.

If we are worried about someone. Our helpers visit people in their own homes, and some of the people we visit are older, unwell or living alone. If a helper sees something that worries them about someone’s safety or wellbeing, they must report it to us the same day, and we may pass it to the council’s adult safeguarding team or the emergency services. We would normally tell the person who booked, unless doing so could put someone at greater risk. Our Safeguarding Policy is available on request.

16. Events outside our control

We are not liable for failing to perform where it is caused by something beyond our reasonable control — severe weather, illness, a road closure. We will tell you as soon as we can and rearrange at no cost to you.

17. General

We may transfer these terms to another business if ours is sold; your rights won’t be affected. If any part of these terms is found unenforceable, the rest stands. A delay in enforcing a term is not a waiver of it.

18. Law and disputes

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. If you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland you may bring proceedings there.

We are not currently a member of an alternative dispute resolution scheme. If we cannot resolve a complaint between us, you may take the matter to court, and you can get free advice from Citizens Advice on 0808 223 1133.