How to Write a Warranty
A written warranty tells a client exactly what you'll come back for and what you won't. Done properly it wins work and closes off arguments; done vaguely it's an open-ended promise you never meant to make.
Most tradies already offer a warranty. Very few have written it down, which means the terms get decided during the phone call where the client is annoyed and you're on another job. A written warranty moves that conversation to before the work starts, when both sides are reasonable. It also sells — "two years on our workmanship, in writing" beats a competitor who says nothing. This guide covers what goes in one, exclusions that hold, how a claim should run, and where Australian Consumer Law sits over the top of whatever you write.
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What a warranty is for
This is general information, not legal advice. Warranty obligations sit alongside consumer guarantees and, for building work, statutory warranties set by your state — and both put limits on what your own document can do. Use this to work out what yours needs to say, then have a lawyer or your industry association check the wording before you put it on quotes.
A warranty is a promise about what happens if your work fails. It sets three things: what's covered, for how long, and what the client has to do to make a claim. Everything else in the document exists to support those three.
It does two jobs at once, and tradies usually only think about the second one:
- It wins work. A written warranty is one of the few things on a quote a client can compare directly. Against a cheaper competitor who offers nothing in writing, it's often the difference.
- It sets a boundary. Without a stated period and stated exclusions, every callback is a negotiation. The client's expectation fills whatever gap you left, and it fills it generously.
Your warranty sits on top of consumer guarantees, not instead of them. Under Australian Consumer Law your work has to be done with due care and skill and be fit for purpose, and nothing you write can take those rights away. So treat the warranty as the extra you're offering rather than as the limit of what you owe — the second reading is how businesses end up promising less than the law already gives.
What belongs in a written warranty
| Section | What it says |
|---|---|
| Who and what | Your business name, ABN and licence number, the client, the site address, and the job or invoice number |
| What's covered | The workmanship, and which supplied materials — stated separately, because they run on different terms |
| How long | The period, and the date it starts from — practical completion, not the date of the quote |
| What's excluded | The specific things you won't come back for. The most important section in the document |
| How to claim | Who to contact, how, and what the client needs to provide |
| Response times | How quickly you'll inspect, and how quickly you'll rectify once a claim is accepted |
| What you'll do | Repair, replace, or refund — and who chooses. Say it, or the client will assume they choose |
| Client obligations | Reasonable access, servicing the equipment, not letting someone else pull it apart first |
| Transferability | Whether it survives a sale of the property — a genuine selling point for renovation work |
| Statutory rights | A line confirming the warranty is in addition to rights under Australian Consumer Law |
Keep labour and materials clearly apart. Your workmanship warranty is yours; the materials carry the manufacturer's warranty, which will have its own period and its own claim process. Say which is which and who handles the paperwork, because a client who thinks you warrant a hot water unit for the manufacturer's full term will hold you to it.
Exclusions that hold up
An exclusion works when a reasonable client reading it beforehand would know what it means. Vague exclusions are decoration — and an exclusion that tries to remove a consumer guarantee doesn't work at all.
- Fair wear and tear — normal deterioration, distinguished from a defect. Say which is which for the specific thing you installed.
- Damage caused after handover — impact, misuse, or something failing because it was never serviced.
- Work altered by someone else — if another trade has been into it, your warranty on that part ends. This one is worth spelling out, because it's the most common cause of a callback that isn't yours.
- Client-supplied materials — you warrant the installation, not the fitting they bought online.
- Pre-existing conditions — the parts of the system you didn't touch, and anything you flagged in writing at the time and were asked to leave.
- Storms, floods, fire and ground movement — events outside anyone's workmanship.
- Consequential loss — water damage to a carpet from a failed connection is a very different bill from replacing the connection. This is the clause most likely to need legal input, and the one most likely to be limited by law, so don't write it alone.
Write the exclusions before you set the period. If you can't describe clearly what's out, extending the period is just extending your exposure to arguments you have no answer for.
Setting the period
There's no single right number. Set it from how your work actually fails rather than from what sounds generous:
- Look at your own callbacks. Go back through the last two years. Most workmanship faults surface early — if yours all show up inside a few months, a longer stated period costs you very little and reads well on a quote.
- Check what your trade and your state require. Residential building work carries statutory warranty periods set by state legislation, and licensed work may have its own requirements. These vary by state and by the value of the work, so confirm the position with your state's building or licensing authority before you publish a shorter figure.
- Match materials to the manufacturer. Don't warrant a product for longer than its supplier does. State the manufacturer's period as theirs and your installation as yours.
- Vary it by job type if you need to. A roof restoration and a power point don't need the same cover. Having two or three tiers is more honest than one number stretched over everything.
- Say what starts the clock. Practical completion, in writing, on the job. Ambiguity here turns into a dispute about whether a claim is even in time.
How a claim should run
The claim process is the part clients judge you on. A clear, fast process turns a fault into a reason they recommend you; a vague one turns it into a review.
- One way in. A phone number or an email address, stated in the warranty. Not "contact us".
- What they provide — the invoice or job number, a description, and photos. Photos alone resolve a surprising share of claims without a visit.
- An inspection commitment — a stated number of working days to look at it. Say it and hit it.
- A decision, in writing. Covered, not covered, or covered in part with a reason. A verbal "we'll sort it" is what disputes are made of.
- A rectification timeframe once it's accepted, and a record of the fix on the original job.
Log every claim against the original job, even the ones you knock back. Three claims on the same detail isn't bad luck, it's a method that needs changing — and that pattern is invisible unless the claims are recorded somewhere other than your memory.
ServiceYak keeps the whole job on one record — the accepted scope, the site photos, the materials used and who was on the tools — so when a warranty claim lands months later you can see what was actually done rather than reconstructing it.
Frequently asked questions
How long should my workmanship warranty be?
Long enough to cover the period your own faults actually surface in, which for most trades is well under a year, and long enough to compete on a quote. Check first whether your trade or state sets a minimum — residential building work carries statutory warranty periods under state legislation — then set your stated period at or above that.
Does a written warranty limit my liability?
It sets expectations and it defines your process, which prevents most disputes. It does not remove consumer guarantees under Australian Consumer Law — those apply regardless of what your document says, and wording that tries to exclude them generally doesn't work. Write the warranty as the extra you offer, and have a lawyer check the limitation wording once.
Do I have to honour a warranty if another tradie has worked on it?
That's exactly what the third-party alteration exclusion is for, and it's standard. Write it specifically: your cover on the altered part ends, the rest of your work stands. Then apply it consistently, because an exclusion you ignore half the time is hard to rely on when it matters.
Should the warranty go on the quote or the invoice?
Both. On the quote it's a selling point and it sets expectations before the client commits. On the invoice or the completion paperwork it's the version they keep, with the job number and the completion date on it — which is what they'll be holding when they call you.