Do we have to give a 6-year warranty on our services as our terms and conditions did not mention any warranty?

This article was last updated 0 months ago and may not represent current law.

As an insight into the kind of work I do daily, here’s a genuine question I received this week. For this client, I recently prepared some new and updated terms and conditions, which included their new warranty.

Q: Hi Steven, we’ve been told by a b2b customer that we need to give them a 6-year warranty as one of our earlier quotes didn’t mention a warranty and apparently that entitles them to 6 years!? Is this right?

Hello my dear dear client (I don’t start every email like this admittedly!)

If there’s nothing in the agreement they get no warranty :)

The Sale of Goods Act applies as default. But that relates to goods and not services.

Any goods must be of satisfactory quality and fit for purpose. But that doesn’t come with a set period and certainly not a 6-year warranty.

People often conflate ideas; 6 years is the period in which someone can sue for breach of contract.

However, they need to show you’re in breach of contract and here they’d be solely relying on the sale of goods act. In short, no it’s not 6 years.

If it’s the service they’re unhappy with, the law implies that you’ll carry it out with reasonable care and skill (unless your terms validly exclude that), so they’d have to show that you didn’t. They have up to 6 years to bring that claim, but that’s a time limit for suing and not a warranty.

If it’s the goods they’ve been sold they’re entitled to satisfactory quality.

Personally, I don’t think you sell goods. You sell services. So I think they’re high and dry as far as a warranty goes.

As always though, customer service comes before legal backlines.

Hope this helps.

Steven Mather

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Written by Steven Mather, a business solicitor acting on company sales and purchases. This is general information about the law, not legal advice on your situation. Law correct as at 7 October 2026.