Legal

Refund & Cancellation Policy

1. How this fits together

BuildRelay is a marketplace: the contract to buy a material is between the buyer and the seller, not with BuildRelay. This policy explains what happens to a payment at each stage of that transaction, given that BuildRelay holds funds until collection or delivery is confirmed, and how to raise a problem if something goes wrong. It works alongside our Terms and Conditions.

2. Before payment

Nothing has been charged yet, so:

A seller can edit, pause, or remove a listing at any time.
A buyer can withdraw an offer or a wanted request at any time.
If a buyer makes an offer and a seller hasn't accepted it, no money moves and nothing is owed either way.

3. After payment, before collection or delivery

Once a buyer pays, BuildRelay holds the funds — the seller is not paid yet. During this stage:

If the seller cancels (for example, the material turned out not to be available), the buyer is refunded in full, automatically, with no fee charged to either side.
If the buyer cancels before collection has been arranged, and the seller agrees, the buyer is refunded in full.
If the buyer wants to cancel but the seller has already prepared the material for collection or delivery, the seller can decline the cancellation; the order proceeds and any dispute is handled under section 5.
New subscription purchases (Trade or Business plans) can be cancelled within 14 days of purchase under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, for a full refund of the unused portion — see section 6.

No Buyer Protection Fee is ever charged on an order that doesn't complete.

4. Collection and delivery no-shows

If a buyer doesn't collect at the agreed time without reasonable notice, the seller can report this from the order. After a short window with no resolution, BuildRelay may cancel the order and refund the buyer, and may apply a no-show record to the buyer's account for repeated cases.
If a seller isn't ready at the agreed collection time, or delivery doesn't arrive as agreed, the buyer can report this from the order, and is entitled to a full refund if the seller can't complete the handover within a reasonable period.

5. After collection or delivery — if something's wrong

Once both sides confirm the handover, the order is marked complete and funds are released to the seller. If the material wasn't as described, was damaged, or the quantity was short:

Contact the seller first, through the order thread, with photos if relevant. Most issues are resolved directly.
If you can't resolve it together, either party can open a dispute from the order within 14 days of collection or delivery. BuildRelay's support team will review the listing, the messages, and any evidence provided.
Depending on what we find, an outcome can include a full or partial refund (funded by the seller, or by BuildRelay where funds are still recoverable), a replacement or top-up agreed between the parties, or the dispute being closed if the evidence doesn't support a refund.

What you're entitled to also depends on who you bought from:

Buying from a trade or business seller

You're a consumer buying from a business, so the Consumer Rights Act 2015 applies between you and that seller — the material must match its description, be of satisfactory quality, and be fit for any purpose you made known. If it isn't, you may be entitled to a repair, replacement, price reduction, or refund from the seller.

Buying from a private seller

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 protections above don't apply in the same way between two private individuals. You're still entitled to a material that matches its description and that the seller had the right to sell, but the statutory remedies are more limited than when buying from a business. Check a listing carefully and ask questions before buying from a private seller.

BuildRelay isn't the seller and can't override this underlying legal position, but our dispute process exists to help both sides reach a fair outcome quickly, using the funds we're still holding wherever possible.

6. Cancelling a subscription plan

Cancel a Trade or Business plan at any time from Settings. You'll keep your plan's benefits until the end of the billing period you've already paid for; it won't renew after that.
New subscriptions can be cancelled within 14 days of purchase for a full refund, under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 — unless you've actively used paid features (such as an included Boost or Featured credit) during that window, in which case a deduction may apply for what you've used.
Outside the 14-day window, subscription payments are non-refundable for the remainder of the current billing period, whether billed monthly or annually. Downgrading takes effect at your next renewal, not immediately.
If you downgrade below your current number of active listings, your existing listings stay live, but you won't be able to publish new ones until you're back under your new plan's limit.

7. Boost and Featured promotions

Once a Boost or Featured promotion has started running against a listing, it's a digital service that's been delivered and is non-refundable, including if the listing sells, is paused, or is removed before the promotion period ends — except where required by law (for example, if the promotion never actually activated due to a fault on our side).

8. How refunds are paid

Refunds are returned to the original payment method via Stripe. Depending on your bank, this can take 5–10 working days to appear after we process it. BuildRelay doesn't hold or transfer refunds by any other method.

9. Reporting a problem

Start any cancellation, dispute, or refund request from the relevant order in your account, or contact [contact@buildrelay.co.uk] with your order reference. We aim to respond to disputes within 2 working days.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. We'll give reasonable notice of material changes before they take effect.