§ 40. What you must pay when you cancel

The Craftsman Services Act (Håndverkertjenesteloven)·LOV-1989-06-16-63

Machine-translated from Norwegian. The Norwegian text is the one that applies. Read the original in Norwegian.Norsk English العربية Polski Українська

In brief

The text of the law (unofficial translation)

§ 40. Liability on cancellation

(1) For the part of the service that has been performed or is performed in accordance with § 39, the service provider (tjenesteyter) may claim payment (vederlag) corresponding to what the price would amount to if the job had covered only this part (cf. § 32).
(2) The service provider may further claim compensation for losses resulting from the cancellation. This also applies to lost profit insofar as it is shown that it was not possible to obtain a corresponding profit through jobs for others. In assessing the compensation, the rules in § 30 (1) to (3) otherwise apply correspondingly. Compensation under this subsection may nevertheless not be claimed if it is shown that
  1. the consumer (forbruker) has no use for the service because the item (ting) or property to which the service relates is lost or substantially damaged due to unforeseen circumstances beyond the consumer's control,
  2. law, intervention by a public authority or other corresponding unforeseen circumstances beyond the consumer's control prevent the consumer from making use of the service, or
  3. the consumer cannot pay or provide necessary cooperation (medvirkning) due to an unforeseen obstacle beyond the consumer's control.
(3) The agreement (avtale) may instead set a standard compensation (normalerstatning) (cancellation fee) to be paid if the consumer withdraws the job or requires the work to be stopped, provided that the compensation is reasonable in light of the rules in (1) and (2). The exceptions from the duty to pay compensation in (2) fourth sentence for work that is not performed apply correspondingly.
Source: Lovdata — Håndverkertjenesteloven (the Craftsman Services Act) § 40

What does this mean?

This section answers what cancellation costs you. The first subsection concerns work that has already been done, or that is done after the cancellation in line with § 39. For that part, the tradesperson can claim payment corresponding to the price as it would have been if the job had covered only that particular part. The price is calculated according to the rules in § 32. Example: the consumer cancels in the middle of the job. The tradesperson can then claim payment for the part that has been done, as if it were a separate job.

The second subsection also entitles the tradesperson to compensation for losses caused by the cancellation. This includes lost profit, but only insofar as he shows that he could not have earned the same on other jobs.

There are three exceptions to the duty to pay compensation. Compensation cannot be claimed in these situations. First, if the item or property has been lost or substantially damaged, so that you lose the use of the service, and the cause is unforeseen circumstances beyond your control. Second, if a law, a public intervention or something similar prevents you from benefiting from the service. Third, if an unforeseen obstacle beyond your control means that you can neither pay nor contribute to the work.

The third subsection allows the parties (part) to agree on a cancellation fee instead, that is, a standard compensation. It must be reasonable in light of the rules in the first and second subsections, and the exceptions also apply here. The section builds on § 39, which gives the actual right to cancel. § 44 on the settlement (oppgjør) upon cancellation of the contract (heving) refers to this section, since cancellation of the contract by the tradesperson is decided according to the same rules.

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