Band 3 of 6
Prices, quotes and hire terms
The price a skip hire business shows you must be the total: a single figure that includes taxes and every unavoidable or pre-selected extra fee. The hire agreement is a contract, and since 9 November 2023 using unfair terms in a standard form contract has been banned, with penalties for breaches.
General information, not legal advice. The ACCC’s pages on prices and contracts, linked at the foot of this page, are the place to check.
The total price, as one figure
The ACCC says businesses must give clear and accurate prices before you book, order or buy, and must not mislead you about them. It sets the standard in two sentences:
“Businesses must display the total price of a product or service as a single figure. This price must be the minimum total cost – the lowest amount a customer could pay, including any taxes, duties and unavoidable or pre-selected extra fees.”
ACCC, Price displays
| What you see | What the rule says |
|---|---|
| A price at the start of an online booking, with fees added as you go | This is what the ACCC calls drip pricing. Businesses must say clearly, at the start of buying, which kinds of fees will apply and when. |
| An extra that is already ticked | If the business pre-selects an extra, so that you pay for it unless you remove it, it belongs in the total price. |
| An extra you can choose to add | Optional charges that are not pre-selected do not have to be in the total. |
| A price for one part of the hire | If a partial price is shown, the total price must be shown at least as prominently. |
| Two different prices for the same thing | The business must charge the lower one, or stop selling it until the price is fixed. The ACCC lists cases where this does not apply, among them different prices for different regions, and one price being the minimum total cost including all unavoidable fees. |
Card surcharges, from 1 October 2026
From 1 October 2026, businesses can no longer add a surcharge for paying with Visa, Mastercard, American Express or eftpos credit, debit or prepaid cards. They may still charge other fees or surcharges that do not depend on how you pay. Businesses can generally set their own prices and fees, but must not mislead you about what you will be charged, or why.
A business may offer a discount for paying a particular way, such as cash or PayID. The discount should be made clear before you book, order or pay, and any price shown must be the full price you would pay without it; the discounted price can appear only beside the full one.
The agreement is a contract
Buying a service means entering into a contract with the business that sells it. There is still a contract when nothing is written down; generally, one forms whenever a seller makes an offer and a buyer accepts it. Forcing or pressuring someone into a contract is illegal.
The ACCC’s advice is to read and understand the terms before you accept them, and to talk to a lawyer if you don’t understand them. Don’t count on changing your mind afterwards: ordinary purchases come with no automatic cooling-off period unless the terms give one. The automatic right applies to goods or services bought through door-to-door sales or telemarketing.
Terms that may be unfair
The protection covers standard form contracts, which the ACCC describes this way: “often, a business will use a pre-written contract for all their customers, and the customer can’t change any, or the majority, of the terms of the contract.” The law presumes a contract is a standard form contract, so the side that wrote it has to prove it is not.
The test, in the ACCC’s words
“Contract terms are unfair if they:
- cause a significant imbalance in the rights and obligations of the parties under the contract
- are not reasonably necessary to protect the legitimate interests of the party who gets an advantage from the term, and
- would cause financial or other harm to the other party if enforced.”
The ACCC goes on:
“The law sets out examples of terms that may be unfair, including:
- terms that allow one party (but not the other) to avoid or limit their responsibilities under the contract
- terms that allow one party (but not the other) to end the contract
- terms that penalise one party (but not the other) for breaching or ending the contract
- terms that allow one party (but not the other) to change the terms of the contract.”
A court weighs the contract as a whole, and whether the term is transparent: in reasonably plain language, clear, and not hidden. The law does not reach every term. Among the exceptions the ACCC lists are “terms that set out the upfront price to be paid” and “terms that define the main subject matter of the contract”.
Only a court can finally decide that a term is unfair. If it does, the term is void and stops applying, and the rest of the contract carries on if it can work without it. Before any of that, the ACCC suggests contacting the business and asking it to remove or change a term you think may be unfair.
If a price looks wrong
If you think a price display is misleading, the ACCC’s first step is to contact the business and explain the problem. Anyone can report a false or misleading price display to the ACCC.
What the price buys is set out in band 2, on the consumer guarantees for a hire. Some states also charge a levy on waste received at landfills and other waste facilities, which band 6 explains for NSW, Victoria, the ACT and the NT.
A skip hire business can give you its total price for the job, with every fee it will charge named, and send you its hire terms to read before you agree to them.