Payment protection
When you accept a price, your card is charged and the payment is held at Stripe against your job.1 It goes to the tradesperson only when you release it, when the time to check the work runs out, or when a dispute decides. Until then it is paid to nobody, and it is never paid out to a bank account of Hyyryn’s.
Written for homeowners. Tradespeople, the same rules from your side are under How you get paid.
An example job
Held against job 1042Kitchen worktop and splashback · £1,200
Before anything else
It is
It is not
At each stage
Read down the steps. The drawing keeps pace with you: whose account the money is in at each step, and what can move it from there.
Your card is charged the price you accepted, once. Nothing is added. The money goes into Hyyryn’s account at Stripe and is held against your job.1
Where it is: held at Stripe. What can move it: you can cancel and be refunded in full.
Until the starting photographs are agreed, the work has not officially started. You can cancel from the job and be refunded in full at once, with no fee. If the work has still not started 85 days after you paid, you are refunded in full automatically.12
Where it is: held at Stripe. What can move it: a cancellation, back to you.
The tradesperson photographs the place before touching it, and you agree the photographs. If you say nothing for 48 hours, they count as agreed. The work has now started, and you can release the money whenever you are happy.6
Where it is: held at Stripe. What can move it: you, or a dispute.
Three days for a job under £500, five days at £500 and above, counted from when you agree the finishing photographs. Look at the work. Release it, or raise a dispute and the money freezes where it is.6
Where it is: held at Stripe, with the time to check running. What can move it: you, the clock, or a dispute.
You release it, or the time to check runs out with nothing raised. Stripe pays the tradesperson’s own account, less Hyyryn’s 5% fee. Until a tradesperson has had three payments released, each one moves no sooner than 7 days after you paid.12
Where it is: with the tradesperson. What can move it: nothing on Hyyryn; your rights in law stay yours.
At any point while the money is held, either of you can raise a dispute. It freezes where it is and is paid to nobody until the dispute is decided: to the tradesperson, back to you, or split.7 How a dispute runs
Where it is: held at Stripe, frozen. What can move it: the decision.
Every way out
Nothing else moves a held payment. Point at a way out to follow its line.
A split. Where part of the work was done properly and part was not, the money is divided in proportion to the work agreed. The fee is taken only on the part paid to the tradesperson.8
The longest it can wait. Stripe holds a payment for 90 days at most. If the work has started and nothing has moved it by then, a person at Hyyryn decides where it goes before the 90 days end.12
The start and the finish
Every way out depends on a start and a finish you both agree. The photographs fix them: what was already there cannot be blamed on the work, and what the work did cannot be called old.
Before anything is touched
Taken by the tradesperson on Hyyryn’s camera page, Tue 9 Sep at 08:02, and agreed by you at 08:15. Agreeing them is the official start of the job.
Fingerprint4b1e 77c0 … 2a9f
When the work is finished
Taken by the tradesperson, Thu 11 Sep at 16:20, and agreed by you at 17:40, against the ones from the start. The time to check the work starts here.
Fingerprint9f2c 41e7 … e81a
| Mark | Part | At the start | At the finish |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lights | Bare wires from the ceiling | Pendant lights hung |
| 2 | Cabinets | Peeling, doors off their hinges, gaps | Replaced, wall to wall |
| 3 | Splashback | Bare wall | Tiled |
| 4 | Fridge | An empty space, pipes showing | Fitted |
| 5 | Oven and microwave | None | Fitted |
| 6 | Worktops | Stained and chipped | Replaced |
Example photographs, made for this page. On your job they are the tradesperson’s own pictures of your home, with the parts of the work marked.
Or you contest them
Say a photograph is wrong and the money stays where it is. Contesting is not a dispute: the tradesperson is told, and can take a fresh photograph you can agree, or the two of you talk it through in messages. Until one is agreed, the job has not started, or not finished. Say nothing for 48 hours and it counts as agreed, so look when you are asked.7
Fingerprinted on arrival
Every photograph, note and message filed on a job is fingerprinted the moment it arrives, with a SHA-256 digest that Hyyryn keeps. Anyone can work the fingerprint out again from the file and compare. A match shows the file in front of you is, byte for byte, the file that was sent. It does not show that the person who sent it was honest, and we will not tell you it does.
Something both of you agreed at the time counts for more than anything said later, because two people agreed about the same thing at the same moment.
Try it in your browser
Kept on arrival…
Worked out now…
Change a single letter and the fingerprint no longer matches.
Every clock
What starts each clock on a held payment, how to stop it, and what happens if nobody does. They are drawn on one scale, stretched at the near end so the short ones can be read; point at a row to find its mark.
| Clock | Starts when | To stop it | If nobody acts |
|---|---|---|---|
| 48 hoursto contest a photograph | The photograph is filed | Say what is wrong with it, on the job | It counts as agreed7 |
| 3 or 5 daysto check the work | You agree the finishing photographs | Release it, or raise a dispute | It is released to the tradesperson6 |
| 4 daysto answer a dispute | The other side raises it | Answer, with your evidence | It is decided on the evidence filed7 |
| 14 dayswe aim to decide | The dispute is raised | Settle it between you | A person at Hyyryn picks it up, and you are both told10 |
| 7 daysa new tradesperson’s first three payments | You pay | Nothing to do | It moves on its own when it is due12 |
| 85 daysfor the work to start | You pay | Agree the starting photographs | You are refunded in full, automatically |
| 90 daysStripe’s limit on holding a payment | You pay | Any of the ways out | A person at Hyyryn decides before it ends |
A refund reaches your card in 5 to 10 days, as banks take that long to show it. A release starts the payout at once; when it reaches the tradesperson’s bank depends on Stripe’s payout schedule and their bank.12
If it goes wrong
They never turn up
The money is still held, so there is nothing to claw back from anyone. Where the evidence shows they did not come and the work did not start, you are refunded in full and no fee is taken. A tradesperson this keeps happening to may have their account restricted or closed.9
Refund to your card£1,200.00an example
They cannot do the job
If they tell you and us before the starting photographs are agreed, you cancel from the job and are refunded in full at once. No fee is taken.9
They cannot get in
It is decided on the messages and the photographs, under the same rules as any other.9
The money freezes where it is, and everything sealed on the job locks, so neither side can tidy the record afterwards. Evidence is not needed to raise one; evidence is what decides one.
Whoever did not raise it has 4 days to respond. If they do not, it is decided on what has been filed. Either of you can add evidence until it is decided: photographs, messages, receipts, an independent report.7
By the rules in the terms, the same way every time, and then tell Stripe to pay, refund or split.10
A dispute not decided within 14 days goes to a person at Hyyryn, and both of you are told. The money stays held until it is decided.
To the tradespersonThe work was done to a professional standard.
Back to youIt was not, or it never started.
SplitPart was done properly. The fee comes only from the part paid.
Who decides
Our dispute assistant, a computer program, may make the first decision on a dispute up to a set amount. That amount was £100 on 3 October 2026, and rises only as its decisions are shown to agree with a person’s.11
Always a person
Your rights, if it was automatic
If the assistant decided, we say so and why. You can tell us why you think it is wrong, ask for a person to decide it again, and challenge the outcome: the safeguards in UK GDPR Articles 22A to 22D.11 And whoever decided, you can ask for a person to look again by writing to support@hyyryn.com.
What it costs
You, the homeowner
£0
Nothing on top of the price you agree: not to post a job, ask for prices, message, or for payment protection.13
The tradesperson
5%
Of what is paid to them, taken when it is released, never before, and never more than £500 on a job. No fee on a refund, a cancellation or a no-show.
The fee on four jobs
Not ours to give
These are yours whether or not you use Hyyryn. We set them down here so they are not mistaken for something we offer.
Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 49
A trader’s work must be done with reasonable care and skill. Releasing the money, or a decision on a dispute, does not take that away. You can take advice or go to court at any time, and Citizens Advice can help.14
Read section 49Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013
From accepting a price. Before the work starts, cancel from the job and you are refunded in full. If you asked for work to start inside the 14 days, you pay for what was done up to when you told them, in proportion to the whole price.15
Read regulation 29Your card issuer
You can ask the bank that issued your card to reverse a payment. It decides under the card scheme’s rules, not ours; we answer with the job’s record. Signing work off and then reversing the payment may lead to your account being reviewed.16
Terms, section 8.6Checked against
Each number beside a figure leads here, and the arrow leads back. Checked on 13 October 2026. This page says what the platform does today. If a sentence on Hyyryn and what the platform does disagree, tell us and we will correct it.
Held at Stripe against the job; moved only as the terms set out; never paid out to a bank account of Hyyryn’s.
↩Stripe Payments UK Limited, an electronic money institution authorised by the FCA, firm reference 900461. Company 08480771.
Stripe, authorised payment services · FCA register
↩Hyyryn itself is not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority.
↩The FSCS does not protect money held with e-money institutions and payment providers.
FSCS, e-money and FSCS protection
↩Paid to the tradesperson only on release, when the time to check runs out, or on a dispute’s decision.
↩Three days under £500, five at £500 and above, from when the finishing photographs are agreed; photographs not contested in 48 hours are accepted.
↩Four days to respond to a dispute; evidence until it is decided; a photograph contested within 48 hours of filing.
↩How disputes are decided; a cancellation before the start refunded in full; a split in proportion, the fee only on what the tradesperson is paid.
↩No show, cannot do the job, cannot get in.
↩We aim to decide within 14 days, then a person; the cases a person always decides; a person’s review on request.
↩The dispute assistant’s limit (£100 on 3 October 2026, rising only as a person agrees with it, at most £10,000), and the safeguards on automated decisions.
Privacy notice, section 3A · Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, section 80
↩The 90-day limit; a full refund at 85 days if the work has not started; a new tradesperson’s first three payments; payouts and refunds.
↩Free for homeowners; 5% from the tradesperson on release, capped at £500 a job.
↩Your rights in law are not affected.
Terms, section 8.5 · Consumer Rights Act 2015, s.49
↩The 14 days to cancel the agreement for the work.
Terms, section 8.5A · The Regulations, reg. 29
↩Chargebacks, and how we answer them.
↩Payment protection covers only jobs arranged and paid for on Hyyryn.
↩CheckedAgainst the terms and privacy notice of 12 October 2026, Stripe, the FCA, the FSCS and legislation.gov.uk, on 13 October 2026.
If a line here is wrong, tell us, and the correction goes on the record too.