Repair estimates under section 15 of the CPA
What section 15 of South Africa's Consumer Protection Act requires before a workshop may charge for a repair, and how to keep proof of authorisation.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Automotive businesses in South Africa
"I never agreed to that." Every South African service adviser has heard it at the counter, usually about an invoice that came out higher than the customer expected. Sometimes the customer did agree, over the phone, to a technician who has since gone home. Sometimes nobody asked. Either way, the workshop is arguing about money it may not be entitled to charge.
Section 15 of the Consumer Protection Act deals with exactly this situation. It sets out when a repair or maintenance provider may charge for its work, what it may charge for an estimate, and what happens when the job grows. This article explains the section, as published on Acts Online, in workshop terms, and how to keep the proof you need.
When section 15 applies
Section 15 applies to repair and maintenance transactions above a monetary threshold that the Minister prescribes in the Government Gazette, where the provider takes possession of the consumer's property, or where the consumer asks for an estimate. A car left at a workshop for a repair is the textbook case of taking possession.
The threshold is set by notice and can change, so check the current figure rather than relying on memory. In practice, many workshops simply apply the section 15 routine to every job where they keep the car, which avoids having to decide case by case.
The full text is on Acts Online's page for section 15, pre-authorisation of repair or maintenance services.
The three lawful routes to charging
Section 15 says a repair or maintenance provider must not charge for the work unless one of these happened first:
- An authorised estimate. The workshop gave the consumer an estimate that meets the prescribed requirements, and the consumer then authorised the work.
- A declined estimate, with authorisation. The consumer, in writing or another recorded form, declined an estimate and authorised the work anyway.
- A pre-authorised maximum. The consumer, in writing or another recorded form, pre-authorised charges up to a specified maximum.
The second and third routes depend on a written or recorded form. A verbal "just fix it" at the counter, with nothing written down, leaves the workshop with no evidence of which route was used.
Charging for the estimate itself
Finding out what is wrong often takes real work: a diagnostic scan, stripping down a gearbox, removing a cylinder head. Section 15(3) says a provider may not charge for preparing an estimate, including diagnostic work, disassembly or reassembly, or parts damaged in preparing the estimate, unless it disclosed the price of the estimate beforehand and the consumer approved it.
So if the workshop wants to be paid for a strip-down, or for reassembling a gearbox the customer then decides not to repair, that charge has to be priced and approved before the work starts. It is good practice to make the estimate charge a line on the check-in form, separately signed.
When the job grows
The commonest dispute is the job that turns out bigger than expected. A service reveals worn brake discs; a clutch replacement reveals a leaking rear main seal. Section 15(4) says a supplier that has given an estimate may not charge more than the estimate unless it told the consumer about the additional estimated charges and the consumer authorised the work to continue.
The practical rule for the workshop floor: stop, call, record. The technician stops at the point where extra work is needed. The service adviser contacts the customer with the extra work and its estimated price. The customer's authorisation is recorded before the technician carries on.
Plain language
The dtic's booklet on the Consumer Protection Act, dated April 2020, says consumers have the right to information and contracts in plain and understandable language. An estimate full of part codes and abbreviations does not help a customer make an informed decision. Describe the work and the parts in words a car owner understands.
Sending the estimate for signature in Achekam
Achekam does not prepare section 15 estimates for you, and it cannot tell whether your estimate meets the prescribed requirements. What it can do is make the authorisation easy to obtain and impossible to lose.
Any document can be sent for electronic signature, with signature and initials fields placed on it, signers in order or all at once, an expiry and reminders. The document can be an uploaded PDF, a document composed from text blocks with merge fields, or a saved template. When the customer signs, the signed PDF and a completion certificate are filed back into Documents.
An envelope with a signer from outside the business must be linked to a client or a CRM lead before it is sent, so the customer has to exist in Achekam first. That is a useful discipline: the signed estimate is tied to the customer's record from the start.
One limit to know: a business cannot yet save a plain sales quote in Achekam and later turn it into an invoice. Quotes on the Billing & Finance and Smart Accounting pages live only in the browser and are lost on reload. For now, prepare the estimate as a document, send it for signature, and keep the signed copy as the authoritative version.
Invoicing only what was authorised
When the work is done, create the customer invoice as a draft, which can be changed or deleted until it is issued. Before issuing, compare it line by line with the signed estimate and any recorded authorisations for extra work. Anything on the draft that nobody authorised should come off. Issuing takes the next number in the sequence and posts the invoice to the ledger as debtors, sales and output VAT.
Then file the evidence together. Document Centre is a folder-based store where a business uploads files or whole folders, previews, downloads, renames, moves, tags and searches them, and a new version keeps earlier ones. A folder per job, holding the check-in form, the signed estimate, any extra authorisations and the invoice, answers "I never agreed to that" in one place.
For how parts should appear on the bill, see parts on workshop invoices; for the evidence an e-signature leaves behind, read e-signature certificates by country.
Section 15 rewards workshops that ask before they charge. The paperwork is simply how you show you asked.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
