Deposits and down payments by trade

The scenario — paid up front, cancelled the night before

A food truck is booked for a Saturday festival, a deposit down and the inventory bought. Friday night the organizer calls it off, or worse, does not call at all. The question is not whether to be annoyed. It is what the words on the booking form said.

A deposit is a contract term. What it protects, when it is refundable, and what happens on cancellation are all terms you set before taking the money, and they are enforceable exactly as written, so long as they were written.

The mistake is not charging the deposit. It is taking the money with no terms attached, because with no terms a magistrate decides what was fair, and a disputed Saturday with nothing in writing is a coin flip with paperwork.

$7,500A South Carolina magistrate has concurrent civil jurisdiction over actions arising on contracts for the recovery of money only, up to $7,500, which is the forum a disputed deposit ends up in. — South Carolina Code of Laws, Title 22, Chapter 3, retrieved 2026-09-29

The mover's ceiling — the one deposit rule written in regulation

An interstate household goods mover has the one set of deposit rules this site covers that were not written by the mover. They sit in the federal transportation regulations, and they set both a floor and a ceiling on what happens at delivery.

A non-binding estimate must state on its face that the customer will not be required to pay more than 110 percent of the estimate at the time of delivery. At the door, if the customer pays at least 110 percent of a non-binding estimate on a collect-on-delivery shipment, the mover must relinquish possession of the shipment.

The ceiling cuts both ways. It protects the customer from a hostage truck, and it protects the honest mover's schedule, because it converts a payment argument at the curb into a small, known number with a delivery at the end of it. What it does not cover is a deposit agreed up front for extra services, which rides the tariff.

110%A non-binding household goods estimate must clearly state that the shipper will not be required to pay more than 110 percent of it at the time of delivery. — 49 CFR Part 375, 2024 annual edition, retrieved 2026-09-29

110%If a shipper pays at least 110 percent of a non-binding estimate on a collect-on-delivery shipment, the mover must relinquish possession of the shipment at the time of delivery. — 49 CFR Part 375, 2024 annual edition, retrieved 2026-09-29

The food truck and the salon — deposits instead of liens

A food truck cannot lien a festival, and a salon cannot lien a client's head. Neither trade improved real estate, so neither has the collection tool that makes an electrician sleep well, whatever the invoice says.

That is exactly why the deposit does different work for these trades. For a food truck it is a calendar-lock: the deposit buys the date, and the cancellation terms say what happens when the date is given back. For a salon it covers the chair time a no-show leaves empty, which is why booth-renting stylists set no-show terms at booking rather than chasing them afterward.

Write the retention rule in the booking terms: the deposit holds the date, a cancellation inside 14 days keeps the deposit, and a weather cancellation rebooks rather than refunds. Whatever the split, it must be on the form the customer signs or clicks before the money moves.

South Carolina's lien statute covers labor or materials actually used in the erection, alteration or repair of a building or structure on real estate, not a festival or salon service. — South Carolina Code of Laws, Title 29, Chapter 5, retrieved 2026-09-29

The cleaner and the contractor — prepayment on commercial work

A commercial cleaning contract usually runs on terms, not deposits: first month up front, or the last month held. The tool is the contract's payment schedule and the termination clause, enforced up to $7,500 in the magistrate's court.

On construction the prepayment question runs the other way: the customer may be the one holding money back. The prompt payment statute lets an owner, contractor or subcontractor withhold a reasonable amount for retainage, alongside grounds like unsatisfactory progress or defective work not remedied.

A contractor taking a deposit should still write what it is for: materials ordered, the schedule slot, mobilization. When the lien clock starts on the last furnishing, a deposit that covered materials is part of the account, and the statement of account must give all just credits. How to file a mechanics' lien covers the account the lien needs.

The prompt payment chapter permits withholding for unsatisfactory job progress, defective construction not remedied, disputed work, third party claims, damage, or reasonable retainage. — South Carolina Code of Laws, Title 29, Chapter 6, retrieved 2026-09-29

Terms that make the deposit collectable later

Three sentences on the booking form do most of the work. What the deposit holds. What cancels it. What the customer owes if they cancel inside the notice window.

A mover's paperwork already carries its federal sentences, and the trade's regulator wrote them. For every other trade on this page, the sentences are yours, and the day to write them is the day you build the booking form, not the day a customer asks for their money back.

If a deposit check itself bounces on the way in, the bounced-check statute takes over: a written demand by certified mail with a 30-day window precedes a claim for the amount plus damages up to three times it. What to do when a check bounces is that procedure, and the past-due checklist covers the escalation when the deposit was the easy part and the balance is what went bad.

30 daysA person who fails to satisfy a dishonored check within 30 days after written demand by certified mail is liable for the amount owing plus damages of the lesser of $500 or three times the check. — South Carolina Code of Laws, Title 34, Chapter 11, retrieved 2026-09-29

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