Estimate
The price a contractor expects, given before anyone has committed to it
An estimate is the price a contractor expects before either side has committed to anything. Everyday English treats that as a ballpark worth nothing. In Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands the law disagrees: an estimate is a price type the statute names, and it carries a ceiling the final bill is measured against.
What statute caps
The tolerance is 15% in Finland and Sweden, around 10% in the Netherlands. What a contractor needs in order to go past it differs by market, and it is not always your say-so.
Finland. A hinta-arvio may be exceeded by no more than 15% unless separately agreed, and the trader has to justify the increase to you (Kuluttajansuojalaki 38/1978, ch. 8 § 24). Unless you agreed otherwise, that figure is the total including parts and materials, not the labour alone.
Sweden. An ungefärligt pris carries the same 15% bound, and it counts even when the number arrived verbally or in an email (Konsumenttjänstlagen 1985:716 § 36 st. 2). Two things sit outside that bound: a different limit agreed up front, and a price supplement under § 38 of the same act. For groundwork or demolition, Hantverkarformuläret 17, the standard repair and renovation form, widens the band to 25%, which is a contract term rather than the statutory default.
Netherlands. A richtprijs may run over by around 10%, and further than that only if the contractor warned you in time and you agreed to carry on (Burgerlijk Wetboek 7:752 lid 2). An overrun from unforeseen cost-increasing circumstances is a different article again, where only a court may adjust the price (7:753).
The bound attaches to the price type, not to any number a contractor says. Each market pairs a bounded type with a weaker one: Finland sets hinta-arvio, which carries the cap, against suuntaa-antava hintatieto, which is non-binding; Sweden sets ungefärligt pris against budgetpris, the weakest signal and non-binding in a commercial context. Ask which of the pair you were given. The Finnish and Swedish rules govern consumer-to-trader work specifically, and in markets outside these three you are on unverified ground, where the cap is a question to ask rather than a rule to assume.
Where confusing it costs money
An invoice arrives 40% over the estimate and gets paid, on the assumption that an estimate never bound anyone. That overrun sits outside the default tolerance in all three markets, so the contractor has to justify it against that market’s own exception rather than simply invoice it.
Lotta compares three estimates as though they were three offers. In Finland the cheapest can legally arrive 15% higher, wider than the gap between the bids she is holding, so a 10% difference does not tell her which will finish cheaper.
Sibling frame: quote, the contractor’s binding offer, and mandate, the ceiling you set yourself. The guide to reading a contractor quote covers the comparison; the guide to setting a mandate covers the ceiling you write.
Common questions
Is an estimate legally binding?
Not binding, but not free either, and the difference matters more than the word suggests. In Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands an estimate is a bounded prediction: the contractor may go over, but only by a set margin, and past that they need either your agreement or their market's own exception (in Sweden, a price supplement under § 38 of Konsumenttjänstlagen 1985:716). So the useful question is which price type they gave you, because the bound attaches to the type. A Finnish hinta-arvio carries it; a suuntaa-antava hintatieto does not, and in Finland the trader has to prove which one they quoted.
The final bill came in far above the estimate. What do I do?
Put the objection in writing before you pay, and ask for the invoice itemised into labour, materials, call-out and VAT. An unitemised total cannot be argued with, only paid or refused, and asking for it is safe in any market. Swedish consumers can go further: Konsumenttjänstlagen 1985:716 gives a right to a specified invoice and lets you pay what you consider reasonable while protesting the rest, with ARN as the dispute route. Withholding part of a payment elsewhere carries more risk, so get the itemisation first and ask what your own market allows.
How do I stop this happening on the next job?
Set the ceiling yourself instead of inheriting the contractor's margin. A mandate is one sentence sent before work starts: you authorise up to a stated amount including VAT, and if the cost will exceed it the contractor stops and puts the revised figure in writing first. Because that ceiling is yours rather than statutory, it does not depend on which price type they happened to give you, and it is yours to set in any market, whatever that market's default rule turns out to be.