“Cool-Off” Periods Protect Consumers

By Curtis Kaiser

Since the beginning of this year, I have been teaching a contracts class for paralegal students at the University of California, Irvine. One of the students’ favorite subject areas (or, perhaps one of those they dread the least) is when we talk about little-known areas of California law that protect consumers. One of those areas is statutory cancellation periods.

Statutory cancellation periods are also known as “cool-off” periods. Some states notably have these cool-off periods for automobile purchases, but as many of you who have recently purchased a car surely know (because of the many signs in the dealership informing you so), California does not have such a law (although it does have “cool-off” laws for service contracts on new and used cars). Without a cool-off period, cancellation procedures for a contract are governed by the contract terms themselves.

What you may not know however, is that California does protect consumers with “cool-off” periods for a number of contracts — some of them quite surprising. Keep in mind that even where a consumer may cancel a contract after signing because of a statutory cancellation period, the consumer will typically need to pay for services and goods already provided and that California statutes typically provide specific steps the consumer would need to follow to take advantage of these protections.

For those of you who watched ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars,” and thought you and your partner would be gliding across the stage in no time, take heart — you can cancel dance lessons for six months after you sign up. If you don’t have a dance partner and signed up for a dating service looking for your Fred Astaire, you can cancel that service, too, if they don’t deliver Mr. Right or Ms. Right within three business days. For those worrying more about your mortality than your dancing ability or your love life, you get some relief too: funeral contracts are cancellable at any time (as long as you cancel before you need to use the mortuary’s services!).

If you join a health club or weight-loss service in a fit of inspiration and realize shortly thereafter that you prefer the couch to the recumbent bicycle or that you prefer sampling the cuisine on Second Street to the more spartan food options offered by your weight-loss service, you better get back to the club or weight-loss center quickly — you again have only three business days to cancel.

If while you are sitting on the couch, you decide to buy a product from a door-to-door salesman (perhaps a lovely encyclopedia set, water treatment device, vacuum or magazine subscription) and later regret the purchase, the State of California requires that the merchant refund your money if you cancel the contract within three days.

And of course … within three business days, you can cancel the timeshare you just bought on your recent vacation.

Curtis Kaiser is a longtime Long Beach resident whose law practice focuses on estate planning and contract law. The information presented here is not to be construed as legal advice.