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Canyon Country / Santa Clarita / California
How to cancel a kitchen contract, and how the clock works
Three business days, five for a senior citizen, counted from the day you get the signed copy.
You are allowed to change your mind. For a kitchen contract signed anywhere other than the contractor's own office, California gives you three business days to cancel, no reason required and no penalty. Here is how the clock actually runs, the one case where it does not apply, and how to cancel so that it counts.
- CSLB licensed contractor
- Free home visit
- Quoted in writing
- 3Business days to cancelCounted from the day you receive a signed, dated copy of the contract that carries the cancellation notice.
- 5Business days for a senior citizenEvery "three" and "third" in the notice becomes "five" and "fifth" if the buyer is a senior citizen.
- 10Days to get your money backOnce you cancel, the contractor has to return anything you paid within ten days.
How the clock works
The three days do not start when you shake hands or say yes on the phone. They start when a specific thing happens, and getting that straight is most of the protection.
- 01The clock starts on the signed copy
Not the verbal agreement. Receiving a copy that is signed and dated by both of you, and that contains the cancellation notice, is the moment the three business days begin.
- 02Business days, not calendar days
Sundays and nine listed holidays do not count against your three days, and Saturdays do, under the definition of a business day. A copy received on a Friday has its three days on Saturday, Monday and Tuesday.
- 03Cancel in writing
Email, mail, fax, or hand deliver a written notice to the contractor at the address printed on the contract, by midnight of the third business day. A phone call is not a cancellation.
- 04Say who and when
Include your name, your address, and the date you received the signed copy. That is all the notice has to contain.
Find your last day
Pick the day you received the signed copy, and say if you are 65 or older. The clock counts the business days for you and shows the day the written notice has to go out by.
The exact notice your contract has to carry
This wording is not ours and it is not a summary. The law makes the contractor print it, in at least 12 point boldface, right next to a space reserved for your signature, which you sign and date to show you received it. If this box is not in your contract, that is itself grounds for a complaint.
Three-Day Right to Cancel
You, the buyer, have the right to cancel this contract within three business days. You may cancel by emailing, mailing, faxing, or delivering a written notice to the contractor at the contractor's place of business by midnight of the third business day after you received a signed and dated copy of the contract that includes this notice. Include your name, your address, and the date you received the signed copy of the contract and this notice.
If you cancel, the contractor must return to you anything you paid within 10 days of receiving the notice of cancellation. For your part, you must make available to the contractor at your residence, in substantially as good condition as you received them, goods delivered to you under this contract or sale.
Source Business and Professions Code 7159
The one case where it does not apply
The three day right is built for the sale that comes to you, at the kitchen table or on the doorstep. If you went to the contractor's own place of business and negotiated and signed the contract there, the right does not attach. That is the main exception, and it is worth knowing before you assume you can always walk it back.
- Signed at their office
- A contract negotiated at the contractor's own place of business does not carry the three day right. The protection is for the sale that came to your home, not the showroom you chose to visit.
- A senior citizen gets five
- If the buyer is a senior citizen, the window is five business days instead of three, and the notice itself is retitled to say so.
- Seven days after a disaster
- For repair or restoration of a home damaged in a declared emergency, the window is seven business days. Different situation from a planned kitchen, but the same idea, more room to reconsider.
If the notice is missing
If your contract does not contain the cancellation notice at all, the law does not just shrug. It says plainly that you may file a complaint with the Contractors State License Board. A missing notice is one of the clearest signs that the contract was not written to the standard the law sets, which is a good reason to look again at everything the contract should contain and at the contractor's license record before the work goes any further. If you are starting over with someone new, one call about a kitchen remodel in Canyon Country is where that begins.
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- How to check a contractor's licenseThe free state lookup, the license classes, and what a bad result looks like.
- What a kitchen remodel costs hereSurvey figures, City permit fees, and the scope ladder that sets the number.
- How this service worksWhat happens after you get in touch, and what we never do.
- Kitchen remodel help in Canyon CountryOne call, then a licensed contractor at your home with a written quote.
Tell us about the kitchen and we connect you with a licensed contractor who comes to your home and quotes it.