Consumer Protection: Right of Senior Citizens to Cancel Contracts Expanded

Extends, from three to five business days, the right to cancel certain consumer contracts for persons 65 years of age or older, including the right to cancel a PACE lien contract.

The major provisions of this law include:

1) Defines a senior citizen as an individual who is 65 years of age or older.

2) Extends the buyer's right to cancel a home improvement contract to five business days if the buyer is a senior citizen. Prescribes the form and content of a notice of this right to cancel.

3) Extends the buyer's right to cancel a service and repair contract to five business days if the buyer is a senior citizen, unless specied emergency conditions exist. Prescribes the form and content of a notice of this right to cancel.

4) Extends the buyer's right to cancel a home solicitation contract to midnight of the fifth business day after the contract or oer is signed if the buyer is a senior citizen. Prescribes the form and content of a notice of this right to cancel.

5) Extends the buyer's right to cancel a seminar sales solicitation contract or offer to midnight of the fifth business day after the contract or oer is signed if the buyer is a senior citizen. Prescribes the form and content of a notice of this right to cancel.

6) Extends a senior citizen property owner's right to cancel a Property Assessed Clean Energy  (PACE) assessment contract to within five business days of the latest of a) the date on which the  contract was signed, b) the date on which the property owner received a statutorily prescribed  Financing Estimate or Disclosure, or c) the date on which the property owner received the notice of  their right to cancel. Prescribes the form and content of a notice of this right to cancel.

Assembly Bill 2471 is codied as Business and Professions Code Sections 7150, 7159, and 7159.10,
Civil Code Sections 1689.5, 1689.6, 1689.7, 1689.13, 1689.20, 1689.21, and 1689.24, and the Streets and Highways Code Sections 5898.16 and 5898.17.

The extended right to cancel set forth in 2) through 6) applies to contracts entered into on or after January 1, 2021.