The FTC’s Cooling-Off Rule gives you three business days to cancel most purchases of $25 or more made at your home, or $130 or more at a temporary sales location like a hotel meeting room or fairground. Codified at 16 C.F.R. Part 429, it exists because a sales pitch in your living room or at a rented convention hall works differently than a store visit you chose on your own terms. To use it, you send the seller a written cancellation notice postmarked by midnight of the third business day after the sale.
Which Sales Qualify
The rule reaches any sale, lease, or rental of consumer goods or services where a seller personally solicits you and you sign somewhere other than the seller’s permanent place of business.1eCFR. 16 CFR Part 429 – Rule Concerning Cooling-off Period for Sales Made at Homes or at Certain Other Locations “Consumer goods or services” covers anything bought primarily for personal, family, or household use: vacuum cleaners, water filtration systems, pest control contracts, magazine subscriptions, home improvement work, and much more.
The dollar threshold depends on location. Sales at your home qualify at $25 or more. Sales at a temporary venue such as a hotel room, fairground, restaurant, or your workplace qualify at $130 or more. Purchase price includes interest and service charges, not just the sticker figure.2eCFR. 16 CFR Part 429 – Rule Concerning Cooling-off Period for Sales Made at Homes or at Certain Other Locations – Section: 429.0(e)
A point that trips people up: the rule still applies when you invited the salesperson over. It expressly covers solicitations made “in response to or following an invitation by the buyer.”3eCFR. 16 CFR Part 429 – Rule Concerning Cooling-off Period for Sales Made at Homes or at Certain Other Locations – Section: 429.0 Definitions Call a window company, sign a contract at your kitchen table, and the three-day right is yours. Leases and rentals count too, so a water softener rental pitched at your door falls under the rule just like a purchase.
Sales the Rule Does Not Reach
Several categories sit outside the rule even when the sale happens at your home or a temporary location:
- Real estate sales or rentals.4eCFR. 16 CFR Part 429 – Rule Concerning Cooling-off Period for Sales Made at Homes or at Certain Other Locations – Section: 429.0(a)(6)
- Insurance and securities, which have their own cancellation frameworks.4eCFR. 16 CFR Part 429 – Rule Concerning Cooling-off Period for Sales Made at Homes or at Certain Other Locations – Section: 429.0(a)(6)
- Motor vehicles sold at a temporary tent sale run by a dealer with a permanent lot.5eCFR. 16 CFR Part 429 – Rule Concerning Cooling-off Period for Sales Made at Homes or at Certain Other Locations – Section: 429.3(a)
- Arts and crafts sold at fairs and similar events.6eCFR. 16 CFR Part 429 – Rule Concerning Cooling-off Period for Sales Made at Homes or at Certain Other Locations – Section: 429.3(b)
- Deals you first negotiated at the seller’s fixed retail location and then completed elsewhere.7eCFR. 16 CFR 429.0 – Definitions
- Sales conducted entirely by mail, telephone, or online, which fall under separate regulations.8Federal Trade Commission. Buyer’s Remorse: The FTC’s Cooling-Off Rule May Help
- Emergency repairs you requested, but only if you signed a separate handwritten statement describing the emergency and waiving the cancellation right.9eCFR. 16 CFR Part 429 – Rule Concerning Cooling-off Period for Sales Made at Homes or at Certain Other Locations – Section: 429.0(a)(3)
Read the emergency-repair exclusion narrowly. It covers only the specific repair you called about. Anything the technician upsells beyond the parts needed to fix the original problem is covered by the Cooling-Off Rule and carries the full three-day right.10eCFR. 16 CFR Part 429 – Rule Concerning Cooling-off Period for Sales Made at Homes or at Certain Other Locations – Section: 429.0(a)(5) The plumber you called for a burst pipe is exempt; the whole-house water treatment system pitched while they’re there is not.
What the Seller Must Give You at Signing
Before the salesperson walks away, they must hand you a receipt or contract copy showing the date of the sale, the seller’s name, and the seller’s business address. If the pitch was in a language other than English, the receipt must be in that same language.11eCFR. 16 CFR Part 429 – Rule Concerning Cooling-off Period for Sales Made at Homes or at Certain Other Locations – Section: 429.1(a)
You must also receive two copies of a “Notice of Right to Cancel” or “Notice of Cancellation” form. The form has to be easily detachable and must state how to cancel, where to send the notice, and the exact deadline. On top of that paperwork, the seller has to tell you out loud at signing that you have a right to cancel.12eCFR. 16 CFR Part 429 – Rule Concerning Cooling-off Period for Sales Made at Homes or at Certain Other Locations – Section: 429.1(e)
Check the date on your receipt before the salesperson leaves. That date starts the three-day clock, and a wrong entry can shorten your window or spark a dispute later.
How to Cancel in Time
You do not need a lawyer or a formal legal document. The simplest route is to sign and date one of the two Notice of Cancellation forms the seller provided and send it to the seller’s business address. The rule also lets you cancel using “any other written notice” that communicates your intent — a letter, a note, anything in writing.13eCFR. 16 CFR 429.1 – Rule Concerning Cooling-off Period for Sales Made at Homes or at Certain Other Locations You can mail it, hand-deliver it to the seller’s place of business, or send a telegram.
The deadline is midnight of the third business day after the sale. For this rule, business day means every calendar day except Sundays and federal holidays. Saturdays count.14eCFR. 16 CFR Part 429 – Rule Concerning Cooling-off Period for Sales Made at Homes or at Certain Other Locations – Section: 429.0(f) A Friday purchase gives you until midnight the following Wednesday: Saturday is day one, Sunday is skipped, Monday is day two, Tuesday is day three. When mailing, the postmark date is what matters, not when the seller actually receives your notice.
Send it certified mail, return receipt requested. The mailing receipt with tracking number proves when you sent it, and the return receipt confirms delivery.15United States Postal Service. Certified Mail – The Basics Keep the copy of your notice, the certified mail receipt, and the return receipt card together. If the seller later claims the notice never arrived or came in late, those records settle it.
If the seller never gave you the cancellation forms, write your own letter. State that you are canceling the transaction, include the sale date and your signature, and mail it to the seller’s address. The FTC says to get it postmarked within three business days of the sale.8Federal Trade Commission. Buyer’s Remorse: The FTC’s Cooling-Off Rule May Help The seller’s failure to provide the forms is itself a violation, which only strengthens your position later.
What the Seller Must Do After You Cancel
Once the seller receives a valid cancellation notice, a strict timeline starts. Within 10 business days, the seller must refund every payment you made, return any goods you traded in, and cancel and return any promissory notes or checks you signed.16eCFR. 16 CFR Part 429 – Rule Concerning Cooling-off Period for Sales Made at Homes or at Certain Other Locations – Section: 429.1(g)
If the seller already delivered goods to your home, you must make them available for pickup in substantially the same condition as when you received them. Within those same 10 business days, the seller has to tell you whether it plans to pick up the goods or abandon them. If it chooses pickup, it has 20 days from the cancellation date to collect them. If you prefer to ship instead, the seller must pay all shipping costs and bear the risk of damage in transit.17eCFR. 16 CFR Part 429 – Rule Concerning Cooling-off Period for Sales Made at Homes or at Certain Other Locations – Section: 429.1(b)
If the seller fails to pick up the goods or give you shipping instructions within 20 days, you can keep the items with no further obligation. The rule does not leave this ambiguous: once the 20-day window closes, you may retain or dispose of the goods at will.17eCFR. 16 CFR Part 429 – Rule Concerning Cooling-off Period for Sales Made at Homes or at Certain Other Locations – Section: 429.1(b)
When the Seller Refuses to Comply
The rule does not let you sue the seller in federal court on your own. Enforcement runs through the FTC and through state authorities. The FTC can bring a civil action against a seller that knowingly violates the rule. The statutory base penalty is $10,000 per violation, adjusted for inflation each year. As of the January 2025 adjustment, the maximum civil penalty is $53,088 per violation.18Federal Register. Adjustments to Civil Penalty Amounts Separate failures count independently: not providing the cancellation notice, refusing to honor a valid cancellation, and failing to refund can each trigger a separate penalty.
If a seller refuses to provide the required forms, refuses to accept your cancellation, or will not issue a refund, report it to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. File a complaint with your state attorney general and your local consumer protection agency as well.8Federal Trade Commission. Buyer’s Remorse: The FTC’s Cooling-Off Rule May Help Many states have their own door-to-door sales laws that provide remedies the federal rule does not, including the right to sue the seller directly for damages.
Home Improvement Contracts Get a Second Cancellation Right
Door-to-door home improvement sales create an overlap with another federal cancellation right that many consumers miss. When a home improvement contract involves a lien on your home, common with contractor financing, the Truth in Lending Act gives you a separate three-business-day right to rescind under Regulation Z.19Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Regulation Z (Truth in Lending) – Right of Rescission This rescission right is independent of the FTC Cooling-Off Rule, so both may apply to the same transaction.
The TILA right has a much larger backstop when the creditor drops the ball. If the contractor or lender never delivered the required disclosures or the notice of your right to rescind, the cancellation window extends to three years from the date the loan was finalized.19Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Regulation Z (Truth in Lending) – Right of Rescission Rescinding under TILA voids the security interest on your home, wipes out finance charges, and gives the creditor 20 calendar days to return your money and release the lien. The TILA right does not apply to the initial purchase of a home or to standard mortgage transactions.20eCFR. 12 CFR 1026.23 – Right of Rescission
State Laws May Give You More Time
The federal Cooling-Off Rule sets a floor, not a ceiling. It expressly does not preempt state or local laws on door-to-door sales, so long as they are not directly inconsistent with the federal protections.21eCFR. 16 CFR Part 429 – Rule Concerning Cooling-off Period for Sales Made at Homes or at Certain Other Locations – Section: 429.2 Most states have their own home solicitation statutes, and some offer longer cancellation windows. A handful count business days differently, notably by excluding Saturdays.
State laws may also cover categories the FTC exempts, such as health club memberships, timeshare contracts, or home improvement deals below the federal price thresholds. Because these protections vary by state, check with your state attorney general’s office or local consumer protection agency to see what extra rights apply where you live.