It’s late spring, which means the door-knockers are back: roofing crews “already working in your neighborhood,” pest-control reps with a today-only price, solar pitches, water-treatment demos, vacuum salespeople who somehow talk their way into the living room. Some of these offers are legitimate. Plenty are overpriced. And every year, people sign contracts on their own doorstep that they regret before the salesperson’s truck has left the street.

Federal law builds in an escape hatch for exactly this moment. The Federal Trade Commission’s Cooling-Off Rule gives you the right to cancel many sales made at your home — for a full refund, no reason required — until midnight of the third business day after the sale. Here’s how the rule actually works, where it doesn’t apply, and how to cancel in a way that sticks.

What the rule covers

The Cooling-Off Rule applies to sales made away from the seller’s permanent place of business: at your home, your workplace, or a dorm, and at a seller’s temporary location such as a hotel room, convention center, fairground, or restaurant. It covers sales of $25 or more made at your home, and $130 or more at temporary locations, per the FTC’s consumer guidance.

One detail people get wrong: the rule still applies if you invited the salesperson in. Asking a roofing company to come give you an estimate doesn’t waive your three days. The location of the deal is what matters, not who initiated the visit.

What it doesn’t cover

The exceptions matter as much as the rule, because sellers who know the law will sometimes imply you have three days when you don’t — or the reverse. Under the FTC’s guidance, the rule does not cover sales that are:

— made entirely online, by mail, or by phone (those have their own rules, but not this one);
— completed at the seller’s permanent place of business, where they regularly sell that product;
— for real estate, insurance, or securities;
— for cars and other motor vehicles sold at temporary locations, if the seller has at least one permanent place of business;
— for arts or crafts sold at fairs, malls, civic centers, or schools;
— needed to meet a genuine emergency;
— or repairs and maintenance you specifically asked the seller to come do — though anything they sell you beyond that request is covered.

The rule also applies only to goods and services mainly for personal, family, or household use, with one notable exception: instruction and training courses are covered regardless of why you’re taking them — a provision aimed at high-pressure seminar and coaching sales.

The paperwork the seller must hand you

At the time of sale, the seller is legally required to tell you about your cancellation right and give you two copies of a cancellation form (one to keep, one to send) plus a dated copy of the contract or receipt showing the seller’s name and address and explaining your right to cancel. The contract must be in the same language the sales pitch was made in. The full requirements are spelled out in the regulation itself, 16 CFR Part 429.

If a door-to-door seller shrugs when you ask about cancellation forms, treat that as useful information about the whole operation. A seller who skips the legally required paperwork is telling you how they’ll behave if the roof leaks.

How to count your three days — and how to cancel

Your right to cancel runs until midnight of the third business day after the sale. Saturday counts as a business day; Sundays and federal holidays don’t. So a contract signed on a Friday can generally be canceled until midnight Tuesday — and if Monday is a holiday, you have until Wednesday. And a sale made on a Saturday before a Monday federal holiday gives you until midnight Thursday.

To cancel, sign and date one copy of the cancellation form and mail it to the address given for cancellations, postmarked before that midnight deadline. No form? Write a plain letter saying you’re canceling, and get it postmarked within the three business days. Either way, the FTC’s advice is to send it by certified mail with a return receipt and keep a copy. You don’t have to give a reason, you don’t have to call, and you don’t have to let anyone talk you out of it on the phone. The postmark is your proof.

What happens after you cancel

The seller has 10 days to refund your money, return any signed check, give back any trade-in, and tell you whether they’ll pick up anything they left with you. Within 20 days, they must either collect those items or, if you agree to ship them back, cover the mailing cost. Your side of the bargain: keep any goods they delivered in as good condition as you received them and make them available for pickup. If you keep the items or agreed to return them and don’t, you’re back on the hook under the contract.

If the seller ignores the rule

A seller who refuses to honor a valid cancellation is violating a federal trade regulation. Report it to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, and to your state attorney general — many states have their own door-to-door sales laws, and some give you more time or broader coverage than the federal floor. If you paid by credit card and the dispute involves what was delivered, you can also dispute the charge with your card company under the separate billing-dispute rules.

The larger point of the Cooling-Off Rule is not the paperwork — it’s the pressure. Doorstep sales work because the offer expires the moment the salesperson leaves, or so the pitch goes. Federal law says otherwise: for three business days, the decision is still yours. Any deal that can’t survive 72 hours of thinking it over was never a deal.

This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by a human editor. Figures are linked to their primary sources; where a claim could not be verified from the public record, we say so.