| Home Solicitation Sales |
by: Southeast Louisiana Legal Services
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| Q. | What is a home solicitation sale and why should is it important to know what it is? |
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| A. | It is important to know when a sale was a home solicitation, because special laws cover this kind of sale, and you should know your rights.
In Louisiana, a home solicitation sale happens when you agree to buy something, but the actual sale does not happen at the business place of the person or business doing the selling. For example, a home solicitation sale would be a sale that happens when someone first calls you over the phone to make the sale.
Some other things are needed for a sale to be a home solicitation under Louisiana law: (1) the sale must be a credit sale with a service charge, and the sale must allow you to make more than one payment to pay off the amount you owe, OR (2) the sale must be a cash sale for $25.00 or more. Door-to door sales count under federal law as home solicitation sales. The federal law applies to sale, lease or rental of consumer goods or services that cost $25.00 or more. |
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| Q. | Are there any kinds of sales that look like home solicitation sales but are not covered by the law? |
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| A. | Some kinds of sales are not covered by the law. These include sales of religious material, catalogue sales, or sales where the buyer initiates the sale. |
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| Q. | What rights do I have under the law if I complete a home solicitation sale? |
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| A. | It depends. The law requires the seller to give you a statement called a "Consumer’s Right to Cancel," which tells you about your rights to cancel the sale, the date the sale took place, and the seller’s address. If you do not get a statement like this, you may cancel the sale at any time and in any way. |
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| Q. | When must I do something if I want to cancel a sale? |
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| A. | Louisiana law gives you until midnight of the third business day after the sales agreement is finished. Before the deadline expires, you must put your notice to cancel in the mail with the correct addresses and proper (prepaid) postage. |
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| Q. | What do I have to do to cancel the sale? |
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| A. | You must write to the seller at the address that is on your sales agreement or offer to purchase. This written notice must have the correct address and postage (prepaid) on it. When you mail the notice, use "return receipt requested" or get a "proof of mailing" receipt at the post office. |
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| Q. | What do I have to say when I write to cancel the sale? |
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| A. | You must say very clearly that you want to cancel the sale. |
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| Q. | Can I telephone the seller to cancel the sale? |
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| A. | No. A telephone call to the seller is not enough to cancel the sale and does not count under the law. |
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| Q. | What other things will keep me from cancelling the sale? |
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| A. | If you asked that the seller hurry to get you the goods or services because of an emergency, you will not be able to cancel, if the seller has already started to carry out the order or agreement, and (if you buy goods) the things cannot be returned in reasonably the same condition. |
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| Q. | If I cancel the sale the right way, what does the seller have to do for me? |
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| A. | If you cancel the sale the way that you are supposed to under the law, here is what the seller must do for you:
C the seller must give you your money back;
C within 10 days, the seller must give back to you any evidence that you owed money;
C the seller has to return any trade-ins in reasonably the same shape that they were in when you gave them to the seller, and if the trade-ins are returned in worse condition, you can try to recover the value of the trade-ins;
C the seller can keep a cancellation fee of 5% of the cash price of the original sale, or 5% of any down payment you made, whichever is less, if the seller performed any services before you cancelled the sale;
C If you can prove the seller acted with fraud or deceit, the seller can not keep the 5% cancellation fee. |
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| Q. | What do I do with the things that I bought while I’m waiting for the seller to give me my money back? |
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| A. | You can hold on to the seller’s goods while you are waiting for the seller to give back your money and do the other things that the law requires, but you must take good care of these things. |
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| Q. | What if the seller never comes to get the things I bought, even after I cancelled the sale? |
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| A. | The seller has 40 days from the date of cancellation to let you know whether the seller plans to retrieve (take back) the goods. If the seller does not tell you within 40 days whether the goods will be retrieved, you can keep them. |
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| Q. | How do I know when the seller has broken the law, and what can I do about it? |
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| A. | The seller breaks the law if the seller does not give you a "Right to Cancel Notice," mentioned earlier. The seller breaks the law by refusing to give you your money back, if the law says that you should get your money back. If the seller does one of these things, the seller has broken the law by using an "Unfair Trade Practice," and you may have the right to get damages and attorneys’ fees. |
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| Q. | Are there any special rules for elderly people or senior citizens? |
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| A. | If you are 65 years old or older, some special rules protect you under Louisiana law.
C A seller breaks the law if the seller makes a home solicitation sale to a person 65 years old and up, and the deal involves taking out a mortgage on the main home "primary residence" of the senior citizen in order to pay for home improvements.
C A seller breaks the law if the seller breaks one or both of two federal laws: a law called "Truth in Lending" or a group of laws called the "Consumer Credit Cost Disclosure Acts." |
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