Contract assumption

Definition

The seller's duty to settle its customers' unfinished contracts, which reaches the buyer.

Why It Matters

Florida writes a rule no other trade in this campaign has: the department may refuse to issue or renew a pest control license to anyone who was an owner of a business sold in the previous five years that failed to reimburse the prorated value of its customers' remaining contract periods or to arrange for another licensed operator to assume them. A seller who walks away from a paid-ahead book can therefore cost a future licensee their own license. The business license does not travel either, since a transfer of ownership requires a fresh application and a license expires automatically when the business changes its location or its registered name.