Disaster contract

Definition

Storm work signed within days of a declared emergency, which one state voids outright.

Why It Matters

California makes a home solicitation contract for repairing or restoring damaged residential property VOID if it is signed within seven business days of the disaster. The exception is wider than it looks: a contract the buyer or their agent or insurance representative sought out survives wherever it is signed, and a phone call from the buyer to the seller's premises counts even after the seller knocked first. Where a contract is not void the cancellation window runs to the seventh business day instead of the usual third. A disaster here is one for which a president, a governor or a local executive has declared an emergency, so a storm on its own does not start the clock. The part that prices a backlog is what happens if the crew has already worked: a seller who performed services before cancellation is entitled to no compensation, and must restore the property where the work altered it. Florida says the no-compensation half in almost the same words.