Legal Question in Construction Law in Maryland

Representative came in to discuss a deck and I went ahead. I am a first time homeowner, and he seemed so honest. He talked about the family business and how they cared about their customers and wanted them to be happy. I went ahead and signed the contract. He said "you can cancel anytime" several times so I foolishly signed it without reading because he said you can cancel ANYTIME. Had he said 3 business days, i would have read it more closely and kept the date in mind. On looking at the contract more closely, right at the bottom in tiny print there was a date. I called only a few hours after the date to cancel and now they are charging me a third of the contract, which is thousands of dollars, to cancel. They have not started any work, not spent any money and they are going to steal my money for doing nothing. In addition to this they are counting Saturday as a business day. I am very unhappy about this. Right now my options are that I can either be forced to get their overpriced deck that I absolutely do not want, which at this point i feel absolutely horrible about working with this company because I feel like they are dishonest and do not care about their customers, just about making money, or I can throw away thousands of dollars in a fine for cancelling a contract a few hours after the date I was not told about (I know I should have read before signing, but he said ANYTIME).


Asked on 4/27/16, 7:00 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Lawrence Holzman Holzman Law Firm, LLC

Your almost certainly have options. If they concluded the sale in your home, then you absolutely do have a right to cancel. But you may have other options as well that will depend on more specific facts. You should contact an attorney to talk about it right away. If they have done no work, and purchased no materials they are going to have no damages. There may be other protections under the Maryland Home Improvement Act as well as the Maryland Consumer Protection Act.

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Answered on 5/15/16, 7:20 pm


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