QUESTION:
Ken-
Thanks for excellent postings on multiple topics, all very informative. Have some specific contract/rescission questions for you:
It appears that some states have rescission requirements that are more stringent than the FTC regs (i.e. PA rescission statute covers telephone sales as well as in-home).
Is true that state statutes take precedence, and are there a lot of these situations out there?
I have also heard that NY rescission statute actually requires 7 days, and not 3.
Finally many states (but not all) require the company's alarm license number on the contract, and some even require listing the licensing agency's address and phone number (AR comes to mind). With all these details to keep track of, how do companies keep track of them all when operating in multiple states? Would be nice if there were a master list with all this info.
Thanks
Peter
********************
ANSWER:
State and Federal laws are posted on my web site at http://www.kirschenbaumesq.com/legal.htm
We try and keep this site up to date and if anyone knows of something we missed please let me know so we can post it.
Regarding state law versus federal law, generally federal law supersedes the state law. But often a federal law will provide that states are at liberty to pass their own laws to supersede the federal law. Typically the state law will be at least as comprehensive as the federal law it replaces. There are two laws that come to mind that affect the alarm industry.
The three day cooling off period, required by federal law, has been superseded by state law in almost every state. Those statutes and requirements are posted on my web site at http://www.kirschenbaumesq.com/noticeofcancel.htm.
Audio and video interception and listening statutes, federal and state are posted on my web site at http://www.kirschenbaumesq.com/avstatutes.htm.
Regarding the cooling off period, that time is almost universally 3 days from date of sale. However, the 7 days in New York that you refer to applies to Personal Emergency Response contracts. You need to be careful when selling the PERS contracts because that is usually done in more than one state. You can get a PERS contract at www.alarmcontracts.com.
When you operate in more than one state you will need to comply with the laws of the state where the sale is made and installation to be performed, especially for consumer - residential sales. A choice of law provision providing for your home state won't work for residential sales. This then requires different contracts for each state so you can comply with the local consumer issues which usually deal with cancellation notice, automatic renewal [you can check automatic renewal statutes on my web site at http://www.kirschenbaumesq.com/autorenewal.htm.