3.5 Door to Door Sales Act 1967

The Door to Door Sales Act regulates agreements for the sale of goods and services on credit entered into at places other than appropriate trade premises. The Act only covers sales initiated by the seller.

A credit agreement is defined under the Act as any credit sale agreement, hire purchase agreement or hiring agreement under which the vendor sells, lets, hires or bails the goods that are the subject of the agreement in the vendor’s ordinary course of business. Some exceptions apply.

The term “appropriate trade premises” is defined in the Act in relation to the supply of goods as those premises where “the vendor normally carries on a business” or where similar goods are “normally offered or exposed for sale in the course of a business carried on at those premises.” Similarly, in respect of services, the term “appropriate trade premises” is defined as “premises… at which the vendor or any bank, solicitor, or chartered accountant normally carries on business.”

Typically, the Door to Door Sales Act applies to sales in the home that result from uninvited traders calling with goods or services for sale.

The Act provides consumers faced with this type of selling method with legal protection in the form of a cooling-off period. The Act allows the consumer seven days after the making of an agreement to cancel the contract by notice in writing. The Act also provides that the seller must disclose to the consumer the rights of cancellation in a written statement and that the contract is unenforceable if the disclosure requirement is not met.

The Door to Door Sales Act was enacted to mitigate the detrimental effects of high pressure sales tactics to induce sales in captive environments where the customer cannot simply walk away. At the time the legislation was developed, the Act was drawn up largely in response to door to door sales of encyclopaedias; however, the same issues remain today with different products – particularly vacuum cleaners, house cladding, educational software, electricity and telecommunications services.

Enforcement

This Act is self-enforcing.