California AB 1327: You Can Now Cancel Home Improvement Contracts by Email

If you’ve ever signed a home improvement contract under pressure and immediately regretted it, your options for getting out of it used to involve finding an envelope, printing a cancellation form, and getting it to the post office before your window closed. As of January 1, 2026, California has finally caught up with how people actually communicate.

Assembly Bill 1327 modernizes the state’s “right to cancel” provisions for home improvement contracts, home solicitation contracts, and seminar sales contracts. The headline change: homeowners can now cancel qualifying contracts via email instead of exclusively by mail, fax, or hand delivery.

For property owners in the East Bay—especially those managing renovation projects, dealing with door-to-door solicitors, or hiring contractors for rental unit improvements—this is a meaningful consumer protection upgrade that removes a barrier most people didn’t realize existed.

Why This Law Exists

California has long provided homeowners a cooling-off period after signing certain types of contracts. The logic is straightforward: contracts signed outside a contractor’s place of business—at your front door, at a home show, or inside a big-box store—carry a higher risk of pressure tactics and impulse decisions.

The problem was the cancellation process itself. The last time the relevant code sections were meaningfully updated was 1995. To put that in perspective, only about 3% of Americans had used the internet at that point. The law required homeowners to mail a physical Notice of Cancellation to the contractor—a process that ironically demanded more effort to cancel a contract than it took to sign one.

AB 1327, authored by Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry and signed by the Governor in October 2025, fixes this disconnect. Contractors must now accept cancellation notices via email and are required to include their email address in every qualifying contract.

What Actually Changed Under AB 1327

The law amends both the Business and Professions Code (Section 7159) and the Civil Code (Sections 1689.6, 1689.7, 1689.20, and 1689.21). Here’s what’s different in practice:

Email Is Now an Official Cancellation Method

Homeowners can send their Notice of Cancellation to the contractor’s email address. Previously, the only accepted methods were mailing, faxing, or physically delivering the notice. Email cancellation carries the same legal weight as these traditional methods.

Contractors Must Provide Email and Phone

Every qualifying home improvement contract must now include the contractor’s email address and phone number. The contract must also explicitly state that cancellation via email is permitted. The phone number is required so homeowners can call for assistance locating and completing the Notice of Cancellation form.

Missing the Notice Means a CSLB Complaint

If a contractor fails to include the required Notice of Cancellation in or attached to the contract, the homeowner can now file a formal complaint with the Contractors State License Board (CSLB). This gives the cancellation requirement actual enforcement teeth.

Your Cancellation Windows Haven’t Changed

AB 1327 modernized how you cancel, not when you can cancel. The existing cancellation windows remain the same:

The clock starts when you receive a signed and dated copy of the contract that includes the required Notice of Cancellation. If the contractor never provided that notice, your cancellation window arguably never started—which is another reason this documentation matters.

Who This Law Protects the Most

AB 1327 targets the situations where homeowners are most vulnerable to pressure tactics. The legislative analysis specifically called out several scenarios that drove the bill:

Door-to-Door Sales

Contractors or their salespeople showing up unannounced with a compelling pitch and a contract ready to sign. The homeowner agrees in the moment, then realizes that evening they moved too fast. Previously, unwinding that decision required finding and mailing a form. Now it takes an email.

In-Store Solicitation

Solar installers, roofing companies, and HVAC contractors frequently set up booths inside Home Depot and Lowe’s, engaging customers and encouraging them to sign installation contracts on the spot. When combined with financing offers, homeowners can walk out of a hardware store with tens of thousands of dollars in obligations. The bill’s sponsors noted that senior citizens and non-English-speaking consumers are particularly vulnerable in these settings.

Disaster Repair Pressure

After fires, floods, or earthquakes, contractors descend on affected neighborhoods offering rapid repairs. Homeowners dealing with displacement and insurance claims are in no position to negotiate carefully. The seven-day cancellation window for disaster repairs already acknowledged this vulnerability. AB 1327 simply makes exercising that right more practical.

What This Means for Property Investors

If you own rental properties in the East Bay, you’re hiring contractors regularly—kitchen updates between tenants, roof repairs, plumbing overhauls, unit renovations to justify rent adjustments. AB 1327 gives you the same consumer protections as any homeowner when those contracts are signed outside a contractor’s office.

This matters most when contractors come to you. If a roofer shows up at your rental property, inspects it, and presents a contract on-site, that’s a home solicitation contract subject to the right to cancel. The same applies if you sign a deal at a home improvement expo or trade show.

For property owners managing multiple units, the practical benefit is significant. You can now review a contract more carefully after signing, consult with your property manager or accountant, and cancel via a quick email if the numbers don’t work—no trip to the post office required.

How to Cancel a Home Improvement Contract by Email

If you need to exercise your right to cancel, the process is straightforward:

1. Locate the Notice of Cancellation attached to or included in your contract. It should contain the contractor’s mailing address and email address.
2. Complete the cancellation form. Fill in the date of the transaction and sign it. If you can’t find the form, call the contractor’s phone number listed in the contract for assistance.
3. Email the completed notice to the contractor’s email address listed in the contract. Send it before midnight on the last business day of your cancellation window.
4. Save your proof. Take a screenshot of the sent email with the timestamp visible. Forward a copy to yourself or your property manager. This is your evidence the cancellation was timely.

If the contractor didn’t include a Notice of Cancellation form or an email address in the contract, that’s a violation of state law. You can file a complaint directly with the CSLB complaint portal.

What a Compliant Contract Should Include

Whether you’re reviewing a contract for your own home or a rental property renovation, here’s what AB 1327 requires contractors to provide:

• Contractor’s mailing address for receiving cancellation notices
• Contractor’s email address for receiving cancellation notices
• Contractor’s phone number (or representative’s) to assist with cancellation form
• Statement that email cancellation is permitted
• Notice of Cancellation form attached to or included in the contract
• Correct cancellation window stated (3-day, 5-day, or 7-day depending on circumstances)

If any of these are missing, that’s a red flag about the contractor’s compliance with California law—and potentially their professionalism overall.

A Small Change That Closes a Big Gap

AB 1327 isn’t a dramatic overhaul of California contract law. It’s a practical update that eliminates a barrier most homeowners didn’t know they were dealing with until they needed to cancel. The right to cancel a home improvement contract has existed for decades. The ability to exercise that right without hunting for a stamp? That’s new.

For East Bay property owners juggling renovations, tenant improvements, and ongoing maintenance across multiple units, the update is especially welcome. One email, sent before midnight, with a timestamped record you control. That’s a meaningful improvement over folding a form into an envelope and hoping it arrives in time.

If you’re planning property improvements in 2026, make sure your contractors’ contracts include the new required disclosures. And if you ever need to hit the brakes on a deal that doesn’t feel right, you now have a faster way to do it.