Signed at the kitchen table: cancellation, deposit and financing paperwork.

A bath sale made in the homeowner's home can fall under the FTC's Cooling-Off Rule, and in some states under a stricter state rule as well. That puts three items in every file that must line up: the cancellation statement and forms the buyer received, the deposit compared with any legal cap, and a start date that falls after the cancellation deadline. A file where any one disagrees with the others is not ready to order from.

An AI assistant can check each file against a checklist the owner wrote with legal advice, and list every gap. It never decides what a rule means, never tells a homeowner whether they can still cancel, and never handles a refund. This article sets out what the federal rule and, as one state's example, California law say, as checked on 15 October 2026, and how the check is built around them.

The FTC's consumer guidance and the rule's text in 16 CFR Part 429 say the rule covers sales of twenty-five dollars or more made at the buyer's home, including sales where the buyer invited the salesperson in. The buyer may cancel until midnight of the third business day after the sale, and a business day is any day except Sunday and the federal holidays, so Saturday counts. On a valid cancellation, the rule text gives the seller ten business days to refund payments, return any trade-in and cancel any note the buyer signed.

The rule also lists what the seller hands over, and so what a file can be checked for.

• ORAL NOTICE

  The buyer is told about the right to cancel at the time of signing.

• DATED CONTRACT COPY

  A completed copy or receipt in the language of the sales presentation, with the seller's name and address and a cancellation statement next to the buyer's signature.

• TWO CANCELLATION FORMS

  A notice of cancellation in duplicate, completed by the seller with its name, its business address, the sale date and the deadline date.

• NO WAIVER

  The contract may not contain a waiver of the buyer's right to cancel.

• EXCLUSIONS

  Among others: sales needed for a genuine emergency, where the rule asks for a separate statement in the buyer's own handwriting; visits the buyer requested for repairs or maintenance, though extra goods sold on that visit are covered; and sales that follow negotiations at the seller's permanent place of business.

The federal rule says it does not override state laws that give buyers the same or a greater right to cancel. California shows what that can add. The Contractors State License Board's page on home improvement contracts says the contract must be in writing and tell the consumer about the right to cancel, and that the down payment cannot exceed the lesser of ten percent of the contract price or one thousand dollars, excluding finance charges and with no exception for special-order materials. Later payments may not run ahead of the work performed.

California's Civil Code section 1689.7 sets out the wording. For a home solicitation contract that is a home improvement contract (defined in section 7151.2 of the Business and Professions Code), it requires a 'Three-Day Right to Cancel' statement in at least twelve-point bold type next to the buyer's signature, dated and signed by the buyer. The statement says the contractor must return anything paid within ten days of receiving the cancellation. For a buyer who is a senior citizen, which section 1689.5 defines as sixty-five or older, three days becomes five. For a home improvement contract, the companion section 1689.6 counts those days from when the buyer receives a signed and dated copy of the contract that complies with section 1689.7, not from the presentation, and section 1689.7 lets the buyer cancel at any time until the seller has complied. A disaster-repair contract of this kind gets seven business days under section 1689.6 and, under section 1689.7, its own 'Seven-Day Right to Cancel' statement. Both sections were last amended with effect from 1 January 2026 (all as checked on 15 October 2026), so a contract template printed before then is worth checking against the current text.

One detail shows why the owner's table matters. California's code defines a business day with its own holiday list, and it does not match the federal list word for word. Which list governs a given contract, and which notice wording applies, is for the owner and the company's lawyer to settle once and write down.

The Packet Bot runs on Grok Bot and does its reading on the persistent cloud computer the account provides. It reads the signed contract, the cancellation forms and any financing documents, compares them with the owner's checklist and start-date table, and produces a reviewable checklist or spreadsheet for each file. The checklist and the table are Aevrion's design; the product has no such feature. Pulling files out of the e-signature or CRM system takes a custom integration, or a supervised session in the Bot's browser on the vendor's site, and either one depends on what that vendor permits and on testing first.

Based on the Grok Bot documentation at docs.x.ai as checked on 15 October 2026. Its statements on Bot rules, Bot-to-Bot messaging, routine triggers, connected apps, approval expiry and payments were rechecked against docs.x.ai and Cursor's help pages on 26 October 2026. The trade examples are Aevrion's illustrations, not documented Grok Bot use cases. Aevrion Ops is an independent consultancy. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or a partner of xAI, SpaceXSI or Cursor. Grok Bot is named here only to describe it.

Financing adds its own documents to a bath sale's file, and it is where an assistant must stay narrowest. The Packet Bot checks that the financing documents the contract refers to are in the file, that the buyer names, the amount and the dates match the contract, and that a change made at the table, such as an added grab bar, appears in both. It does not assess the terms, compare offers or suggest anything to the buyer.

There is also a legal question it must leave alone. Both the federal rule and California's definition set aside transactions in which federal consumer credit law already gives the buyer a right of rescission. Whether that applies to a particular financed sale is a question for the company's lawyer, and the check simply marks every financed file for the owner to confirm which rule it was written under.

Three situations recur in any business that sells in the home, and in each the assistant stops. When a homeowner asks whether they can still cancel, the question goes to the owner; the assistant drafts no answer about anyone's rights. When a cancellation arrives, by post, email or in person, a person records it and the Packet Bot stops every draft for that job, including installation bookings and product orders. When a refund is due, the owner arranges it; a Bot never takes or returns a payment, and the documentation routes payment confirmations to a human takeover of the computer. Cursor's help pages add that a card saved in the Bot's Vault can be used at checkout without asking each time, so this design saves no card there.

The check runs as an evening routine that reports unreadable files rather than passing them, ends with a list rather than an order, since an unanswered approval lapses after about ten minutes (Cursor's help pages say thirty), and has its run history read weekly.

Keep the file itself in the business's own system. Grok Bot's documentation says memory cannot replace an authoritative source, and all of an account's Bots sit on a single computer with the same saved logins, so a financing portal left open there is open to every Bot.

Before any assistant is involved, the owner needs two documents: a packet checklist naming every item the file must hold, and a start-date table naming, for each state the company sells in, the window, the holiday list, the notice version and the company's own policy on ordering and installation. Run both by hand against the last ten signed files to see where they break.

Aevrion Ops can turn those two documents into a working packet check, set the points where it must stop for the owner, and connect it to the e-signature and CRM systems in use if their vendors' APIs or terms allow it, testing each link first. Aevrion does not give legal advice; what the checklist says comes from the owner and their lawyer. A company selling in the home can begin with the workflow automation readiness assessment.

1. Under the FTC's Cooling-Off Rule, sales of twenty-five dollars or more made at the buyer's home can be canceled until midnight of the third business day, and Saturday counts.
2. The seller gives oral notice, a dated contract copy with a cancellation statement, and two completed cancellation forms.
3. In California the down payment is capped at the lesser of ten percent of the price or one thousand dollars, and the Civil Code sets the notice wording, with five business days for buyers sixty-five or older, counted for a home improvement contract from receipt of a compliant signed copy.
4. A packet check compares notice, forms, dates, deposit, financing documents and start date, and names the person who resolves each gap.
5. Financing is checked only for presence and consistency; the assistant never assesses terms or interprets the law for a customer.