Citizens Advice welcomes safeguards on doorstep sales

New rights protecting people from high-pressure doorstep sales have been welcomed by Citizens Advice.

The national charity was responsible for the original ‘super complaint' to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) that led to the new safeguards.

These mean that from today, anyone buying from salespeople who visit them in their own homes will have seven days to cancel the agreement, whether the visit is unsolicited or not. The new cooling off period applies to all doorstep sales of goods and services including those responsible for most of the problems reported by Citizens Advice Bureaux: domestic fuel; disability aids and adaptations; double glazing and other home improvements; domestic appliances such as vacuum cleaners; building work and repairs; and also linked credit agreements.

Citizens Advice consumer affairs policy officer Susan Marks said: "We are delighted that at long last, six years after we lodged our super complaint with the OFT, people finally have the clear cancellation rights we said were needed. For far too long doorstep selling has been an area in which unfair trading practices have thrived. We hope these new rights will help end public confusion and put a stop to dodgy doorstep sales across a wide range of goods and services, particularly those that exploit vulnerable elderly and disabled consumers.

"We will be doing everything we can to make sure people are aware of their new rights and urging them to use them, and we will be monitoring closely how the new law is working. We would also urge anyone having problems to get advice immediately from their local CAB. Your cancellation rights should be made clear in your paperwork, so if you can't see them, get advice straight away."

Door to door, the report that formed the basis of the Citizens Advice super complaint, detailed how doorstep sales reps used aggressive sales tactics and downright deception to trap vulnerable people into expensive contracts they could not escape. Based on more than 1,500 case reports, it described how unfair trading practices were able to flourish in a sales environment where cancellation rights were complex, confusing, and sometimes non-existent, making it easy for traders to avoid their legal obligations.