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Your rights

Oregon

Oregon · home improvement

Your rights in Oregon

Information, not legal adviceRules checked Oct 4, 2026

3 business days to cancel

If they sold it in person away from their office

Cancel in writing by midnight of the third business day (weekends don't count). Money back within 10 days.

Some sales are excepted, such as emergency work you ask for in a signed waiver.

The 4 exceptions, in the rule's words
  • A real emergency: you contacted the contractor and, in a separate signed writing that the contractor did not supply, asked for the work without delay, described the emergency and gave up the three-day right. The contractor must also have made a good-faith, substantial start on the work before you cancel.
  • Contracts to build a new house.
  • Sales that follow earlier negotiations between you and the contractor at its fixed business location, where goods or services are offered or shown.
  • Sales for cash or check of less than $25.
Read the full rule

When it applies

Home solicitation sales. This applies when the contractor or its representative sold you the job in person and you signed or made your offer somewhere other than its main or permanent branch office or local address, such as your home or workplace. It applies even if you invited the contractor. It covers repairs, alterations and improvements to your home, but not building a new house. Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays are not business days.

If the contractor sold you the job in person somewhere other than its permanent place of business, such as your home, you can cancel in writing until midnight of the third business day after you sign. Saturdays, Sundays and holidays do not count. The contractor must return your payments within 10 days. Separately, you can cancel any first written contract for work on your home in writing by midnight of the next business day, unless you both agreed work would start sooner or the work has substantially begun.

ORS chapter 83 · read on oregonlegislature.gov · checked Oct 4, 2026 (official source, opens in a new tab)

License number

On the bid, contract and ads

To bid on or do work on your home, a contractor needs an active CCB license with a residential endorsement.

License
Read the full rule

To bid on or do work on your home, an Oregon contractor must hold an active Construction Contractors Board (CCB) license with a residential endorsement. The CCB number must be on the bid and on the contract. Electricians and plumbers also need a license from the Building Codes Division. Check the CCB license before you sign.

Who needs one: Any person or business that, for pay, builds, alters, repairs, improves, inspects, moves or demolishes a building or another improvement attached to real estate, or offers or bids to do so. Work on a home requires a residential endorsement, such as residential general contractor or residential specialty contractor. There is no dollar threshold, apart from the small-job exemption below.

Who doesn't

  • Work on one structure or project where all of the person's contracts total less than $1,000 and the work is casual, minor or inconsequential. This does not apply to anyone who advertises or otherwise presents as a contractor.
  • People working on property they own or on their own residence, unless they are building or remodeling it to sell.
  • Employees of a licensed contractor.
  • Holders of certain other state licenses working within that license: architects, engineers, water well contractors (Water Resources Department), sewage disposal system installers (Department of Environmental Quality), landscape contracting businesses (State Landscape Contractors Board) and pesticide operators (Department of Agriculture) who do not inspect for wood-destroying organisms for a real estate sale.
  • People who only supply materials or equipment without installing them, and people working on personal property.
  • Gutter cleaning, pressure washing for cleaning, and debris cleanup (CCB's list of work that does not need a license).

Where the number must appear

  • written bids
  • the contract
  • advertising, including websites
  • business cards and letterhead
  • business signs at construction sites
  • the building permit

Issued by: Construction Contractors Board (CCB)

Oregon CCB: Consumer tools · read on oregon.gov · checked Oct 4, 2026 (official source, opens in a new tab)

The contract must include

Source: OR law

An estimate isn't the contract. Ask for all 8 in writing before you sign.

  • Written contractJobs over $2,000: show the rule's own words

    In the rule's words

    Be in writing when the total price is more than $2,000. If a smaller job grows past $2,000, the contractor must deliver a written contract within five days of when it knows, or should know, that the price will go over.

  • Name, phone & CCB license #: show the rule's own words

    In the rule's words

    Show the contractor's name, address, phone number and CCB license number, matching CCB records, written legibly in dark ink.

  • Your name & the job addressGoes on the signed contract: show the rule's own words

    In the rule's words

    Show your name and address and the address where the work will be done.

  • Work, price & payment terms: show the rule's own words

    In the rule's words

    Describe the work and state the price and payment terms.

  • Your rights & CCB complaintsAnd any mediation or arbitration: show the rule's own words

    In the rule's words

    Explain your rights under the contract in a way that stands out, including your right to file a complaint with the CCB, and say whether there is a mediation or arbitration clause. The contract may not limit your right to file a CCB complaint.

  • Three required noticesOn or before the day you sign: show the rule's own words

    In the rule's words

    Come with three notices, delivered on or before the day you sign: the Consumer Protection Notice, the Notice of Procedure and, when required, the Information Notice to Owner about Construction Liens.

  • New-home warranty offerFor a new home: show the rule's own words

    In the rule's words

    For a new home, include the contractor's written offer of a warranty and whether you accepted or turned it down.

  • Cancel notice & formsIf sold away from their office: show the rule's own words

    In the rule's words

    If the contractor sold you the job in person away from its permanent place of business, the contractor must give you a fully completed copy when you sign, and the contract must: show the date you sign and the contractor's name and business address; be in the language mainly used in the sales pitch; print the right-to-cancel statement in at least 10-point bold type next to your signature; and come with two copies of the Notice of Buyer's Right to Cancel. The contractor must also tell you about this right out loud.

On signing day

  • Keep a signed copy
  • Find the cancel notice
Sources20 official pages · checked Oct 4, 2026

Notes from our check

  • Every figure here was read on 2026-10-04 directly from official pages, all of which loaded (HTTP 200). An independent check on the same date re-read every cited page. Sources: ORS chapters 701 and 83 (2025 edition) on oregonlegislature.gov; OAR chapter 812, divisions 1, 3 and 12, on secure.sos.state.or.us; and the CCB Consumer Tools, Contractor Tools, CCB License and Specialty Licenses pages and the two CCB guides on oregon.gov. The 2026 amended-and-repealed table shows that the 2026 session amended only ORS 701.990 (penalties) in chapter 701 and nothing in ORS 83.710 to 83.750.
  • Deposit: no deposit or down-payment limit appears in ORS chapter 701, ORS 83.710 to 83.750, OAR 812 divisions 1, 3 and 12, or the CCB consumer pages. ORS 701.312 lets the CCB place a contractor on probation if it offers to do a home improvement and accepts a deposit of more than 50 percent of the total contract price, and then either fails to do the work diligently or fails to return the deposit within 10 days of a reasonable demand. That is a ground for discipline, not a cap, so depositCap is null. The app must not state an Oregon deposit limit. The CCB advises never paying the full amount up front, not paying in cash, and being cautious of an unusually large down payment.
  • Cancellation, first right: Oregon has two cancellation rights. The structured fields describe the three-business-day home solicitation right (ORS 83.710 to 83.750). ORS 83.710(1)(c) defines 'business day' to exclude Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays. ORS 83.010(12) defines 'services' to include repairs, alterations and improvements to real property. Until the contractor gives the required notices, you may cancel by any means (ORS 83.730(4)). A contractor that performed services before a valid cancellation is entitled to no compensation (ORS 83.750(3)). The contractor may use the federal FTC cooling-off notice instead of Oregon's form (ORS 83.730(3)). The exceptions list covers the cases relevant to home improvement; ORS 83.710(2) also excludes some others (for example sales under an existing revolving charge account not made at your home, and sales of insurance, farm equipment or motor vehicles).
  • Cancellation, second right: ORS 701.310 lets a property owner cancel any initial written contract to build, improve or repair a residential structure on property the owner owns. The owner delivers a written notice in any form (including email or fax) before midnight at the end of the next business day. The right does not apply if both sides agreed work would begin before that deadline, after the contractor has substantially begun the work, or to changes made to the contract after the deadline. The CCB says the contractor has no duty to give notice of this one-day right. Chapter 701 does not define 'business day', so the app should not say whether Saturday counts for this right.
  • Refund wording: ORS 83.740(1) requires payments to be returned within 10 days after cancellation. The statutory Notice of Buyer's Right to Cancel in ORS 83.730(2) says '10 business days'. The app should say 'within 10 days' and not count business days.
  • Registration details: the credential is a license (ORS 701.021(1) requires 'a current license issued by the Construction Contractors Board'). A residential limited contractor may not take a contract over $5,000 or exceed $40,000 in annual gross volume (ORS 701.038, OAR 812-003-0131). A residential specialty contractor may do work involving two or fewer unrelated trades; if three or more are involved, the whole contract may not exceed $2,500 (OAR 812-003-0131). A quote above these limits from such a licensee is worth a question. Electricians and plumbers need a state trade license in addition to a CCB license: the CCB lists electrical and plumbing among work that needs a CCB license, ORS 479.620 requires an electrical contractor's license, ORS 447.040 and 693.030 require plumbing contractor and journeyman plumber licenses, and the Building Codes Division says it issues electrical and plumbing licenses.
  • Written contract: ORS 701.305(1) says that failing to have a written contract does not void the contract. The CCB says a contractor that skips the written contract and the required notices may lose the ability to claim a construction lien (ORS 87.037).
  • Trade coverage, building trades: windows_doors, insulation, garage-doors and foundation-waterproofing are not named on the CCB's list of examples. They are included because ORS 701.005(5)(a) and 701.021(1) require a CCB license for anyone paid to build, alter, repair or improve a building attached to real estate. The CCB states that 'virtually everyone who is paid to improve real property needs to be licensed with the CCB'.
  • Trade coverage, fences and landscaping: a fence may be legally built either by a CCB licensee or by a landscape contracting business licensed by the State Landscape Contractors Board (ORS 701.010(9), 671.540(1)(d)). A fence contractor with no CCB number may therefore hold a Landscape Contractors Board license instead. Landscape maintenance businesses doing small, casual landscaping work of $500 or less a year for a maintenance customer are excepted from the landscape license (ORS 671.540(1)(c)).
  • Trades left undetermined: pools (portable spas may count as personal property), appliance-repair (the CCB lists repair of attached appliances as needing a license but says nothing about freestanding appliances), junk-removal (the CCB says debris cleanup needs no license, but demolition does), and smart-home, water-treatment, window_treatments and environmental-testing (not checked). These are left out of both lists.
  • ORS 701.005, 701.010 and 701.035 have amendments by Oregon Laws 2025, chapter 78, that take effect July 1, 2027. A comparison of the texts shows they only change worker-leasing and PEO terms (and renumber some definitions in 701.005 after subsection 12), so nothing in this entry is affected.

General information from official Oregon sources. For your situation, ask the state's consumer protection office or a lawyer.

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