Kansas

Does a non-refundable deposit hold up in Kansas?

The law’s word for a set sum agreed in advance is liquidated damages.

In Carrothers Construction Co. v. City of South Hutchinson, the Kansas Supreme Court looked behind the words to the facts and the nature of the transaction, giving special weight to a sum that is reasonable against the probable loss where actual damages would not be easily determined. Reasonableness is judged as of the day the contract was signed, not with hindsight, and the party challenging the clause carries the burden of proving a penalty. A penalty is money held to make sure a deal is carried out; liquidated damages are a set sum paid in place of carrying it out. The Court upheld the clause in part because the engineer who set it had written down the costs it was meant to cover before the contract was signed.

“a penalty, in effect, is a security for performance, while a provision for liquidated damages requires a sum certain to be paid in lieu of performance.” Carrothers Construction Co. v. City of South Hutchinson, 288 Kan. 743 (2009)

Showing your refund policy

No refund-policy disclosure statute was found. Every section of K.S.A. Chapter 50, Article 6, the Kansas Consumer Protection Act and its neighbors, was searched for “refund policy,” “return policy” and “cancellation policy”; the refund duties that exist are for door-to-door sales, telemarketing, lemon-law vehicles and assistive devices, none of them a tattoo deposit.

Body-art rules and money

Nothing about deposits, refunds, cancellations or client prices in the Kansas Board of Cosmetology’s tattooing and body piercing regulations, K.A.R. 69-15-1 to 69-15-31, as the Board’s law book of November 12, 2021 prints them. Every money word is a license, exam or establishment fee, and the client record rule asks for no payment record.

Read: K.A.R. 69-15-1 to 69-15-31 (Kansas Board of Cosmetology law book)