Can I cancel after signing a business funding agreement?

The legal starting point

There is no general cooling-off period for commercial financing. The right of rescission most people are thinking of comes from federal consumer credit law and applies to certain consumer credit transactions secured by the borrower's principal dwelling. Business-purpose funding is outside it.

State commercial financing disclosure laws — New York's Commercial Finance Disclosure Law and California's commercial financing disclosure regulations among them — require certain disclosures before you sign. Requiring disclosure is not the same as granting a right to cancel afterwards. If you think a required disclosure was not given, that is worth raising with a lawyer and with the relevant state regulator, but do not assume it unwinds the contract.

If the money has not moved yet

This is the strong position, and it is time-sensitive.

1. Say so in writing, now, to the funder or lender directly — not only to the broker — and keep the sent copy. A phone call is worth making but is not the record.
2. Read the conditions precedent. Most agreements are conditional on things that have not yet happened, and many contain a clause allowing either party to withdraw before funding.
3. Revoke the ACH authorisation in writing and tell your bank you are not expecting a debit. Understand clearly that revoking an authorisation does not cancel any obligation — it only affects the collection mechanism.
4. Do not accept the money "to sort out later". Once funds land, everything below applies instead.

Expect resistance if fees have been incurred or a broker's commission is at stake. Resistance is not the same as an obligation to proceed. Ask them to point to the clause.

If the money has landed

Returning it is a commercial conversation, not a right. What determines the outcome:

What an unwind actually costs

You have paid $2,400 for two days of money. Against the $57,600 you actually received that is 4.17%, and at that rate for two days the annualised figure is above 700%. Even a five-day unwind sits above 300%.

None of that is a criticism of the funder — the fee paid for work that was genuinely done. It is the reason the decision point is before signature rather than after it. The cheapest unwind available in this market is still an expensive one.

The situations that come up most

The four clauses that decide this

Find them tonight, in this order:

1. The notice clause. Where a communication must be sent, by what method, and when it is treated as received. A withdrawal sent to the wrong address on the right day can be treated as sent on the wrong day.
2. Conditions precedent. What has to be true before funding, and whether either party may walk away until it is.
3. The definition of the funding date. Several rights turn on it, and it is not always the day money reaches you.
4. Prepayment, early payoff and any same-day unwind provision. This is the difference between returning the money and returning the money plus the whole cost of it.

What not to do

When it is worth a lawyer rather than a phone call

If you were induced by a material misrepresentation, if the executed documents differ from what you agreed and you can show it, if the required state disclosures were not provided, or if the amounts funded do not match the contract, those are legal questions with real remedies. Gather the term sheet, the executed agreement, the funding statement and every message, and get advice quickly — options narrow as payments are made.

The reliable version of this problem is avoiding it: the terms that trap people are the ones covered in which clauses to read twice, and the moment you have any bargaining power is always before signature.