§ 15. Cancellation of the contract (heving) due to delay (forsinkelse)

To cancel an agreement means that the consumer withdraws from it. This section concerns cancellation of the contract because of delay. The main rule is that the delay must be of material significance. A small delay therefore does not give a right to withdraw from the agreement.

There is a restriction. If the consumer has first demanded that the service be carried out, he loses the right to cancel if the service provider (tjenesteyter) does the job within a reasonable time or within the deadline the consumer set. Example: the consumer writes to the service provider and demands that the work be finished by a specific deadline. If the work is finished in time, the consumer can no longer cancel, even though it was delayed at first.

If part of the work has already been done, and it is more than a trifle, the consumer can as a starting point only cancel the part that remains. What has been finished then stays in place. Example: a service that only makes sense when it is completed in its entirety, and that becomes useless because of the delay, can be cancelled in its entirety.

The consumer does not always have to wait until the deadline has been missed. If it is already clear, before the work is due to start or while it is under way, that the service provider will not avoid a delay that gives a right to cancel, the agreement can be cancelled in advance. The point is that the consumer does not have to wait for something that will not happen anyway.

This section is one of several remedies for delay. § 11 on the consumer's claims in the event of delay refers here. Besides cancellation of the contract, there are the rules on withholding payment (holde betalingen tilbake) (§ 13), on having the service carried out (§ 14) and on notice of complaint (reklamasjon) (§ 12). What happens to the money and the materials (materialer) after the agreement has been cancelled is set out in § 16 on the effects of cancellation of the contract.