California AB 506: What the New Puppy Deposit Law Means Even If You Don't Live in California
Any idiot with an internet connection can write about legal matters. Reporting for duty.
Take my read on all this with whatever grain of salt you have handy, and talk to an attorney who actually does California animal law.
Here's what I can tell you. I've quoted the law as it was signed, not somebody's summary of it. I've linked it so you can go check. And where nobody knows the answer yet, I say so instead of making something up that sounds sure.
I'm not an attorney. This post explains what a public law says. It doesn't tell you what to do about your own situation and it doesn't give you contract wording. Those are jobs for someone with a license.
Quick answer
California has a new law called AB 506. It started January 1, 2026.
Here's the short version. If your contract is offered, negotiated, brokered, or otherwise arranged while your buyer is in California, and it includes or requires a nonrefundable deposit, the contract is void.
The law says the contract itself is void, not just the deposit clause.
If the buyer already paid you, you have to give the money back, all of it, within 30 days of being told the contract is void.
The law says you do that “without expectation of return” of the puppy. Whether that means a buyer will always be allowed to keep the puppy and receive a full refund hasn't been decided by a court.
It doesn't matter what state you live in. What matters under this section is whether the buyer was in California while the contract was offered, negotiated, brokered, or otherwise arranged.
The same law also says what you have to tell a California buyer in writing. That's a separate rule with different consequences. Mixing those two up is causing most of the confusion right now.
Why does a California law matter if I'm nowhere near California?
Because the law is written around where your buyer is while the contract is offered, negotiated, brokered, or otherwise arranged. It isn't written around where you are.
The wording covers a contract that was offered, negotiated, brokered, or otherwise arranged while the purchaser (buyer) is located in California. Nothing in that sentence is about the seller.
Here's an example: You live in Indiana, and your buyer is at her kitchen table in Fresno, California, while you offer the contract or work out the deal.
The law is written to reach that contract.
California has more people in it than any other state. If you place puppies outside your own state at all, you will likely get a California buyer sooner or later.
What does the law say about deposits?
Here's the whole section. This is Health and Safety Code 122227, word for word as it was signed.
(a) A contract entered into on or after January 1, 2026, to transfer ownership of a dog, cat, or rabbit to a purchaser that is offered, negotiated, brokered, or otherwise arranged by a person, pet dealer, or business while the purchaser is located in California is void as against public policy if the contract includes or requires a nonrefundable deposit.
(b) If money is exchanged pursuant to a contract that is void pursuant to this section, the seller shall refund the money to the purchaser within 30 days of receiving notice that the contract is void pursuant to this section without expectation of return of the contract subject.
Here it is in plain words.
Your contract is void if all of these are true:
it was signed on or after January 1, 2026
it transfers ownership of a dog, cat, or rabbit
the buyer was in California while the contract was offered, negotiated, brokered, or otherwise arranged
and the contract includes or requires a nonrefundable deposit
Two things to notice. Void doesn't mean the deposit clause gets crossed out. It means the contract itself is void.
Your health guarantee, spay and neuter terms, and return clause may all be unenforceable along with the rest of the document. Statutory duties and other obligations outside the contract may still apply.
The “contract subject” means the puppy. The law tells the seller to refund the money “without expectation of return” of the puppy. On its face, that appears to let the buyer keep the dog and receive a full refund. No court has yet decided how that language applies in a real case.
What do I have to tell a California buyer?
That's a different section. 122226. Different rule, different consequences.
If you sell a dog, cat, or rabbit to a buyer in California, you have to give them these things in writing.
Where the animal came from.
Who bred it. The USDA license number if there is one. The state it was born in. If you don't know something, the written notice must say it's unknown, include any related information you or your agents or employees know, and state that the information is complete and true to the best of your knowledge.
Shots, deworming, and medication.
Dates and types.
This includes any vet care or medication the animal got while it was with you.
A signed statement that meets Health and Safety Code 122050(a)(6).
If the animal has no known disease or illness and no known congenital or hereditary condition that adversely affects its health now or is likely to do so in the future, you sign the statement.
If there is a known disease, illness, or congenital or hereditary condition that adversely affects the animal's health now or is likely to do so in the future, you need a record of it plus a written statement from a veterinarian.
That statement has to okay the sale, say what treatment is recommended, and confirm that the condition doesn't need and probably won't need a hospital stay or surgery that isn't elective. The incorporated section makes an exception for intestinal or external parasites unless they make the animal clinically ill or are likely to do so.
And read this part twice. The vet has to be licensed in California. Your own vet at home doesn't count for this.
That requirement isn't new, but where it points is. It came from an older section written for California pet stores, back when everyone it applied to was already in California and a California vet was down the road. AB 506 pulled that language into a rule that now applies to anyone selling to a buyer in California.
So if you're in Missouri with a puppy that has a hernia, or a murmur you've been watching, the law as written wants a California-licensed vet to sign off on a puppy sitting in your kitchen. Your own vet can't do it.
I don't know how an out-of-state breeder is supposed to satisfy that, and I haven't found anyone who does.
A California-licensed vet doesn't have to live in California, but examining an animal in another state raises its own licensing questions. This is my read of the words, not a settled answer.
Now here's the piece almost every summary gets wrong. Only 122227 uses the word void.
Only 122227 has the rule requiring a refund without expectation that the animal be returned.
If you miss a disclosure under 122226, the statute doesn't seem to declare your contract void.
You can still be sued for money exchanged under the contract, injunctive relief, other remedies the court finds appropriate, and attorney's fees and costs if the buyer prevails.
Who does this law cover?
The deposit rule applies to a person, pet dealer, or business.
"Person" is as broad as it gets. There's no hobby exception in there. No litter limit. No income floor. If you're a person selling a puppy, you're a person.
Section 122228 says what happens if you break either rule. A buyer can sue you for:
their money back
a court order making you stop (the law calls this injunctive relief)
anything else the court decides is appropriate
if the buyer wins, you may also have to pay their attorney's fees and their costs.
That last part matters more than it looks. Most small disputes never reach a lawyer, because the lawyer costs more than the fight is worth. When the loser pays the winner's legal bill, that math changes.
The state can come after you too. The Attorney General, county counsel, a district attorney, a city attorney, and a city prosecutor can all enforce this.
There are two exceptions, in sections 122229 and 122230. The law doesn't limit transfers to or by a government agency, or transfers of guide, signal, or service dogs. It doesn't apply to a public animal control agency or shelter.
What's going around that isn't true?
Three claims are moving through breeder groups right now. People are stating them with a lot of confidence, but none of them are in the law.
"You can take nonrefundable money after the vet exam."
No. Under AB 506 there is no point in the process where nonrefundable money becomes okay. A vet exam doesn't unlock it. There's no waiting period that makes it fine.
"You have to refund 50 percent," and "you can't take more than 25 percent before eight weeks."
Neither of those numbers appears in AB 506, AB 519, SB 312, or any other California law I could verify. They appear on a website that calls itself a 2026 California compliance guide. The page appears to be AI-written, but I can't independently confirm how it was produced.
That's worth a warning beyond this one law. There are now a lot of AI-written legal guide sites aimed at breeders. They come up high in search. They look professional. They use real section numbers. And they invent details.
Here's how to spot one. If a page gives you a specific number but doesn't point you to a code section you can open and read for yourself, treat it as made up until you check. Real law has an address. You should always be able to go look at it.
"SB 312 means every breeder selling into California needs a health certificate."
Close, but not quite, and the difference matters. That one's further down.
What are breeders getting wrong?
Back in 2019 I wrote a post about selling and marketing puppies. I ended it with this:
A waiting list isn't really a waiting list if there aren't paid deposits. Even your best friend will back out without a deposit. Never count on unpaid deposits and count on about 10% of paid deposits backing out.
I believed that. Most of us did. That's the assumption this law just broke. Most of the workarounds going around are attempts to keep it alive.
Here's each one, and what I think of it.
Calling it something else
Reservation fee. Holding fee. Placement fee. Commitment fee.
If the buyer pays it, doesn't get it back, and it comes off the price of the puppy, it's a nonrefundable deposit.
The name isn't what matters. What the money does is what matters.
Assuming the sales platform handles it for you
It doesn't. One breeder in my Midwoofery Facebook group had a California buyer file a chargeback.
The puppy was reserved through Good Dog, and Good Dog refunded the buyer and pointed at the new law. They covered the cost that one time as a courtesy and told her she'd be paying it next time.
Taking the full price up front, with no deposit at all
The thinking goes like this. The law voids contracts that include or require a nonrefundable deposit.
If there's no deposit anywhere in the contract, there's nothing for the law to void.
That's not a crazy reading. It's also completely untested. Nobody has taken it to a court. I wouldn't build my program on it without talking to an attorney first. Call it an open question, not a solution.
Having the buyer sign that they aren't in California
The law says these contracts are “void as against public policy.”
Public policy means a rule the state considers important enough that people aren't allowed to agree their way around it.
You generally can't get past a rule like that by having someone sign a statement that steps around it. If a buyer flat out lied to you, that signature might help you if you sue that buyer for lying.
It won't necessarily save the contract if the buyer actually was in California while the contract was offered, negotiated, brokered, or otherwise arranged.
Putting your own state's courts or your own state's law in the contract
These are two different clauses and they don't have the same strength.
One picks the court. It says where a dispute gets heard. Courts often enforce that kind of clause, but enforcement isn't guaranteed.
The other picks whose law applies. That one is weaker here. Courts often refuse to honor it when honoring it would wipe out an important public policy of a state that has a bigger stake in the question. California wrote the words “void as against public policy” right into the law. That's not a subtle hint.
And here's the part people miss. You don't have to be in a California court for California law to be the law that decides your case.
Having the buyer come to you and sign at pickup
The buyer travels to you, meets the puppy, and signs in your state. Signing outside California may help, but the signature isn't the only thing the law looks at.
If you offered or negotiated the contract while the buyer was still in California, the law may still reach it.
No court has tested this yet.
A fully refundable deposit avoids the specific nonrefundable-deposit rule in section 122227. Other contract and disclosure requirements can still apply.
Three laws passed the same day. Which one is which?
Governor Newsom signed three bills on October 9, 2025. Breeders keep running them together. They do different jobs.
AB 506, Chapter 477. Deposits and disclosures.
This is the one this post is about. It started January 1, 2026. It adds sections 122225 through 122231 to the Health and Safety Code. https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB506/2025 It's the one about your contract.
AB 519, Chapter 478. Brokers.
This one probably doesn't touch you.
It says a broker can't make available for adoption, sell, or offer for sale a dog under one year old, a cat, or a rabbit. A broker is a person or business that sells, arranges, negotiates, or processes the sale of animals somebody else bred, for profit.
Selling puppies you bred yourself does not, by itself, fit AB 519's definition of a broker. You could still qualify as a broker if you also sell or facilitate sales of animals bred by someone else for profit.
There is also an exception for a sale or transfer by or on behalf of the bona fide owner, as long as the owner does not sell or transfer an animal more than three instances in a calendar year, government agencies, guide, signal, and service dogs, public shelters, rescue groups, and youth animal education nonprofits.
Now the part nobody seems to have answered.
Read the definition again. A person or business that sells, arranges, negotiates, or processes the sale of animals somebody else bred, for profit. That describes how a lot of puppy sales platforms work.
Does it actually reach Good Dog, PuppySpot, or AKC Marketplace?
I don't know, and I can't find anyone who does. No court has ruled. No state agency has weighed in.
These sites are set up differently from each other, so they might not all land in the same place. And they're all still operating.
If you sell through a platform, you may want to ask them how they're handling AB 519 and get the answer in writing.
SB 312, Chapter 480. Dogs coming into California.
This one may well touch you, and people are getting it wrong in both directions.
It lives in a different code book, the Food and Agricultural Code, sections 31000 and 31002.
If you sell, transport, or import a dog into California for resale or a change of ownership, you need a health certificate from a vet.
It doesn't have to be a California vet, but it does have to be one who is licensed and USDA accredited, which is the same standard as any interstate health certificate.
It has to be dated no more than 10 days before the dog enters the state. You submit it to the California Department of Food and Agriculture and to the buyer, electronically. The certificate must be submitted electronically.
If your veterinarian gives you a paper certificate, CDFA says you can scan it as a PDF and email it. CDFA must keep it for five years.
The statute makes it a public record available without taking off any personal information, including the physical addresses and contact information it contains.
Selling a puppy to a California buyer is a change of ownership. So if that puppy is traveling into California, this applies to you.
What this rule doesn't cover is a dog entering California for some other reason. A show, a visit, staying with a friend.
Some of this isn't new. The old law already required a 10-day health certificate. It went to the county health department, and plenty of counties didn't know they were supposed to be receiving them. What changed is where it goes, that it has to be electronic, and that anyone can look at it.
Why do so many people think this doesn't apply to them?
Part of it is that the bill changed while it was moving through the legislature. Some summaries describe the version that didn't pass.
The AKC's October 22, 2025 alert on these laws says AB 506 "initially sought to ban certain contracts by brokers involving non-refundable deposits," and then describes the final version as adding disclosures.
Now go back to the law as signed. Section 122227 makes a contract void if it includes or requires a nonrefundable deposit. And it applies to a person, pet dealer, or business.
One more piece of the record. In the version first introduced, the deposit rule applied to brokers.
In the version that got signed, it applies to a person, pet dealer, or business.
I'm not going to tell you what to think about anybody's summary. Both documents are linked at the bottom. Read them and decide for yourself.
The one thing I'll say flat out is this. If you read a summary of AB 506 and came away thinking the deposit rule is a broker problem that doesn't touch you, go read the law itself.
What nobody knows yet
Some of these questions don't have answers. Not because I'm holding back. Because no court has ruled yet and nobody can honestly tell you.
That's normal for a law this new. Anyone who gives you a confident answer on the questions below is guessing.
Would a court really let a buyer keep a healthy puppy and take a full refund from a breeder who did everything right? One breeder in the Midwoofery Facebook group says a buyer is trying to do this to her now.
The law says what it says. What a judge does with a real case in front of them is a different question.
How much counts as located in California? A buyer on a layover at the airport? A buyer on vacation? A buyer signing from a hotel room on a work trip?
Nobody has drawn that line.
Does a renamed or restructured fee survive? I think the law is about what the money does, not what it's called. I don't know that a court has said so.
Can California courts reach a small out-of-state breeder who has no other connection to the state? That's a whole separate area of law and it isn't simple.
Does person, pet dealer, or business really reach hobby breeders in practice, or only on paper?
What about a seller with no written contract at all? I don't know, both sections are written around contracts.
So what should you do?
Read the law yourself. It's short. The whole thing runs from 122225 to 122231 and it's also linked at the bottom of this post. You don't need a law degree to read it, and you don't need anybody's permission.
If someone tells you what the law says and won't show you the text, they're asking you to trust them. You don't have to.
Then talk to an attorney who works in California animal law. Do that before you change your contract, not after somebody disputes it. What I've written here is what the words say. What they mean for your program, in your state, is a question I'm not licensed to answer.
Frequently asked questions
Does this apply if I don't live in California?
Yes, if your buyer is in California while the contract is offered, negotiated, brokered, or otherwise arranged. The law is about where the buyer is. It says nothing at all about where you are.
What counts as a nonrefundable deposit?
The law doesn't define it. Going by the plain words, it's money a buyer pays toward the puppy that they don't get back if the sale falls through. That describes most breeder deposits as they're written today.
What if I call it something else?
Changing the name doesn't change what the money does. Reservation fee, holding fee, and placement fee are all the same thing if the money isn't refundable and it comes off the price.
Whether a truly separate fee that never gets credited toward the price would survive hasn't been tested as far as I know at the time of writing this.
Can a buyer really keep the puppy and get all their money back?
Section 122227(b) requires the refund “without expectation of return” of the puppy. On its face, that appears to allow the buyer to keep the puppy and receive the refund, but no court has yet decided how the language applies in a real case.
You refund within 30 days of being told the contract is void, without expecting the puppy back. Whether a court would actually apply that to a breeder who did everything right is one of the open questions above.
What if the buyer signs while visiting California?
Signing in California would place at least part of the transaction in California. The law can also apply when the contract is offered, negotiated, brokered, or otherwise arranged there, even if the final signature occurs somewhere else.
The statute doesn't distinguish between California residents and visitors.
What about a California buyer who signs while out of state?
Signing outside California does not necessarily put the contract outside the law. The question is whether the contract was offered, negotiated, brokered, or otherwise arranged while the buyer was in California.
If every one of those events occurred while the buyer was outside California, the statutory language appears less likely to reach the contract. No court has yet interpreted that boundary.
Can I have them certify they aren't in California?
You can put it in your contract. It won't necessarily save the contract if the buyer was in California while the contract was offered, negotiated, brokered, or otherwise arranged, because you generally can't get around a public policy rule by having someone sign around it. It might help you if you end up suing a buyer who lied to you.
What if my contract picks my state's courts?
Courts often enforce a clause selecting where a dispute must be heard, but enforcement isn't guaranteed.
A clause picking whose law applies is weaker here, because courts often refuse to honor it when honoring it would wipe out an important public policy of a state with a bigger stake in the question.
And you don't have to be in a California court for California law to apply.
What exactly do I have to disclose?
Where the animal came from, meaning who bred it, the USDA license number if there is one, and the state it was born in.
If you don't know, the written notice must say so, include any related information you or your agents or employees know, and state that the information is complete and true to the best of your knowledge.
Then a record of shots and deworming with dates and types, and a record of any vet care or medication the animal got while it was with you.
Plus a signed statement about the animal's health. If the puppy has no known disease or illness and no known congenital or hereditary condition that adversely affects its health now or is likely to do so in the future, you sign that statement yourself.
If the puppy has a known disease, illness, or congenital or hereditary condition that adversely affects its health now or is likely to do so in the future, you need the required written statement from a California-licensed veterinarian.
The section has an exception for intestinal or external parasites unless they make the puppy clinically ill or are likely to do so.
Does this apply to rescues and shelters?
Sections 122229 and 122230 say the law doesn't limit transfers to or by a government agency, or transfers of guide, signal, or service dogs, and doesn't apply to a public animal control agency or shelter.
What happens if I get it wrong?
Under section 122228, a buyer can sue you for their money back, for a court order making you stop, and for anything else the court decides is appropriate. If they win, you pay their attorney's fees and costs. Public prosecutors can enforce it too.
What are breeders actually doing?
A mix. Some switched to fully refundable deposits, which avoids AB 506's specific prohibition on nonrefundable deposits. Some have buyers sign in person at pickup, in the breeder's home state. Some moved their fee into a separate agreement. Some take the full price up front with no deposit at all. Everything on that list remains untested under AB 506 as of this writing.
Read it yourself
All links last accessed September 6, 2026.
