North Dakota
North Dakota has a statute on this, and it covers services. A sum set in advance for a broken agreement is void unless the actual loss would be impracticable or extremely difficult to measure, so a kept deposit has to stand in for a loss that is genuinely hard to measure, such as a slot that cannot be refilled on short notice. The shop, not the client, carries the burden: a shop keeping a no-show’s deposit has to be ready to show the loss was hard to measure in advance, that the amount came from a real effort to estimate it, and that it is not out of proportion to it.
Does a non-refundable deposit hold up in North Dakota?
The Century Code starts from the reverse of most states: a sum set in advance is void unless it fits the exception. In Bowbells Public School District No. 14 v. Walker, a personal-service contract, the North Dakota Supreme Court upheld a teacher’s contract that set damages at 4 percent of her salary, judged on the facts as they appeared when the contract was made, and contrasted it with a 14.5 percent rate it had voided before. A standard clause used in many contracts is not fatal; its purpose has to be to set the damages ahead of time, not to punish.
“Every contract by which the amount of damages ... is determined in anticipation thereof is to that extent void, except that the parties may agree therein upon an amount presumed to be the damage sustained by a breach in cases in which it would be impracticable or extremely difficult to fix the actual damage.” N.D.C.C. §§ 9-08-03 and 9-08-04 · Bowbells Public School District No. 14 v. Walker, 231 N.W.2d 173 (N.D. 1975)
Showing your refund policy
No refund-policy disclosure statute was found. All 46 chapters of Title 51 of the Century Code (Sales and Exchanges) were read and searched for “refund”; the hits are narrower laws, such as the lemon laws, retail installment contracts, home solicitation sales and gift certificates.
Body-art rules and money
Nothing about client deposits, refunds, prices or payment records in the tattoo and body art rule in force until September 30, 2026, or in the Body Art Code that replaces it on October 1, 2026. Their receipts are the shop’s own purchase receipts for jewelry and supplies, and their fees are license fees.
Read: N.D. Admin. Code ch. 33-41-01 · N.D. Admin. Code ch. 33-41-01.1 (Supplement 401)
This page summarizes public law in plain language, with the source each point comes from, read at the source on 2026-09-23. It is not legal advice.