Auto Repair Estimate & Authorization Laws

RSMo §379.135 took effect August 28, 2026. For property insurance, an insured may not assign policy duties, rights or benefits before or after a covered loss, and a service provider may not solicit or accept an assignment of post-loss insurance benefits. The statute expressly includes providers that inspect, estimate, repair, restore or replace property. It still allows an insurer to make direct payment to a service provider when directed by the insured, subject to the statute and applicable lien interests.

The Massachusetts Auto Damage Appraiser Licensing Board adopted Advisory Ruling 2026-1 on July 14, 2026. The ruling explains that repair-shop registration no longer depends on employing a licensed damage appraiser, but insurer-involved appraisals, supplemental appraisals and related activity remain subject to 212 CMR 2.00. A shop may retain a licensed appraiser as a subcontractor, but that appraiser must be directly responsible for preparing and negotiating the appraisal.

Public Chapter 661 took effect July 1, 2026 and allows a garagekeeper to preserve and enforce a lien in certain repair-storage situations without express written storage authorization when the garagekeeper makes a good-faith attempt to obtain repair consent and provides the required delivery notice to the vehicle owner.

Ohio Administrative Code rule 109:4-3-13 took effect March 21, 2026. The motor-vehicle repair rule now uses a $50 threshold for the required estimate-right notice and related authorization procedures; the prior rule used $25.

Beginning January 1, 2026, Washington increased the fee on retail sales of new replacement vehicle tires from $1 to $5 per tire. The buyer pays the fee to the seller, the seller must collect it, and retailers may retain 25 cents per tire for waste-tire management costs.

Washington Department of Revenue says that beginning January 1, 2026, sellers must collect a $5 fee on each new vehicle tire sold, up from $1. The amount a seller may retain increased to $0.25 per tire; the remainder is reported and paid to the state.

Oklahoma SB 641 created the Motor Vehicle Consumer Protection Act effective November 1, 2025. For total-loss vehicles it limits administrative charges, sets maximum daily storage rates, allows higher storage rates in specified circumstances, requires written invoices and requires auto body shops to respond to insurer invoice requests concerning pickup, release or delivery within eight business hours. The statute provides for future rate adjustments by Oklahoma Insurance Department bulletin.

LB 667, approved May 15, 2025, amended Neb. Rev. Stat. 60-1438. Franchisors may not unreasonably deny dealer requests to change a uniform warranty time allowance or add diagnostic or repair time for a specific vehicle. Manufacturers must justify denials of a dealer's declared parts markup. Parts furnished at no or reduced cost must be paid at the dealer's markup on fair wholesale value, and the maintenance items excluded from rate calculations are now listed.

Effective September 1, 2025, New York expanded the waste tire management and recycling fee rules. Tire services must collect the $2.50 fee on new tires they install even when they did not sell the tire unless the purchaser shows the fee was already paid. The change also expanded collection to mail-order, phone-order and Internet retail sales delivered in New York, and physical retail locations may retain $0.25 per tire.

HB 1515 (2025), signed April 11, 2025 and effective August 1, 2025, amended North Dakota's motor vehicle warranty compensation law (NDCC ch. 51-07). Warranty labor is paid at the dealer's average retail rate multiplied by the time guide the dealer uses for customer-pay work (named by written notice), and a manufacturer can challenge a submitted labor rate or parts markup only by showing it was materially inaccurate.

SF 106 (2025 Wyo. Sess. Laws ch. 76), signed February 28, 2025 and effective July 1, 2025, amended W.S. 31-16-117. Dealers can set warranty labor rates and retail parts markup by submitting 100 sequential qualified repair orders. Manufacturers may dispute a rate only as materially incomplete, inaccurate or unreasonable, with evidence and a proposed adjustment. Unresolved disputes go to 60-day mediation, then a civil action.

BAR adopted amendments to California automotive-repair estimate and tear-down disclosure requirements. The approved changes took effect July 1, 2025.

Texas Water Code §5.587 created annual operational-status reporting for temporary and indefinite authorizations. TCEQ states the requirement became effective September 1, 2024 for scrap-tire generators and land-reclamation projects whose registrations do not expire and otherwise lack regular reporting.

Iowa Revenue re-adopted Chapter 225 effective August 28, 2024 and changed the body-shop provisions after commenters identified conflicts with the Iowa Code. The current rule distinguishes qualifying resale parts/materials from items consumed by the shop, identifies taxable tools and supplies, and explains invoice treatment for labor, parts, and separately stated materials.

Minnesota's 2024 commerce law removed the $7,500 upper limit from the Truth in Repairs Act definition of covered repairs and updated the required shop notice accordingly. Sections without a special effective date took effect August 1, 2024 under Minnesota's statutory effective-date rule.

Indiana Senate Enrolled Act 222 changes took effect July 1, 2024. The Auto Dealer Services Division says first-time independent dealer applicants became subject to an online training requirement, rebuilt or salvage-branded vehicle sales must use a Division-prescribed disclosure form, and franchised dealers subject to a new-vehicle stop-sale directive are entitled to manufacturer reimbursement of 1% of the vehicle's invoice price per month.

Florida Chapter 2024-137 amended section 559.905 so a motor vehicle repair shop must prepare the statutory written repair estimate when requested repair work will exceed $150 rather than the former $100 threshold. The same act also revised repair-shop registration application information and made registration fees apply per location. The changes took effect July 1, 2024.