ARSC News - Fall 2025 Legislation and regulations update

Legislation and regulations update

Chaptered legislation

Recently chaptered legislation related to the Bureau of Automotive Repair (Bureau or BAR) and/or its licensees is listed below. For further information regarding legislative proposals, BAR recommends contacting one of the several trade associations that represent the automotive repair industry or visiting www.leginfo.legislature.ca.gov.

Assembly Bill (AB) 987 (Sharp-Collins, Chapter 345, Statutes of 2025) was signed by the Governor on October 6, 2025. This bill expands the list of presumptively unreasonable fees in Vehicle Code sections 10652.5 and 22524.5 to include, among other things, storage fees charged for state holidays that exceed the posted standard daily storage rate. It also includes towing fees charged when the owner is directed by a law enforcement officer to remove their vehicle to clear the roadway during a state or local emergency.

Senate Bill (SB) 774 (Ashby, Chapter 786, Statutes of 2025) was signed by the Governor on October 13, 2025. This bill extends the sunset (or end) date of the remedial training program for automotive repair dealers (ARDs) from January 1, 2026, to January 1, 2028. The program allows an ARD to prevent disclosure on the Bureau website of a citation for violation of the Automotive Repair Act by attending remedial training from a BAR-accepted training provider.

SB 861 (Senate Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee, Chapter 592, Statutes of 2025) was signed by the Governor on October 10, 2025. This bill updates cross-references to the Business and Professions Code that replaced provisions for licensure of lamp and brake adjusting stations and adjusters with provisions for licensure of vehicle safety systems inspection stations and technicians.

Legislation of interest

SB 712 (Grove) was closely monitored by the Bureau throughout the 2025 legislative session. The bill would have exempted a vehicle meeting the criteria of a “collector motor vehicle” from the Smog Check Program. While SB 712 generated significant discussion, it did not advance out of the Legislature and is no longer moving forward this year.

Regulations adopted in 2025

For complete information on regulatory actions and to learn about future opportunities for public participation, see Regulatory actions.

This non-substantive, technical cleanup of BAR regulations was approved by the Office of Administrative Law (OAL) and filed with the Secretary of State on February 5, 2025. The new regulations, which took effect on April 1, 2025, update cross-referenced subsection numbers, removed references to outdated Health and Safety Code subsections, and establish definitions to clarify and make specific what constitutes a “change of ownership”, “change of address”, and “Responsible Managing Employee.”

Bureau-accepted educational certifications

This non-substantive, technical cleanup of BAR regulations was approved by OAL and filed with the Secretary of State on March 11, 2025. The new regulations, which also took effect that same day, update “bureau-approved educational certifications” to “Bureau-accepted educational certifications.” This revision makes the regulation consistent with Business and Professions Code section 9884(b)(4).

This non-substantive, technical cleanup of BAR regulations was approved by OAL and filed with the Secretary of State on May 29, 2025. The new regulations, which also took effect that same day, remove outdated subdivisions related to the Brake and Lamp programs which became inoperative on September 27, 2024.

Tear down disclosure requirements for automotive repair dealers

This regulatory proposal was approved by OAL and filed with the Secretary of State on May 29, 2025. The new regulations, which took effect on July 1, 2025:

Add and amend definitions relating to disclosure requirements for automotive repair dealers (ARDs).
Clarify estimate work order requirements when performing a tear down.
Set documentation requirements for ARDs when using an estimate that is prepared by or on behalf of a third-party payor.
Require ARDs to include on the estimate and prior to authorization of work, the payment amounts (if known) that are approved by third-party payors.

For additional information see, Updated tear down disclosure requirements in effect.

Readiness monitor limits

This regulatory proposal was approved by OAL and filed with the Secretary of State on July 9, 2025. The new regulations, which took effect on October 1, 2025, prohibit gasoline-powered vehicles, model-years 1996 and newer, and diesel-powered vehicles, model-years 1998 and newer, from passing an on-board diagnostic II (OBD-II) inspection if the vehicle's OBD-II system reports a “not-complete” readiness status. For additional information, see, New OBD readiness monitor regulations explained.

Mobile and referral automotive repair dealers

This regulatory proposal was approved by OAL and filed with the Secretary of State on August 19, 2025. The new regulations, which took effect on October 1, 2025:

Clarify the definition of “mobile automotive repair.”
Add a geographical radius for when an ARD must hold a separate mobile ARD registration if performing repairs away from the ARD’s physical location.
Add that a person or entity is considered an ARD, and therefore must be registered with BAR, if that person or entity collects compensation for automotive repair services that are referred or sublet to another person or entity to perform.
Relocated advertising regulations to establish the requirement for all ARDs to include in any internet-based advertising the business name as registered with BAR, the ARD number, and the ARD phone number as registered with BAR.

Pending regulation packages

Change of address requirements

This regulatory proposal would remove inconsistencies in the current regulations by clarifying timeframes for reporting material changes. Specifically, it updates the maximum timeframe for an ARD to notify the Bureau of a change of business address to 14 days and notifying the Bureau of other material changes to the business to 30 days. It would also remove duplicative text and make minor grammatical changes for consistency and clarification.

Status:

Public comment period: October 3-November 17, 2025
Expected adoption: These regulations are expected to be adopted and take effect on April 1, 2026

Storage fees charged by automotive repair dealers

This regulatory proposal would bring together existing laws governing storage from the business and professions, civil, and vehicle codes under one unified regulatory section. The proposed regulations would:

Establish that fees charged for the storage of a motor vehicle shall be reasonable.
Determine when an ARD may charge storage fees and require customer notification of where the vehicle is stored.
Require that an ARD provide an itemized estimate and invoice for storage fees when charged.
Require that an ARD that provides storage services post their current daily storage fee rate in an area frequented by customers and provide the Bureau with their daily storage rate annually when renewing their registration.
Require that an ARD that maintains a motor carrier permit to display the Towing and Storage Fees Access Notice in an area of the business that is in plain view of the public. They must also have copies of the notice available to the public.
Create a search tool on BAR’s website showing average and median daily storage rates for a given locale based on the maximum daily storage rates reported by ARDs.
Define a “locale” as one of four geographic radiuses around each reporting ARD that is sufficient to identify the average and median storage rates in relation to the reporting ARD.

Status: The package is currently under internal review and expected to be filed with OAL for public notification and comment by the end of the year.

Biometric device updates

This regulatory proposal would update both the Smog Check Manual and Vehicle Safety Systems Inspection Manual to allow the use of any approved palm vein scanner model, rather than the single model currently approved.