As has become a truth in California with respect to auto dealers, no good deed goes unpunished. Many consumer attorneys have taken issue with dealers providing goodwill and/or warranty work for recently sold vehicles where a written estimate for the work to be provided and/or an invoice for completed work was not provided. This often happens in situations where a dealer’s in-house mechanic does work for a customer shortly after […]
In order to operate as a dealer in California, the California Department of Motor Vehicles (“DMV”) requires dealers to provide a $50,000 dealer bond to protect purchasers, sellers, financing agencies, and governmental agencies against monetary loss resulting from the dealer committing fraud and/or making fraudulent misrepresentations. (Cal. Veh. Code § 11710.) In response to this requirement, there are a number of third-party surety companies that will provide this bond in […]
Electronic transactions have vastly simplified the way many industries document deals. Several of my automobile dealership clients have inquired as to whether vehicle transactions can be documented electronically. Currently, the answer to that question is no. Despite the aging equipment used to memorialize deals found in many automobile dealerships, including dot matrix printers with cutting edge 1980s technology, California has exempted new and used vehicle leases and sales from its […]
September 20, 2018 Re: California Assembly Bill (AB) 516 – Temporary License Plates California Assembly Bill (AB) 516 was chaptered on July 25, 2016, with an implementation date of January 1, 2019. This legislation creates a required new electronic issuance process and new temporary permits for use by dealers to issue Reports of Sale and Temporary License Plates. The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) is working with Fairfax Imaging, […]
PROP 65 GENERALLY Prop 65, aka the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act, requires CA to publish a list of chemicals known to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity, and for businesses with 10 or more employees to provide warnings when they knowingly and intentionally cause significant exposures to listed chemicals. NOTE: Prop 65 does not ban or restrict the sale of chemicals on the list. NOTE: The new OEHHA […]
Most dealerships in California utilize a commission compensation structure in order to pay their sales staff. Doing so is generally allowed if the dealership complies with the myriad of laws dealing with this type of arrangement. The problem is that many dealerships run into costly issues when they do not properly calculate the pay due to their sales staff or properly document the relationship between them and their sales staff. […]
