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BAR summarizes 2025 legislation and rulemaking; storage-fee regulation moves toward public comment
Summary
At the Bureau of Automotive Repair quarterly advisory group meeting, staff reviewed bills signed this year and several adopted and pending regulation packages. The bureau said statutes take effect Jan. 1, 2026, and staff signaled a forthcoming regulation on storage fees that will include posting and annual reporting requirements.
Holly Helsing, executive office staff at the Bureau of Automotive Repair, told the advisory group that the bureau is tracking recently enacted bills and multiple regulatory packages and expects new statutes to take effect on Jan. 1, 2026.
Helsing described three bills the bureau tracked as having been signed by the governor and filed with the Secretary of State and said, “Bills must have been signed or vetoed by the governor by October 12. And the statutes take effect on 01/01/2026.” She listed AB 987, which expands the list of presumptively unreasonable fees tied to vehicle storage and towing; SB 774, which extends a sunset related to withholding certain citation disclosures for remedial training through Jan. 1, 2028; and a technical cleanup updating cross references in the Business and Professions Code related to vehicle safety systems and inspection station terminology.
Why it matters: those statutory changes change disclosure and consumer-protection duties for automotive repair dealers and affect the bureau’s website publication of certain citation information, how storage- and towing-related fees are treated, and cross references the bureau uses when enforcing the Automotive Repair Act.
Helsing also reviewed regulation activity. She said six regulation packages were adopted this year, including smaller technical cleanups and three substantive packages: the teardown disclosure requirement for automotive repair dealers (effective July 1), updated smog-check readiness monitor limits and a package for mobile and referral services and online advertising (both effective Oct. 1). She described a pending package on storage fees and fees disclosure that the bureau has submitted to the parent agency and that will enter a 45-day public comment period once the agency approves it.
Key proposed storage-fee provisions described by the bureau staff would: define when storage fees are reasonable and where vehicles may be stored; require ARDs (automotive repair dealers) that provide storage to post their daily storage rate and report it annually at renewal; require itemized invoices for storage; require that towing ARDs post towing and storage fees; and direct BAR to build a website tool showing average and median storage fees by location. Helsing emphasized the package is still being drafted: an earlier workshop draft exists but “it won't be the same because we heard a lot of great comments” at earlier meetings.
Advisory-group members and many public commenters focused questions on the storage package’s details — specifically how the bureau would define geographic market areas for average and median fees and whether shops should report their actual daily rate or estimate a market rate. Bureau staff said the draft will be posted for public comment and recommended stakeholders submit detailed questions via email to the executive office so staff can respond in writing and incorporate feedback during the 45-day comment period.
Ending: The bureau asked stakeholders to monitor the BAR website for posted drafts and to participate in the 45-day public comment once the package is noticed; staff said the rulemaking process could conclude next year depending on the volume of comments and revisions.
