California's SB 26: A Revision To The Recent Changes In California Lemon Law

California Senator Tom Umberg introduced Senate Bill 26 on December 2, 2024. This bill was introduced at the request of Governor Gavin Newsom, who had included a signing statement when he signed AB 1755, the recent law that streamlined lemon law claims and went into effect on January 1, 2025. 

The signing statement said that the authors of AB 1755 had agreed to introduce clean-up legislation at the beginning of the next legislative session. That clean-up legislation is SB 26, which permits manufacturers to opt-in to the new streamlined procedures and incentivizes the seller of a vehicle that is the subject of a lemon law claim under AB 1755 to disclose the reasons for such claim to the potential buyer. 

SB 26 is currently pending before the Senate Rules Committee awaiting assignment to the applicable policy committee. The intent of this legislation is twofold. First, to allow manufacturers – especially smaller manufacturers that may find some of the procedures in AB 1755 unworkable or unnecessary to streamline their cases – the ability to continue under the previous procedural rules governing lemon law claims. It accomplishes this by:

• Creating an opt-in procedure for those manufacturers who want to be governed by AB 1755. Once a manufacturer opts-in, they will be required to comply with all of AB 1755 for five years at which point they may opt-in again if they so choose. 

Second, the legislation incentivizes consumers to provide a prospective buyer information about a current lemon law claim prior to the sale of a used vehicle.

This bill is NOT yet law and still has to pass through all of the necessary committees and both houses of the California legislature. Currently, AB 1755 applies to all RV manufacturers. As of January 1, 2025, all impacted companies should be ready to comply with the requirements of AB 1755. 

The RV Industry Association will continue to monitor the status of SB 26.