Washington State Plan Approval Bill Signed By Governor

Last Thursday, April 13, Washington Governor Jay Inslee signed into law HB 1514, the industry backed bill to amend the statewide RV plan approval process.

“This is a great victory for the RV industry, and we are grateful for everyone in the Washington legislature and the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries that worked with us to prevent any negative implications for the Washington RV consumer, Washington RV dealers, and RV manufacturers.” said RV Industry Association Senior Manager of State Affairs Nick Rudowich.

“We want to especially thank Representative Eric Robertson, Representative Liz Berry, Senator Steve Conway, and Senator Curtis King. Their work on 1514 was critical to its success this session.”

HB 1514 takes effect 90 days after the last day of the legislative session, which makes the effective date early summer 2023.

The Issue

From 2021 and throughout 2022, the RV industry experienced significant delays in RV plan reviews because of staffing issues at the Washington Department of Labor and Industries, Factory Assembled Structures Division. These issues created a massive backlog of RV plans and caused a disruption to RV commerce.

RV plan approval by the Department Labor and Industries is required for RV manufacturers to purchase Washington state RV insignias. These insignias are required by Washington statute to sell an RV in the state of Washington. Because the state could not perform its responsibility and approve plans, RV manufacturers were unable to purchase and subsequently ship RVs to Washington RV dealers in a timely manner. Washington RV dealers ultimately lost business, as consumers went out of state for the products their in-state dealers did not have.

The Resolution

To resolve this issue, the RV Industry Association has been worked with the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries’ plan review division to implement an all-electronic plan submission process for RVs and Park Model RVs. The RV industry did not use digital plan submission in the past because the digital plan submission process was more costly to RV manufacturers than physical submission. Due to recent fee changes digital submission has become the cheaper option.

Senior Manager Nick Rudowich testified at the February 1st and March 14th at public hearings in support of an amendment (Revised Code of Washington 43.22.350) to the Washington RV plan approval process (House Bill 1514) that would make improvements to the process that are already in place permanent. During his testimony, Rudowich announced that RV manufacturers can purchase insignias on submission of plans to the state. RV manufacturers must have a state approved quality control program and pay the required fees of plan submission to the Department of Labor and Industries.

For questions on this issue, please contact Sophie de la Torre at sdelatorre@rvia.org.