What Is Lemon Law?
Lemon Law is a consumer protection law which guarantees a consumer’s right to a replacement vehicle or cash settlement in the event that they buy a defective new vehicle. Some states have "lemon" laws for used vehicles and vehicles that still remain under the manufacturer’s warranty. State lemon laws vary, but generally establish a set timeframe within which the vehicle must be defective in order for it to be considered for resolution under the lemon law . The purpose of Lemon Law is to protect the rights of consumers who have purchased a vehicle with a defect. When a vehicle is classified as a lemon, it becomes the responsibility of the manufacturer to either repair the defect or provide the consumer with a replacement vehicle or refund. Lemon Law provides protection for consumers who purchase defective vehicles. It is an important consumer protection measure because it helps to ensure that consumers are not stuck with defective vehicles and their accompanying costs.
What Is Statute of Limitations?
A statute of limitations is a formal time frame for initiating legal proceedings. Once the timeframe has passed, a party is generally barred from bringing a lawsuit on that claim. Statutes of limitation may be in days, months, or years and vary from state to state and from one type of claim to another.
Statutes of limitations exist to preserve evidence and to prevent claims and lawsuits from pending over long periods of time. The passage of time makes it more challenging to prove claims because witnesses may die or forget, documents may be lost, memories of events may fade, etc.
The period of the statute of limitations can be found in the applicable statute or decided by the courts until a law is passed to change it. Many statutes of limitations are the result of more scientific research and better understanding of human health. As a result, as new symptoms are understood, a state’s legislature will make new laws regarding limits of actions.
Most states have a statute of limitations pertaining to Lemon Law claims. In Michigan, one of those Lemon Law statutes of limitations states a Lemon Law action must be commenced within four years from the date of delivery of the vehicle to the consumer.
State-by-State Breakdown
While many lemon law claims share the same time frame to be filed, there are state-by-state variations that result in different statutes of limitations. Several of these variations are outlined below:
California: Lemon law claims must be filed within four years from the time the defective vehicle becomes subject to repair or replacement.
Ohio: Ohio lemon law requires lemon law claims to be filed within one year from when the vehicle is accepted for repair.
New York: New York lemon law gives consumers two years from the acceptance of the vehicle for repair to file a lemon law claim.
Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania lemon law provides for a four-year statute of limitations to bring a lemon law claim.
How to Determine Your Statute of Limitations
Part of determining whether you have a viable Lemon Law claim is knowing whether your claim is still timely. A statute of limitations sets a time limit on how long someone has to bring a lawsuit. If a person doesn’t file their claim within that time limit, that claim can be barred. Depending on which state you are in, the statute of limitations for Lemon Laws varies from one to four years.
Finding out what your statute of limitations is for Lemon Law claims may not be as simple as looking it up on Google. There is no single statute of limitations for Lemon Laws, there are actually two: one for written warranties and another for implied warranties. Since there is an implied warranty of merchantability in all car sales (whether new or used), if you are bringing a Lemon Law claim based on an implied warranty of merchantability, you will essentially have to look up two different statutes of limitations.
To figure out what your statute of limitations would be, look at Figure 1 to see in which state you would file your Lemon Law claim and whether the statute of limitations is three or four years. Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Minnesota have a statute of limitations of four years while the rest of the states on Figure 1 have a statute of limitations of three years.
Next, you would look at Figure 2 to determine where you would file your Lemon Law claim since you live in Michigan.
Finally, you would look at Figure 3 to determine where you would file your Lemon Law claim if you brought your claim based on an implied warranty of merchantability.
Implications of Missing the Statute of Limitations
When the statute of limitations runs out on a Lemon Law claim, you can no longer bring the claim in court. That means you lose the right to pursue any action to try to get the purchase price or replacement vehicle from the manufacturer. Instead, all you have left is the right to pursue a claim for the expenses you paid that you will not be able to recover under the Lemon Law (like attorney fees, rental car costs, and anything else out of pocket) from the dealership under the Magnuson-Moss Act. The same running of the statute of limitation leaves you without the ability to pursue your claim against the car dealer for breach of the warranty of merchantability and good faith. In that case, you would still be able to sue the dealership for misrepresentation , but a misrepresentation is based on something one party said or did to cause the other to believe facts are true when they are not. If you indicate you are holding the vehicle for repair, and continue to bring it in for that same problem, the dealership will likely argue that your supposedly correct treatment of the car indicates that you have not been misled into thinking you are entitled to an item you are not actually entitled to (the right to keep the car while the manufacturer continues to try and fix it). If you lose the breach of warranty claim, you also lose the extraordinary relief of having the warranty considered breached, which shifts the burden of proof to the manufacturer in the case the manufacturer ever decides to try to deny the claim you had been trying to settle.
Steps to Follow if Your Claim Is Denied
If your Lemon Law claim is denied because it was not filed within the limitation period, you can attempt to file an appeal. It is important to make sure appeals are filed with any stated deadlines, however, to insure that your appeal is heard.
In the event that your Lemon Law claim is denied because you were able to comply with the Lemon Law requirements (the vehicle is a lemon), you may still have other legal remedies available to you.
The best thing you can do if your claim is denied is to talk to a Lemon Law attorney. The attorney will help you determine whether your claim is actually valid or not. If so, then you should take immediate steps to resolve your case. Even if your claim is denied, you may have other legal remedies such as a Magnuson-Moss warranty or contractual based action, which you should pursue with an attorney.
Tips for Safeguarding Your Rights under the Lemon Law
When faced with the possibility of a lemon vehicle, there are several steps you can take to protect your rights. First, always maintain meticulous records of all problems with the vehicle, including repairs and communications with the manufacturer or dealership. Be sure to keep copies of invoices, work orders, and receipts for all repairs and service. Take notes on conversations you have with service technicians and salespeople. You will need to prove your case, and that will be very difficult if you have no evidence.
Your best chances of success depend in large part on your ability to show that the vehicle you bought was indeed a lemon. Keep a log of every time the vehicle was brought in for service. Make specific entries about what the mechanic said was wrong with the car, and what repairs were made. Did the same problem occur more than once? If so, say so and make details of each repair entry. A lemon law claim will require proof that you gave the dealer adequate notice of the problem and a reasonable opportunity to repair it – likely around four attempts or thirty days in the shop. Without specific entries for every time in the shop, you’re unlikely to show you’ve satisfied that requirement.
It’s not enough to rely on maintenance schedule inspections to prove you have maintained the vehicle in good repair . That won’t help you if the car has an oil leak and you bring it in for other issues having nothing to do with the oil or where the oil leak is allowing the engine to run hot, thereby causing damage to the engine and a diminished resale value. It’s important to take your vehicle in for problems as they arise, and to make those problems known, as opposed to waiting until the regular maintenance schedule comes up. Even too long between oil changes or "exaggerated" mileage can be cited by dealers as a defense to a lemon law claim.
There are some things you should never do if you suspect you have a lemon vehicle. First, don’t bring your vehicle in for the same problem over and over again; it could delay your ability to bring a lemon law claim. In California, the 30 days in the shop requirement is calendar days and doesn’t start to run until after the car was returned to you after the fourth attempt. Second, don’t ignore recalls, and certainly complete them. Finally, make sure you get any work done on the vehicle other than manufacturer or dealership repairs as soon as possible so that you don’t give the impression that regular maintenance was not followed and that you are the one to blame for anything wrong with the vehicle.