myConsumerRights

Key Consumer Issues - Georgia's Lemon Law

Your Rights Under Georgia’s Lemon Law

Georgia’s Warranty Rights Act, also known as the “Lemon Law,” is codified in O.C.G.A. § 10-1-780 through 10-1-794. It offers protection to consumers who buy or lease a new vehicle which turns out to have certain types of defects. When you buy a new car, the dealer is required to give you a written explanation of your rights under this law.

The law applies only to new motor vehicles that meet certain criteria. For example:

The vehicle cannot be a motorcycle or a truck over 10,000 pounds. The law also does not apply to certain parts of motor homes.
The vehicle must have been bought for personal use or for the use of certain small businesses.
The vehicle must have been leased or purchased in Georgia.
The vehicle must have “a defect, a serious safety defect, or condition that substantially impairs [its] use, value, or safety” but was not caused by “abuse, neglect, or unauthorized modification or alteration” of the vehicle (O.C.G.A. § 10-1-782).
The defect must have first been reported to the manufacturer, dealer, or other authorized agent within a year after you received the vehicle or within the first 12,000 miles of use, whichever comes first. This is known as the lemon law rights period.

How the Law Works for You:

Once you have reported a defect meeting the criteria above, the manufacturer must repair it at its expense.
Each time the car is repaired during the lemon law rights period or under warranty, you must be given an itemized statement indicating all of the work done on the vehicle and a diagnosis of the problem. Keep these for your records.
The manufacturer is allowed “a reasonable number of attempts” to fix the problem. A reasonable number of attempts is presumed to have been made if:
1. For a serious safety defect in the braking or steering system, at least one repair attempt has been made during the lemon law rights period, but the problem still exists.
2. For any other serious safety defect, the problem still exists after two or more attempts to fix it during a period of 24 months/24,000 miles or less, whichever comes first. (At least one of the repair attempts must have been within the lemon law rights period.)
3. For other eligible defects, the same problem still exists after three or more attempts to fix it during a period of 24 months/24,000 miles or less, whichever comes first. (At least one of the repair attempts must have been within the lemon law rights period.)
4. The vehicle is out of service due to repairs for a total of 30 calendar days over a period of 24 months/24,000 miles or less. At least 15 of those days must have fallen during the lemon law rights period.

If there are less than 15 days left in the lemon law rights period when you first bring your car in for diagnosis or repair, the period is extended for 90 days with respect to that particular problem.

What it if My Car Cannot be Repaired within a “Reasonable Number of Attempts”?

If it appears your car is not repairable, you must notify the manufacturer by certified mail or statutory overnight delivery, return receipt requested, making a “Final Notice of Repair” demand. Forms for this purpose are available through the Governor’s Office of Consumers Affairs. Within 7 days of receiving your notice, the manufacturer must give you the name of a reasonably accessible repair facility. To protect your rights under the lemon law, you have to take your car to that facility for one more repair attempt. The manufacturer has 14 days to have the car repaired. If, within that time period, the vehicle still is not fixed, you can ask that the manufacturer buy the car back from you or replace the car with one reasonably equivalent to it. This request also must be made by certified mail or statutory overnight delivery, return receipt requested. The manufacturer then has 30 days to comply.

If you decide to have your car replaced, the manufacturer must provide a reasonably equivalent replacement vehicle and cover any charges you would have to pay associated with getting the new vehicle (for example, service charges and other fees). You are also entitled to reimbursement for incidental costs you had as a result of your defective vehicle, such as rental car expenses and towing fees. On the other hand, the manufacturer is entitled to a reasonable offset for use for the time you had the original car in your possession-the idea is that you owe the manufacturer something for the time you had the car.

If you decide to have the manufacturer buy your defective vehicle back from you, you are entitled to a refund of the purchase price of the vehicle plus associated fees and charges. Again, the manufacturer is allowed to make a reasonable deduction for the period of time the car was in your possession, including a fee for mileage.

What if the Manufacturer Won’t Honor my Rights Under the Lemon Law?

If you believe your rights under the lemon law have been violated, you may be eligible to have the dispute heard by an arbitration panel established by the Governor’s Office of Consumer Affairs (OCA). However, if the manufacturer has an informal dispute resolution process, you may be required to go through that process before you have access to the arbitration panel. If you are interested in pursuing arbitration, you must submit a written request to the Administrator of OCA, who will determine if the matter is eligible for arbitration. If it is, the manufacturer is required to submit to arbitration. A panel will review the dispute and decide whether or not you are entitled to replacement or repurchase of your vehicle. If the decision is in your favor, the panel can also award you attorneys fees and expert witness costs. However, you are not required to have legal representation.

If you disagree with the panel’s decision, you have 30 days to reject it in writing by certified mail or statutory overnight delivery, return receipt requested. You may then request a jury trial but must do so within 40 days. If you don’t reject the panel’s decision in writing, you will be assumed to have accepted it, which means you will not be able to file suit.

Similarly, within 40 days of receiving notice of the arbitration panel’s decision or your acceptance or rejection of it, the manufacturer must comply with it or file a request for trial. If the manufacturer appeals and you win, you may be entitled to recover attorney’s fees and costs.

I’m Leasing a Car. Does the Law Affect Me Differently?

There are some differences under the lemon law, if you lease a car rather than own it. Although you can start proceedings under the lemon law, the lessor is the actual owner of the vehicle, so you share some rights with the company that holds your lease. For example, the lessor gets to decide whether to have a manufacturer replace or buy back a vehicle that’s defective under the lemon law. However, you do have the right to demand that the lessor choose one of those options, and, if it fails to do so within 30 days of your written demand, you get to make the choice and the lessor will be bound by your decision.

If the lessor chooses to have the manufacturer buy back a lemon law vehicle, you are entitled to a refund of your down payment and any allowance that was made for a trade-in you included in your initial deal. You cannot be penalized for early termination of your lease, and you are released from all future obligations to the lessor.

If the lessor chooses to have the vehicle replaced, the terms of your lease agreement remain the same, except that the information pertaining to identification of the vehicle is updated. It is important to note, however, that when you receive the replacement vehicle, you are responsible for compensating the manufacturer for the use of the first vehicle during the time you had it (this is referred to as offset for use). If your lease does not contain a purchase option or you choose not to elect that option, the lessor must refund you the amount you paid the manufacturer as offset for use or an amount equal to the any increased value the second car has at the end of the lease term over the value that initial vehicle was expected to have.

Other Ways the Lemon Law Protects You

The law says your lemon law rights cannot by waived or limited. This means if someone tricks or pressures you into signing a contract, form, or agreement that says you give up those rights, the contract, form, or agreement is not enforceable.

The law also limits the ability of manufacturers to resell vehicles with lemon law defects:

A manufacturer cannot knowingly sell (except for scrap) a motor vehicle known to have a serious safety defect unless that defect has been corrected and the manufacturer warrants the correction in writing.

A manufacturer can only resell a motor vehicle with an uncorrected nonserious safety defect if it provides written information about the defect to the consumer before ownership is transferred.

A manufacturer can only resell a motor vehicle with a corrected lemon law defect if it provides a written warranty that the defect has been corrected and warrants the vehicle regarding the defect for 12 months or 12,000 miles, whichever comes first.

The lemon law is codified in Georgia law at O.C.G.A. § 10-1-780 through 10-1-794.

For additional information about Georgia’s Lemon Law and access to forms provided by the Governor’s Office of Consumer Affairs, click here.