Vermont
State law entitles a franchised dealer to retail rate on warranty labor and parts, and unlike most states it lets you change your declared parts markup twice in a calendar year. Most Vermont stores are still being paid against a markup nobody has revisited in years.
9 V.S.A. § 4086 · Warranty and predelivery obligations; retail rate for parts and labor
What you are owed
Retail rate
Warranty, predelivery and recall parts at no less than what you customarily charge retail customers for like parts, and labor at the retail rate you customarily charge.
How often you may change it
Parts: twice a year
Your declared parts markup may be changed up to two times in one calendar year. Most states allow one attempt. Vermont gives you a second.
The claims clock
45 days
A warranty claim not disapproved in writing within 45 days of receipt is deemed approved, and approved claims must be paid within 45 days.
Recovering the cost
Prohibited
The manufacturer cannot recover what it pays you by reducing what it owes you, or by any separate charge, surcharge or other imposition.
Why It Is Not A Form
Vermont's statute is short and its list of excluded work is narrow, which makes it look simple. It is not. A narrow statutory list means the manufacturer tries to widen it at audit, and the labor and parts sides of the law are built differently. Treating them as one filing is where Vermont submissions go wrong.
Vermont names only a handful of categories as outside the calculation. Manufacturers routinely try to strip out more at audit. Concede work the statute never excluded and you have lowered your own markup on the factory's say-so.
Vermont ties warranty labor to the retail rate you customarily charge, and sets out a separate process for the parts markup. A submission that treats both sides the same way gets one of them wrong.
Every OEM brings its own warranty policy and its own view of what counts. Where that policy reaches past what Vermont allows, the statute controls, but somebody has to know where that line is for your particular brand.
A second change in the same year is an advantage only if the first was sound. A markup that gets audited down costs you the months it stood, and leaves you one attempt to make it right.
The Part Most Dealers Miss
Vermont goes further than most states on what happens after you are paid. An approved and paid claim cannot be charged back unless it was false or fraudulent, the repair was not properly made or was unnecessary, or you failed to reasonably substantiate it. And if you protest a chargeback within 30 days, the manufacturer cannot take the money until the Vermont Transportation Board issues a final order, with the manufacturer carrying the burden of proof.
Add the ban on recovering warranty costs through surcharges or reduced payments, and a second chance at your parts markup each year, and the law is already leaning your way. What decides the outcome is a submission that holds up when it is read.
We Do This For You
John Fairchild has run more than 400 warranty reimbursement filings himself. You do not pull the repair orders, decide what qualifies, or argue the categories. We build the submission, you review it before it goes anywhere, and it goes out under a rate we are prepared to defend.
Most filings come back in 45 to 60 days. That depends heavily on the manufacturer, and on whether they ask for additional repair orders before they answer, which every statute allows them to do.
And because your rate is proven out of your own customer-pay pricing, we do not stop when the letter is sent. The platform runs the daily discipline that protects that pricing all year, which is what decides how high you can go the next time you are allowed to ask.
No cost, no obligation. We will tell you the rate you could defend today and whether filing is worth running at all.
Summary of 9 V.S.A. § 4086 as published by the State of Vermont, reviewed July 2026. Statutes change; we re-verify before every filing.