Washington
State law entitles a franchised dealer to its retail rate on warranty labor and diagnosis, its declared markup on parts, and compensation for the photographs, paperwork and data entry the manufacturer demands to approve a claim. Most Washington stores are still settling warranty at a rate far below what they charge at the counter.
RCW 46.96.105 · Warranty work; compensation at the dealer's retail rates
What you are owed
Retail rate
Labor and diagnosis at the retail rate you charge your own customers, parts at your declared markup, and the documentation work the manufacturer requires paid rather than absorbed.
When it takes effect
30 days
A change to your labor rate or parts markup takes effect 30 days after you submit it. The manufacturer has that window to make its case against it.
How often you may file
Once a year
An increase in your parts markup or your labor and diagnostic rate can be granted no more than once per calendar year. A failed attempt waits for January.
Recovering the cost
Prohibited
The manufacturer cannot recover what it pays you by cutting what it owes, or by any separate charge, surcharge or other imposition. Recall costs are protected the same way.
Why It Is Not A Form
Washington sets a high bar for a manufacturer to refuse your rate, but it only protects a rate that was built correctly. The statute decides which of your customer-paid work counts toward that rate, and the manufacturer's own policy adds its own layer. Getting both right is the job, and it is where filings fail.
Washington's list of excluded work is shorter than many states', but every item on it is something a busy service drive sells every day. Leave it in and you have pulled your own average down before the manufacturer reads a line.
Each OEM applies its own policy on what qualifies and how a rate change is presented. Where that policy overreaches, the statute controls, but somebody has to know where the line falls for your brand.
The manufacturer can refuse your rate only by showing it unreasonably exceeds every comparable franchised dealer in your market. That is a hard test for them to meet, unless your submission hands them the gap themselves.
Because an increase can be granted only once per calendar year, a weak submission does not just come back low. It costs you the rest of the year at the rate you were trying to leave.
The Part Most Dealers Miss
Most stores assume the factory can refuse a higher rate simply by calling it unreasonable. In Washington it cannot. A manufacturer may decline a proposed increase only by demonstrating that your declared rate unreasonably exceeds the rates of all the other franchised dealers of the same or a competing line in your relevant market area. Not the average. All of them.
Combine that with a ban on clawing the increase back through surcharges or reduced payments, and with warranty claims deemed approved if they are not disapproved in writing within 30 days, and the statute already favors the dealer. What decides the result is a submission that holds up.
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 RCW 46.96.105 as published by the State of Washington, reviewed July 2026. Statutes change; we re-verify before every filing.