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Updates
Every new Library page, every Register update, and every correction to already-published content, in one dated feed (a round in an entry means a group of records checked and published together) — also available as RSS and JSON.
What a home warranty service fee is and how to compare it — October 15, 2026
This page explains what a home warranty service fee is and how to compare it between contracts.
Florida home warranty cancellation rights — October 15, 2026
This page covers Florida only. It explains the cancellation and refund rules that Florida's home warranty statute sets.
2 new US guides: North Dakota's property service contract exemption, and what a written warranty must disclose — October 9, 2026
A North Dakota guide sets out Century Code § 9-01-21, which says a property service contract is not subject to the insurance title, alongside § 26.1-40-18, which requires an insurance policy behind automobile warranty and service contracts. A federal guide lists the nine items 16 C.F.R. § 701.3 requires in a written consumer product warranty. Each is based on the cited primary sources and is general information rather than advice.
Correction: Arizona and Indiana service contract guides — October 9, 2026
Our Arizona guide said the state had no dedicated law for home warranty companies until 2018 and that a 2018 bill created its permit system. Arizona already required a permit and a deposit or bond; the 2018 law (SB 1381) amended that system. Our Indiana guide said Indiana has no law for a home warranty at all and described a 2014 bill, a description now removed pending primary-source confirmation. It now says only that Indiana regulates vehicle service contracts by statute, that the page identifies no home-warranty licensing statute, and that Department of Insurance bulletins may apply to other service contracts. Related listings and asides were reworded.
Correction: Maryland, Ohio and Tennessee guides no longer state absences as fact — October 9, 2026
Our Maryland, Ohio and Tennessee guides had said, without qualification, that no license, registration, bond or reserve applies to a home warranty in those states. They now say only what the cited statutes provide and what each page identifies, note that other state law may apply, and describe Tennessee's 2015 interpretive opinion as a statement of the Division's enforcement position. The Ohio guide also now notes that R.C. 3905.422 excepts a contract issued as a policy by a licensed property and casualty insurer and corrects its effective date to August 6, 2004; the Maryland guide's malformed markup was repaired; and related Library listings and the consumer-protection backstop guide were reworded to match. The Ohio guide no longer describes its former chapter's dates or sections, or the change as having no replacement, and the Maryland guide cites § 14-409(b)(1) for the Insurance Article carve-out.
Correction: Pennsylvania and Michigan service contract exemptions described more narrowly — October 9, 2026
Our Pennsylvania guide now describes the state's service contract provision in our own words, as treating the sale of a service contract as not the business of insurance, instead of quoting it and stating what other law does not require. Related statements on our Michigan, Massachusetts, New Mexico and Wisconsin guides and on the Library listings were softened or corrected to match.
Correction: Wisconsin does license service contract providers — October 9, 2026
Our Wisconsin guide said that Wisconsin requires no license or registration and that a provider can operate without being licensed. Wis. Stat. § 616.54 requires a provider to be licensed by the Commissioner of Insurance and an administrator to register; only a service contract seller is exempt from licensure or registration under the subchapter. The guide and its Library listings are corrected. The September 15 library-update summary of that guide, and the Tennessee and Michigan guides, were corrected in the same pass: the Tennessee guide now states only what the exemption in Tenn. Code § 56-2-126 provides, and the Michigan guide no longer overstates what its exemption does.
Correction: North Carolina service agreement statutes do not require registration with the insurance commissioner — October 8, 2026
Our North Carolina guide said G.S. 66-370 and 66-371 require a company to register with the Commissioner of Insurance. Re-reading G.S. 66-370 through 66-374, we found no such registration requirement; the Commissioner approves insurance policy forms under G.S. 66-373. The guide is corrected.
Corrections and updates: Colorado service contracts, GAP waiver refunds and the FTC Holder Rule — October 8, 2026
The Colorado guide now covers the 2026 act that keeps the home warranty part of the statutes in force and corrects how two sections were described. The GAP waiver guide corrects four statements and compares Virginia, New Jersey and Colorado refund rules. The Holder Rule guide replaces a bare court citation with the case name and number, removes three statements the cited sources do not establish, and quotes the full notice. Our Pennsylvania guide now describes the state's service contract exemption in our own words instead of quoting it, and statements about Pennsylvania on our Michigan, Wisconsin, Massachusetts and New Mexico guides and on two Library listings were softened to match. Each is based on the cited primary sources and is general information rather than advice.
Correction: Louisiana home service contracts are still regulated by the Secretary of State — October 8, 2026
Our Louisiana home service contract guide said that a 2024 bill (House Bill 841) had moved these providers to the Department of Insurance. That bill is shown on the Legislature's site as pending in committee, and the Secretary of State chapter remains in force. The guide, the Louisiana vehicle service contract guide and the Library listings now say so. A related citation on our warranty transferability guide and a sentence on our Louisiana new home warranty guide were also corrected, and an earlier update summary that repeated the error was fixed.
7 new guides: Maine, New Hampshire, Alaska, the District of Columbia, Rhode Island and West Virginia service contract laws, cancellation rules and solicitation rules compared — October 7, 2026
New guides set out what Maine's Service Contracts Act, New Hampshire's consumer guaranty contract chapter, Alaska's vehicle service contract sections, the District of Columbia's service contract chapter and the short Rhode Island and West Virginia exemption statutes say. Two comparison guides put five statutes side by side on cancellation windows, refunds and fee caps, and on warranty-expiring solicitations, required purchases and sample contracts. Each is based on the cited primary sources and is general information rather than advice.
8 new guides: Idaho, Montana, Arkansas, Florida, Kansas and Delaware service contract laws, recalls vs. bulletins, implied warranties and service contract roles — October 6, 2026
New guides set out what Idaho's vehicle service contract act, Montana's service contract part, Arkansas's registration rule, Florida's vehicle service agreement statute and the Kansas and Delaware service contract sections say. Others compare a safety recall, a service bulletin and a warranty repair under federal law, explain implied warranties and how they can be disclaimed, and compare how four states define the provider, administrator and seller. Each is based on the cited primary sources and is general information rather than advice.
Correction: company name removed from How we check — October 3, 2026
Our How we check page previously named a specific Canadian company as an example of a private home-systems-and-appliance warranty seller. On a page describing how we vet providers, a named company could be read as vetted or recommended; we have published no result, listing or recommendation for it. The name is removed and the educational point is unchanged.
Correction: Florida home warranty association financial requirements — October 3, 2026
Our Florida home warranty page previously cited Florida Statutes s. 634.406 (service warranty associations, Part III of Chapter 634) for home warranty association financial requirements, and described a further 10 percent reserve deposit that applies under that section. The page now cites s. 634.3077 (Part II, Home Warranty Associations) and the 10 percent reserve-deposit claim is removed. The page also presented a $750,000 net-worth floor as a general requirement; under s. 634.3077 that figure applies only to the alternative for an association relying on net worth in place of a reserve or insurance, and the page now says so.
6 new guides: funded-claims backing, Texas provider cancellation, Magnuson-Moss lawsuits, appliance plans, Quebec's legal warranty and a state regulation hub — October 3, 2026
New guides cover what Florida and Texas require a provider to show about funded claims backing, what the Texas regulator says about a provider cancelling a contract, where you can sue under the federal warranty law and who may pay attorney fees, how the FTC describes an appliance protection plan beside the manufacturer warranty, and Quebec's free legal warranty of good working order. A new start-here page maps our US state guides. Each is based on the cited primary sources and is general information rather than advice.
7 new guides: GAP coverage, repairs after a warranty ends, maintenance records, car modifications, installer warranties, right to repair and travel protection plans — October 3, 2026
New guides cover what GAP coverage is, California's rules on manufacturer repair programs after a warranty ends, why service records matter, aftermarket parts and your vehicle warranty, which installed products the federal warranty law reaches, what Minnesota's right-to-repair law says, and how two states define travel protection plans. Existing hubs and related guides now link to them. Each is based on the cited primary sources and is general information rather than advice.
10 new guides: home warranty coverage and sales checklist, vehicle claims and add-ons, Magnuson-Moss, builder and appliance warranties, Canada lemon laws, two hubs — October 3, 2026
New guides cover what home warranties typically cover, a sales checklist, how a vehicle service contract claim works, add-ons in a car loan, the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, builder warranties on new homes, appliance warranties and lemon laws in Canada. Two start-here hubs are also new, and two existing hubs now list the new guides. Each is based on the cited primary sources and is general information rather than advice.
8 new guides: verifying providers, home warranty alternatives, "as is" vehicle sales in Canada, two hubs and a glossary — October 2, 2026
New guides cover how to check a home warranty company and a vehicle service contract provider with regulator tools, what California's regulator says about exclusions and denied claims, other ways to handle repair costs, and "as is" used-vehicle sales in Canada. Two start-here hubs and a Quebec-statute glossary are also new. Each is based on the cited primary sources and is general information rather than advice.
3 new US guides: reading warranty terms, vehicle service contracts, and a denied home warranty claim — October 2, 2026
New guides cover a pre-signing checklist built on the FTC pre-sale rule, how the FTC used-car rule defines a vehicle service contract, and where to turn after a denied home warranty claim. Each is based on the cited primary sources and is general information rather than advice.
4 new US guides on Louisiana warranty law — October 1, 2026
New guides cover Louisiana vehicle service contracts, the state lemon law, the New Home Warranty Act, and the Civil Code's redhibition warranty. Each is based on the statute text, and each is general information rather than advice.
Correction: the Canada hub's scope wording — September 30, 2026
The Canada hub page's introduction said it held "every Library page and Register finding" on Canadian home warranty and vehicle service contract regulation. That overstated its scope: the page lists our Canadian guides only, not the guides that compare the US and Canada (which are in the Library) and not Register results (which the Register reports for US and Canadian providers together). The introduction and meta description now say this.
Correction: the United States hub's scope wording — September 30, 2026
The United States hub page's introduction said it held "every Library page and Register finding" on US home warranty and vehicle service contract regulation. That overstated its scope: the page lists our US guides only, not the guides that compare the US and Canada (which are in the Library) and not Register results (which the Register reports for US and Canadian providers together). The introduction and meta description now say this.
Lemon-law guide now notes the federal limit on "as-is" disclaimers — September 30, 2026
The lemon laws vs. vehicle service contracts page now adds that under 15 U.S.C. § 2308 a seller that gives a written warranty, or enters into a service contract with the buyer at sale or within 90 days, cannot disclaim implied warranties, and links to our full guide on the rule.
5 new US Library pages on the federal product-warranty rules — September 30, 2026
New plain-language guides cover the FTC's warranty registration card interpretation, what "full" and "limited" warranty labels mean, the pre-sale rule for reading a warranty before you buy, the federal rule on "as is" sales when a service contract is sold, and the federal emissions warranty. Each cites the statute or regulation text and keeps product warranties separate from service contracts.
Correction: wrong case name/docket on our auto-renewal page — September 24, 2026
Our US vs. Canada auto-renewal clauses guide previously cited the case vacating the FTC's 2024 "click-to-cancel" rule as "Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America v. FTC, No. 24-3175" — the wrong case name and docket entirely. The actual decision is Custom Communications, Inc. v. FTC, No. 24-3137 (8th Cir., decided July 8, 2025); the Chamber of Commerce was a co-petitioner in the underlying litigation but is not the lead case name. The page now cites the correct case.
The Register's thirteenth round: 1 US provider checked, 0 listed — September 17, 2026
A well-known, heavily-advertised home warranty provider was checked against our published standard this round, back on the US side. It failed on one well-corroborated point: a complaint volume in the thousands with a consistent theme, independently corroborated across a public complaint record and a separate independent complaint-tracking profile. Several other points were held at unknown rather than assumed a pass or fail, exactly as our fact-integrity rules require when the evidence available didn't clear our own bar either way.
4 new US Library pages: Oregon, Mississippi, Vermont, and reimbursement insurance vs. funded reserves — September 17, 2026
Oregon exempts a home service agreement provider from the general financial-stability proof its service-contract statute otherwise requires, substituting a flat $25,000 continuous surety bond instead — and, in a completely separate statute, governs the warranty a builder offers on newly built construction. Mississippi took its two products in opposite regulatory directions in the same section of law: home warranties moved out of the Insurance Code into the state's general Consumer Protection Act, while vehicle service contracts stayed fully inside a dedicated insurance-code chapter. Vermont's service-contract statute goes further than most states' registration requirements: it makes the consumer an actual party to the contract with a right to sue in Vermont courts, requires a full-price refund within 20 days if no claim was filed, and makes a reinsurer directly liable to the consumer if the provider fails to perform. A fourth page finally explains, on its own, the reimbursement-insurance-vs-funded-reserve distinction referenced across a dozen of this Library's state pages — why a separate insurer's balance sheet and a provider's own regulated reserve carry meaningfully different risk if a provider fails.
2 new Canada Library pages: warranty transferability, and CASL warranty marketing — September 17, 2026
A mandatory statutory new-home warranty in Canada runs with the property, not the original buyer: Tarion, GCR, Alberta's program, and BC's home warranty insurance all pass unused coverage to the next owner automatically. A purchased home warranty or vehicle service contract doesn't work that way — no Canadian province creates a comparable transfer right, so it comes down to that specific contract's own transfer clause, the same default position as in the US. A companion page covers the email or text version of the "your warranty is expiring" pitch: Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation, not the CRTC's telemarketing rules, governs it, including the narrow exemption letting a genuine warranty-status message skip consent while a renewal sales pitch usually can't.
The Register's twelfth round: 2 Canadian providers checked, 0 listed — September 17, 2026
Two well-known, long-operating home protection-plan providers were checked against our published standard this round, back on the Canada side after the prior round's US-only assessments. Both failed outright: each was the target of a separate Competition Bureau consent agreement and administrative monetary penalty over anti-competitive water-heater-rental practices, independently corroborated against the Bureau's own record.
3 new US Library pages: New Mexico, Wyoming, and comparing vehicle service contracts — September 17, 2026
New Mexico's Service Contract Regulation Act keeps a home warranty inside the Insurance Code rather than carving it out, which means the same unfair-claims-practices rights an insurance policyholder has, including a private right of action recognized by New Mexico courts, reach a service contract holder too. Wyoming requires a provider to post a quantified 5%-of-gross-consideration (minimum $25,000) security deposit plus a separate 40% funded reserve, but unlike Wisconsin's form-approval model, the state doesn't review or approve a contract's actual terms before it's sold. A third page finally gives vehicle service contracts their own version of this Library's contract-comparison checklist, covering the obligor, coverage structure, deductible mechanics, financial backing, exclusions, and cancellation rights side by side.
2 new Canada Library pages: GAP insurance regulation, and new-home deposit protection — September 17, 2026
GAP covers the shortfall between a totaled vehicle's insurance payout and what you still owe, not a mechanical breakdown — a different product from a vehicle warranty, and Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, and Quebec each require it sold under its own separate insurance licence, with Ontario's regulator actively warning against relabeling it as a dealership "loyalty program" to dodge that requirement. A second new page covers a narrower, earlier risk: what actually protects a deposit paid toward a new home before it's built. Ontario's Tarion and Quebec's GCR both build a capped dollar guarantee directly into the mandatory new-home warranty; Alberta and British Columbia don't do the same thing, running deposit protection through a separate optional product or a trust-account law instead.
3 new Canada Library pages: warranty robocalls, buying a warranty online, and Quebec's renewal rule — September 16, 2026
The unsolicited “your vehicle’s warranty is expiring” call almost always breaks the CRTC's telemarketing rules, not Canada's anti-spam law, which doesn't reach a voice call at all. A second page covers the disclosure and cancellation rights that apply when a home or vehicle warranty is bought entirely online, under a shared template most provinces adopted in 2001. A third page covers a separate, older Quebec rule: since 2010, a warranty contract running longer than 60 days can't auto-renew into another fixed term, only an open-ended one, after written notice 60 to 90 days out.
The Register's eleventh round: 2 US providers checked, 0 listed — September 16, 2026
A well-known, long-operating home warranty provider and a smaller reimbursement-model home warranty provider were checked against our published standard this round, back on the US side after the prior round's Canada-only assessments. Neither cleared every applicable point to the level of independent, primary-source verification we require before naming a provider publicly — the larger provider failed outright on a documented complaint pattern and litigation history around claims handling.
3 new US Library pages: Massachusetts, Iowa, and Alabama — September 16, 2026
Massachusetts generally doesn't regulate a consumer service contract as insurance — except a home service contract provider specifically, which has to maintain two separate layers of financial backing at once under a 2011 law. Iowa's entire service-contract chapter is being rewritten by a 2026 law, HF2756, effective January 1, 2027, adding a revenue-based regulatory fee and tying specific violations directly into the state's consumer-fraud statute. And Alabama's law splits into two compliance tracks: a reduced set of requirements for a manufacturer selling a contract on its own product, and the full chapter — including a 10%-per-month penalty on a late refund — for everyone else.
3 new Canada Library pages: extended warranty vs. manufacturer warranty, comparing vehicle service contracts, and the three territories — September 16, 2026
Canada has no Magnuson-Moss, but CAMVAP's own exclusion of third-party extended warranties is the cleanest proof it still treats a manufacturer's warranty and a purchased extended warranty as two separate legal things. A companion checklist walks through comparing a vehicle service contract before signing in Canada specifically. A third page finally gives Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut their own answer: each runs its own consumer protection statute with a real statutory warranty and a direct-sales cancellation right, though none has built an Alberta/BC/Saskatchewan-style insurance-classification test.
2 new Canada Library pages: Saskatchewan's home warranty test, and where a denied home warranty claim actually goes — September 16, 2026
Saskatchewan can classify a purchased home-systems warranty as insurance under the same guideline it already applies to vehicle warranties, and layers a separate future-performance-contract disclosure regime on top either way. A second new page sorts a denied Canadian home warranty claim by asking whether it's a statutory new-home builder warranty (with its own dedicated dispute process through Tarion, GCR, or a provincial registry) or a purchased service contract (which generally runs through an insurance ombudservice or a general consumer protection office instead).
The Register's tenth round: 3 Canadian providers checked, 0 listed — September 16, 2026
A home-systems protection-plan provider and two vehicle-service-contract providers were checked against our published standard this round, back on the Canada side after the prior round's US-only assessments. No violation was found on any point independently checked, but none cleared every applicable point to the level of independent, primary-source verification we require before naming a provider publicly — for two of the three, the clearest open gap is confirming which licensed insurer or letter-of-credit filing actually backs their contracts.
2 new US Library pages: Tennessee's insurance exemption, and the robocall law nobody mentions — September 16, 2026
Tennessee Code § 56-2-126 exempts a service contract — home warranty included, not just vehicle — from being "the business of insurance" and from regulation as insurance under Title 56, a broader and more direct exemption than the vehicle-focused statutes this Library has covered in Indiana and Ohio; a main backstop is Tennessee's own Consumer Protection Act. Separately, a new guide covers how a huge share of vehicle service contracts actually get sold in the first place: an unsolicited "your warranty is expiring" robocall, which the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and the FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule usually make illegal before a single sales claim is even made — and which lets the person who received it sue directly for $500 to $1,500 a call.
The Register's tenth round: 3 Canadian providers checked, 0 listed — September 16, 2026
A home-systems protection-plan provider and two vehicle-service-contract providers were checked against our published standard this round, back on the Canada side after the prior round's US-only assessments. No violation was found on any point independently checked, but none cleared every applicable point to the level of independent, primary-source verification we require before naming a provider publicly — for two of the three, the clearest open gap is confirming which licensed insurer or letter-of-credit filing actually backs their contracts.
The Register's ninth round: 2 US providers checked, 0 listed — September 16, 2026
A water/sewer/electrical line-warranty provider and a home warranty company were checked against our published standard this round, back on the US side after the prior round's Canada-only assessments. Neither cleared every applicable point to the level of independent, primary-source verification we require before naming a provider publicly, so the passing list is still empty — one failed outright on a well-documented, decade-spanning pattern of state enforcement action.
3 new US Library pages: Nebraska, a consumer-protection backstop, and lemon laws — September 16, 2026
Nebraska requires a vehicle service contract provider to carry a reimbursement insurance policy with no self-funded reserve alternative, and gives a stranded contract holder a specific statutory right to go straight to that insurer if a covered repair isn't done within 60 days. A new guide explains what actually applies in states like Indiana and Ohio where our pages identify no home-warranty licensing regime: the state's own general consumer protection act, which varies far more state to state than most people assume. And a third page draws a clean line between a state lemon law and a purchased vehicle service contract — two legal mechanisms that get confused constantly but run on entirely separate tracks.
2 new Canada Library pages: dealer add-on bundling, and Quebec's French-language contract rule — September 16, 2026
"Payment packing" a vehicle warranty into a car loan without itemizing it isn't barred by one national law in Canada — it's restricted by each province's own dealer-licensing regime, and Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia each require it differently. Separately, a rule in Quebec's Consumer Protection Act has required a warranty contract be drawn up in French for years — and Bill 96 substantially strengthened it, effective June 1, 2023, extending the requirement to contracts of adhesion generally and adding a real nullity remedy for non-compliance.
The Register's eighth round: 2 Canadian providers checked, 0 listed — September 15, 2026
A vehicle-protection-insurance provider and a utility-affiliated home protection plan were checked against our published standard this round, back on the Canada side after the prior round's US-only assessments. Neither cleared every applicable point to the level of independent, primary-source verification we require before naming a provider publicly, so the passing list is still empty — though one had the cleanest complaint record of any provider assessed so far in either country.
3 new US state Library pages: Massachusetts, Kentucky, and Maryland — September 15, 2026
Massachusetts decides whether a vehicle service contract is insurance by asking who the obligor actually is, not what kind of product it is. Kentucky runs the opposite of the usual pattern — a service contract counts as casualty insurance by default, and a provider has to register with a $100 million net worth or a bonded insurance policy to get out from under that. And Maryland splits its own law down an unusual line: a vehicle mechanical repair contract needs Insurance Administration registration, while a home warranty, by that same law's own express carve-out, needs only specific written disclosures — no license, bond, or reserve at all.
2 more Canada Library pages: a consumer-protection gap and a bankruptcy question — September 15, 2026
Prince Edward Island's own Consumer Protection Act never picked up the modern future-performance-agreement chapter Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Newfoundland and Labrador each have — a real, distinct gap, not just "another province, same as the others." And: unlike US bankruptcy law, Canada's Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act has no dedicated priority category for a consumer's prepaid deposit, so outside the narrow slice PACICC covers, a Canadian warranty buyer is an ordinary unsecured creditor if the provider fails.
New: three GAP and add-on enforcement actions, reported as public record — September 15, 2026
A new page reports three real, dated, closed government actions touching GAP and dealer add-on charges — a $60M CFPB consent order against Toyota Motor Credit, the Colorado Attorney General's multi-round GAP Refund Initiative against named administrators and credit unions, and a joint FTC/Maryland Attorney General settlement with the Lindsay Automotive Group — exactly as each regulator's own filing describes them. This is a report of the public record, not our own Register verdict on any of these companies.
New US Library page: how a GAP charge can quietly become a federal TILA violation — September 15, 2026
A GAP charge financed into a car loan can legally sit outside the loan's disclosed finance charge and APR under Regulation Z — but only if it's itemized in writing, disclosed as not required to get the loan, and affirmatively requested with a signature obtained after those disclosures. Skip any one of the three, and folding the charge into the loan becomes a real Truth in Lending Act violation, not just a state add-on-disclosure problem. Our existing GAP waiver refund rights page was also updated with California's AB 2311 (2022), the state's own automatic-refund and loan-to-value rule.
The Register's seventh round: 2 US providers checked, 0 listed — September 15, 2026
One home warranty provider and one vehicle service contract provider were checked against our published standard this round, back on the US side after the prior round's Canada-only assessments. Neither cleared every applicable point to the level of independent, primary-source verification we require before naming a provider publicly, so the passing list is still empty — though both had the cleanest complaint and enforcement records of any US provider assessed so far.
4 new US Library pages: Utah's insurer-backed model, Indiana's regulatory gap, South Carolina's 2024 auto-renewal fix, and a contract-comparison checklist — September 15, 2026
Utah is the first state in this Library that treats a home warranty as a straight insurance product by default, requiring a real authorized insurer to back it rather than licensing a separate company category. Indiana is the opposite case: detailed statute for a vehicle service contract, no home-warranty licensing statute identified on this page, and Department of Insurance bulletins that treat some other service contracts under older guidance. South Carolina added a service-contract-specific automatic-renewal notice rule in 2024 that's narrower and more specific than the general state auto-renewal laws most other states rely on. And a new checklist page pulls together what this Library's separate state pages already establish — licensing category, funded-claims mechanism, exclusions, waiting periods, and cancellation formulas — into six things worth comparing side by side before signing, the US counterpart to the Canada version already live here.
3 new Canada Library pages: Newfoundland and Labrador's single Act, a contract-comparison checklist, and where a denied claim actually goes — September 15, 2026
Newfoundland and Labrador took a genuinely different structural approach than every other province covered so far — one 2009 statute replaced seven separate consumer-protection laws at once, and a home or vehicle warranty there is caught by that Act's general future-performance-contract rules rather than any warranty-specific chapter. A new checklist page pulls together what this Library's separate provincial pages already establish — disclosure requirements, insurance-licensing status, exclusion categories, cancellation windows, and dispute channels — into six things worth comparing side by side before signing. And a new step-by-step guide answers the practical question none of our CAMVAP, GIO, arbitration-clause, or small-claims pages answer on their own: once a Canadian vehicle warranty claim is denied, which of those four channels actually applies to your specific contract.
The Register's sixth round: 3 Canadian providers checked, 0 listed — September 15, 2026
One vehicle service contract provider and two home warranty providers were checked against our published standard this round, back on the Canada side. None cleared every applicable point to the level of independent, primary-source verification we require before naming a provider publicly, so the passing list is still empty.
3 new US Library pages: a RESPA referral-fee limit, Minnesota's Commerce-run model, and a federal rule that never took effect — September 15, 2026
A decades-old federal anti-kickback law, not state warranty law, is what actually limits what your own real estate agent can be paid for pointing you toward a home warranty at closing. Minnesota hands service-contract oversight to its Department of Commerce rather than an insurance regulator, and while it exempts providers from most of the insurance code, it deliberately writes one specific unfair-claims-handling rule back in. And the FTC's Combating Auto Retail Scams Rule, written specifically to police no-benefit dealer add-ons including service contracts, was stayed before its effective date and then vacated entirely by a federal appeals court in January 2025 — on procedural grounds, never reaching the substance.
The Register's fifth round: 2 US providers checked, 0 listed — September 15, 2026
One home warranty product and one vehicle service contract provider were checked against our published standard this round, back on the US side. Neither cleared every applicable point to the level of independent, primary-source verification we require before naming a provider publicly, so the passing list is still empty.
1 new US Library page: Wisconsin's form-approval model — September 15, 2026
Wisconsin licenses the provider, exempts the seller from licensure under its service contract subchapter, and requires the Commissioner of Insurance to approve the contract form before it is sold, with a bold-print limited-regulation statement on the contract.
3 new Canada Library pages: PACICC insurer insolvency protection, GIO's insurance ombudservice, and small claims limits by province — September 15, 2026
Where a Canadian home or vehicle warranty is actually sold as insurance — Alberta, BC, and Saskatchewan's model — a real, industry-funded compensation plan (PACICC) protects a buyer if that insurer fails, with concrete per-line dollar limits most recently adjusted in 2024. A companion guide fills a real gap in our CAMVAP coverage: CAMVAP's free arbitration explicitly excludes a third-party extended warranty dispute, and Canada's General Insurance OmbudService is the free channel that actually hears one instead, where the warranty is insurance-backed. And once a mandatory arbitration clause is voided under the law our existing arbitration page covers, a third guide rounds up every province's and territory's own small claims monetary limit — several of which, including Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario, have jumped substantially in the last two years.
The Register's fourth round: 2 Canadian providers checked, 0 listed — September 15, 2026
One home warranty product and one vehicle service contract provider were checked against our published standard this round, back on the Canada side. Neither cleared every applicable point to the level of independent, primary-source verification we require before naming a provider publicly, so the passing list is still empty.
3 new US Library pages: Connecticut's insurance classification, the FTC Holder Rule, and GAP waiver refund rights — September 15, 2026
Connecticut's own statute defines a home warranty contract as a literal contract of insurance — the opposite starting premise from every other state covered so far — while regulating a general extended warranty next door under a lighter, non-insurance law instead. Two companion guides round out the auto side: the FTC's decades-old Holder Rule, confirmed current as recently as 2019, is what lets a buyer raise a problem with a financed service contract against whoever now holds the loan, not just the original seller; and a growing list of states now requires an automatic or on-request refund of the unused portion of a GAP waiver charge when a car loan ends early, something the CFPB's own 2024 exam findings show lenders have repeatedly failed to pay.
3 new Canada Library pages: the Sale of Goods Act baseline, direct-sales cancellation rights, and Nova Scotia's express-warranty rule — September 15, 2026
Every common-law province gives a buyer a non-waivable Sale of Goods Act baseline — merchantable quality, fitness for purpose, matching description — that exists whether or not a home warranty or vehicle service contract is ever purchased on top of it; nine provinces separately give a ~10-day, no-reason cancellation right (up to a year if the seller wasn't licensed) on a warranty sold away from the seller's own store, with British Columbia rewriting its own version effective August 2026; and Nova Scotia, unlike Alberta, BC, or Saskatchewan, doesn't license a vehicle warranty seller as insurance — instead, its Consumer Protection Act can turn a dealer's own sales pitch about a vehicle into an enforceable express warranty.
4 new US Library pages: Pennsylvania, Michigan, and where the federal/state complaint backstops actually are — September 15, 2026
Pennsylvania and Michigan both exclude a service contract from their insurance code by statute rather than licensing it — leaving general unfair-and-deceptive-practices law, not an insurance department, as the real backstop. Two companion guides round it out: which office to actually complain to depends on how your state regulates this product, and Section 5 of the FTC Act (not Magnuson-Moss) is the federal law that actually polices deceptive warranty marketing, with real enforcement history to show for it.
The Register's third round: 3 US providers checked, 0 listed — September 15, 2026
Two home warranty providers and one vehicle service contract provider were checked against our published standard this round, back on the US side after the prior round's Canada-only assessments. None cleared every applicable point to the level of independent, primary-source verification we require before naming a provider publicly, so the passing list is still empty.
3 new US Library pages: Colorado's three-law split, Louisiana's regulator swap, and mechanical breakdown insurance vs. a service contract — September 15, 2026
Colorado regulates a home warranty under its real-estate law (with a 2024 mandate to offer a gas-to-electric appliance replacement option) and a vehicle service contract under a differently-named vehicle-code article entirely; Louisiana moved home service contract providers from the Department of Insurance to the Secretary of State in 2015, where they remain; and mechanical breakdown insurance turns out to be real, licensed insurance, not a service contract, even though both cover the same mechanical failures.
New: how the Register reaches a pass or fail — September 15, 2026
A standalone methodology page laying out the three inputs behind every assessment — licensing verified directly with the regulator, regulator complaint and enforcement data, and document review — and the higher bar a provider has to clear before being named in the passing directory.
2 new Library pages: how to check a provider's complaint record yourself, US and Canada — September 15, 2026
California's insurance regulator publishes a defined complaint methodology and a per-company lookup tool most review sites never mention; Canada has no national equivalent, so we built a province-by-province directory of the actual regulator to check instead of a single national number.
The Register's second round: 3 Canadian providers checked, 0 listed — September 15, 2026
Two vehicle service contract providers and one home warranty product were checked against our published standard this round, our first assessments in Canada. None cleared every applicable point to the level of independent, primary-source verification we require before naming a provider publicly, so the passing list is still empty.
2 more Canada Library pages: mandatory arbitration clauses, and CAMVAP — September 15, 2026
Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and — as of a March 2025 law — British Columbia have each made a mandatory pre-dispute arbitration clause and class-action waiver unenforceable in a consumer contract, including a home warranty or vehicle service contract; and CAMVAP, Canada's free, industry-funded national arbitration program for new-vehicle warranty disputes, resolves manufacturer's-warranty disputes in about 70 days but explicitly doesn't cover a third-party extended warranty or service contract.
3 more Canada Library pages: federal warranty-marketing rules, right-to-repair, and New Brunswick's non-waivable warranty — September 15, 2026
Canada has no Magnuson-Moss-style warranty law, but a misleading warranty or guarantee claim is federally enforceable as deceptive marketing under the Competition Act, with penalties up to $10 million and, since June 2025, a private right to sue over it directly; two 2024 Copyright Act amendments and a rewritten Competition Act refusal-to-deal rule now give an independent repairer real legal tools in Canada, though none of them settle whether using one voids a warranty; and New Brunswick's Consumer Product Warranty and Liability Act writes a non-waivable implied warranty and manufacturer liability directly into every vehicle sale, instead of licensing service-contract sellers the way Ontario or Alberta do.
3 more Library pages: North Carolina's commerce-code approach, home warranty refunds, and independent repair shops — September 15, 2026
North Carolina runs home appliance and motor vehicle service agreements through its commerce code rather than its insurance code, and its own Department of Insurance says plainly it isn't the regulator here — the Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division is; a state-by-state look at what you actually get back when you cancel a home warranty in California, Florida, Texas, or Illinois, which turns out not to follow the same formulas as the vehicle-service-contract side; and why the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act already makes most "skip the dealer, void the warranty" language illegal on a manufacturer's own factory warranty.
3 more Library pages: Virginia's two-law split, and two practical consumer guides — September 15, 2026
Virginia runs a decades-old, insurance-licensed home warranty track alongside a lighter 2018 registration track under a different agency entirely, with a $100 million net-worth exemption that excuses the largest providers from both; a plain-language guide to why a home warranty and homeowners insurance almost never pay the same claim; and a state-by-state look at what you actually get back when you cancel a vehicle service contract in California, Florida, or Washington.
3 more Library pages: Manitoba's repealed warranty law, the provinces with no warranty law at all, and Canadian warranty tax rules — September 15, 2026
Manitoba passed a mandatory new-home warranty law in 2013 and repealed it in 2021 without ever bringing it into force; Saskatchewan and the four Atlantic provinces have never had a mandatory new-home warranty statute at all, relying instead on lender and mortgage-insurer expectation; and GST/HST taxes a Canadian home warranty or vehicle service contract as an ordinary supply everywhere, with Ontario, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Quebec each layering on genuinely different provincial rules.
The Register's first assessment round: 4 providers checked, 0 listed — September 15, 2026
Three home warranty providers and one vehicle service contract provider were checked against our published standard this round. None cleared every applicable point to the level of independent, primary-source verification we require before naming a provider publicly, so the passing list is still empty — a reflection of how high that bar is, not a placeholder.
4 more Library pages: Oklahoma, British Columbia, Ontario, and vehicle protection products — September 15, 2026
Oklahoma runs three separate statutory schemes — for home warranties, for auto/retail service warranties, and for theft-deterrent vehicle protection products — all enforced by the same Insurance Commissioner but spread across two different Titles of its own statutes; British Columbia requires a licensed builder to buy new-home warranty insurance from a separately licensed private insurer, splitting the requirement across two regulators; Ontario split its new-home warranty regulator from its warranty administrator in 2021, after decades of Tarion doing both jobs at once; and why a theft-deterrent "vehicle protection product," a GAP waiver, and a vehicle service contract are three legally distinct categories in the states that regulate them, not three names for the same thing.
3 more Library pages: Georgia's split regime, Quebec's new-home warranty reform, and Magnuson-Moss dispute settlement — September 14, 2026
Georgia backs a vehicle service contract with an insurance policy and nothing else, but lets a home warranty use a $100,000 surety bond instead, inside the very same Code section; Quebec restructured its mandatory new-home warranty in 2015 into a single, arm's-length nonprofit administrator after years of builder-affiliated groups running it; and why the federal Magnuson-Moss informal dispute settlement rule most people know from programs like BBB AUTO LINE generally doesn't reach a home warranty or vehicle service contract claim at all.
3 more Library pages: a federal used-car disclosure rule, New Jersey, and Alberta's home warranty split — September 14, 2026
The FTC's decades-old Used Car Buyers Guide rule can legally override a conflicting sales contract, and its 2016 update added prompts to check vehicle history and open recalls before buying; New Jersey runs a nearly 50-year-old mandatory statutory new-home warranty and a completely separate, non-insurance Service Contracts Act side by side; and Alberta classified a purchased appliance warranty as insurance more than a decade ago, years before it did the same for vehicle warranties, alongside its own separate mandatory builder-warranty program.
3 more Library pages: Ohio, Missouri, and auto-renewal clauses — September 14, 2026
Ohio's former home warranty chapter was repealed, and under R.C. 3905.422 a home service contract there is now generally not insurance and is a consumer transaction under ordinary consumer-sales law; Missouri requires a specific statutory disclosure — 'backed only by the full faith and credit of the provider' — when a vehicle service contract isn't insured; and a US-vs-Canada look at auto-renewal clauses, covering the FTC's vacated federal 'click-to-cancel' rule and Ontario's outright ban on negative-option renewal billing.
4 more Library pages: Washington, Nevada, Ontario, and Manitoba — September 14, 2026
Washington regulates home warranties, vehicle service contracts, and even rustproofing add-ons under one repeatedly-amended insurance-code chapter; Nevada gives a provider three genuinely different ways to prove it can pay claims, after a 2019 law brought home warranty protection plans under its service-contract statute; Ontario — Canada's largest province, and new to our coverage — treats an extended vehicle warranty as a consumer contract rather than insurance, under a law now mid-transition to a not-yet-in-force replacement; and Manitoba makes the seller of an extended warranty answer for its performance, whether or not that seller is even a party to the contract.
4 more Library pages: Arizona, Saskatchewan, recalls vs. known-defect exclusions, and warranty transferability — September 14, 2026
Arizona has long run a permit-and-bond system for service companies, rewritten by a 2018 law, rather than an insurance license; Saskatchewan both treats extended vehicle warranties as insurance and writes a mandatory minimum drivetrain warranty into every used-car dealer's licence; the real legal difference between a federally mandated safety recall and a service contract's 'known defect' exclusion; and how transferring a home warranty or vehicle service contract to a new owner actually works when a house or car is sold.
5 more Library pages: New York, Illinois, British Columbia, and two cross-border consumer guides — September 14, 2026
New York and Illinois each regulate home and auto service contracts under one statute rather than splitting them the way California does; British Columbia's own insurance regulations classify most home and vehicle warranties as insurance outright; a US-vs-Canada comparison of whether the individual salesperson (not just the company) needs a personal license; and how to actually compare two home warranty contracts' aggregate vs. per-item coverage caps.
5 more Library pages: California's split regime, insolvency protection, Alberta, and cross-border cooling-off rights — September 14, 2026
California's two separate insurance-code tracks for home warranties and vehicle service contracts, what actually protects you (and what doesn't) if a warranty company goes out of business, Alberta's insurance-based regulation of vehicle warranties, a US-vs-Canada comparison of cooling-off/free-look cancellation rights, and how a mandatory arbitration clause in a warranty contract actually works.
6 more Library pages: state, provincial, and practical deep-dives — September 14, 2026
How Texas and Florida each actually regulate home warranty companies, Quebec's incoming extended-warranty disclosure rules, how a home warranty claim really gets processed and denied, how to read a vehicle service contract's exclusions, and how warranty complaint data is (and isn't) tracked on each side of the border.
Correction: Texas home warranty citations updated — September 14, 2026
Our standard and US home warranty guide previously cited Texas home warranty law as "Occupations Code chapters 1303 and 1304." Chapter 1303 (the former Residential Service Company Act) was repealed and folded into Chapter 1304 by House Bill 1560, 87th Legislature (2021). Both pages, and a new dedicated Texas page, now cite Chapter 1304 only.
The Register is open — zero providers assessed so far — September 14, 2026
The standard is published and vetting is starting. We're showing the honest current count (zero) rather than filling this page with placeholder claims; the first real assessments will appear here as they're completed.
4 Library pages: the US/Canada foundation — September 14, 2026
How home warranties actually work in the US and in Canada (and why Canada's statutory new-home warranty programs like Tarion are a different product entirely), the real legal difference between a manufacturer's warranty and an "extended warranty," and a direct US-vs-Canada comparison of the underlying regulation.
The Warranty Record launches — September 14, 2026
A published standard for home warranty and vehicle service contract providers, tied to the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, state service-contract and insurance-department licensing, and Canadian provincial consumer protection law — plus a public Register that will report findings honestly, with no paid placements and no pay-to-list badge.