Last reviewed: 7 October 2026
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United States
Our guides to US home warranty and vehicle service contract regulation, state by state. Guides that compare the US and Canada are in the Library; the results of our provider checks are on the Register. See Canada instead.
Correction (30 September 2026): this page's introduction previously said it held "every Library page and Register finding" covering US home warranty and vehicle service contract regulation. That overstated its scope: this page lists our US guides only. The guides that compare the US and Canada sit in the Library and are not listed here, and Register results are not shown on this page — the Register reports US and Canadian providers together. The introduction now says so.
Home warranty
Start here: home warranties (US)A map of our home warranty guides by question, plus the state-by-state list.What home warranties typically coverWhat the FTC and California's regulator say a home warranty typically covers, and why the exclusions matter.Home warranty sales red flagsA checklist of sales tactics and contract terms the FTC says to look at before buying.Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act explainedWhat the federal warranty law requires of a written warranty, and what it does not cover.Confirming funded-claims backingWhat Florida and Texas require a provider to show, and what to ask.Can a provider cancel your contract? (Texas)What the Texas regulator says about provider cancellation, notice and refunds.Suing under Magnuson-MossWhere you can sue, the federal thresholds, the chance to cure and attorneys' fees.Builder warranties on new homes (US)What the FTC says a builder warranty covers and for how long, and how it differs from a home warranty.How to verify a home warranty companyA licensing, funding and identity checklist with Texas and California examples.Pre-existing conditions and claimsWhat California's regulator says about exclusions, required disclosures and denied claims.Alternatives to a home warrantyOther ways to handle repair costs that government sources describe; an explainer, not a recommendation.How home warranties work (US)It's a service contract, not insurance — how coverage, exclusions, and state-by-state regulation actually work.Texas home warranty regulationNo insurance-code license here — since 2021, Texas runs home warranty companies through one broader "service contract provider" chapter at TDLR.Florida home warranty regulationA 25 percent funded-reserve requirement (with insurance and net-worth alternatives) and a statutory 10-day cancellation right — Florida's law is specific, not just general consumer protection.How home warranty claims get processedStep by step, from filing to payout or denial — plus the specific denial patterns behind most real complaints.California warranty regulationA home warranty and a vehicle service contract are two separate insurance-code categories in California, with different financial-backing rules for each.If your warranty company goes out of businessThe state guaranty fund most people assume exists usually doesn't apply here. Here's the mechanism that's actually supposed to protect you.Arbitration clauses explainedWhy a mandatory arbitration clause holds up under federal law, who actually pays for it, and what it typically doesn't take away from you.New York service contract regulationNo separate "home warranty" law at all — one statute registers a provider no matter what product it covers, with three different ways to prove it can pay claims.Illinois Service Contract ActIllinois doesn't split home and auto warranties into separate categories the way California does — one law covers both.Arizona home warranty regulationA service-company permit and a $100,000 bond (or reimbursement insurance) — a system that predates 2018, was rewritten by SB 1381, and still sits outside full insurance licensure.Transferring a warranty when you sellNo law generally forces a provider to allow a transfer — but a growing list of states requires the terms be disclosed in writing before you buy.Installed products and the federal warranty lawWhich installed products and kinds of warranty the federal Act reaches.Washington service contract regulationOne chapter covers home warranties, vehicle service contracts, and even rustproofing add-ons — rewritten four times since 1999.Nevada service contract regulationHome warranty protection plans weren't clearly covered until a 2019 law change. Now a provider can prove it can pay claims three very different ways.Ohio home service contract regulationOhio's former home warranty chapter was repealed; under R.C. 3905.422 a home service contract is now generally not insurance and is a consumer transaction under ordinary consumer-sales law.New Jersey warranty regulationA mandatory statutory warranty on nearly every new home, and a completely separate bond-based law for purchased service contracts — run by two different state offices, neither one insurance.Georgia service contract regulationOne insurance-code section covers both products — and requires insurance-backing with no alternative for a car warranty, but lets a home warranty use a $100,000 surety bond instead.Magnuson-Moss informal dispute settlementThe federal warranty dispute-resolution rule most people have heard of usually doesn't reach a home warranty or vehicle service contract at all. Here's why.Oklahoma home warranty regulationThe same Insurance Commissioner enforces three separate laws for home warranties, auto/retail service warranties, and theft-deterrent vehicle protection products — each with its own registration track.Virginia home warranty regulationAn insurance-code license with a net-worth test, and a lighter 2018 registration track run by a completely different agency — two non-overlapping laws cover what's marketed as a Virginia home warranty.Home warranty vs. homeowners insuranceA service contract for wear-and-tear breakdown vs. a licensed insurance policy for sudden, accidental loss — why the two rarely pay the same claim.North Carolina service agreement regulationNo Department of Insurance licensing here at all — North Carolina runs both products through its commerce code, with the Attorney General fielding complaints instead.Home warranty cancellation and refund rightsCalifornia, Florida, Texas, and Illinois each calculate a home warranty refund differently — and California doesn't even treat its own two products the same way.How to read your state's complaint dataCalifornia's insurance regulator publishes a real, checkable complaint methodology and a per-company lookup — most "best of" lists never mention either.Colorado service contract regulationA home warranty answers to the real estate regulator, not the insurance department, under a law that as of 2024 also forces a gas-to-electric replacement option.Louisiana home warranty regulationHome service contract providers register with the Secretary of State and file a $50,000 bond. What the statute requires of the contract, and the 2024 bill that did not pass.Louisiana new home warrantyA builder's one-, two-, and five-year warranties come from the statute, not a plan you buy. What the Act covers, excludes, and requires you to do.Kentucky service contract regulationA service contract is casualty insurance by default; a provider registers out with a $100 million net worth, or a bonded insurance policy.Maryland service contract regulationA vehicle service contract's obligor must register, insure and file 45 days ahead; a home warranty falls under the law's own carve-out and five written disclosures.Pennsylvania service contract regulationPennsylvania's insurance code treats the sale of a service contract as not the business of insurance; general consumer-protection law is the main backstop.Michigan service contract regulationA 2014 amendment excludes a service contract from the insurance code entirely. The one home-warranty-specific rule still on the books dates to 1979 — a single sentence about strikes.Where to file a warranty complaintInsurance department, attorney general, or a dedicated licensing agency — which one can actually help depends entirely on how your state regulates this product.FTC Section 5 and service contract marketingMagnuson-Moss doesn't reach warranty marketing at all. The real federal backstop is Section 5 of the FTC Act — with real enforcement history in this exact industry.Connecticut home warranty regulationMost states carve a home warranty out of the insurance code. Connecticut's statute does the opposite — it defines one as a literal contract of insurance, full stop.Wisconsin service contract regulationProviders are licensed by the Commissioner of Insurance and administrators register, but sellers need no license or registration under the subchapter — and the contract's own form can't be sold until the Commissioner has approved it.Minnesota service contract regulationThe Department of Commerce, not the insurance regulator, oversees this product — and one specific unfair-claims rule gets written back in despite a broad insurance-law exemption.RESPA and home warranty referralsA federal anti-kickback law, not state warranty law, limits what your own real estate agent can be paid for pointing you toward a home warranty at closing.Utah home warranty regulationNo separate "home protection company" license here — Utah folds a home warranty directly into its Insurance Code and, by default, requires a real authorized insurer to back it.Indiana home warranty regulationIndiana regulates vehicle service contracts by statute; this page identifies no home-warranty licensing law, though state insurance bulletins may apply.South Carolina service contract regulationSince May 2024, a specific state law requires 30 to 60 days' notice, disclosing the renewal charge itself, before a service contract can auto-renew and charge you again.Comparing home warranty contracts (US)Six things worth checking side by side before you sign, pulled from what state licensing, disclosure, and cancellation law actually require.State consumer-protection-act backstopIn states where our pages identify no home-warranty licensing or registration regime, such as Indiana and Ohio, the state's own general consumer protection act is a main backstop, and those acts aren't the same from state to state.Tennessee home warranty regulationOne statute exempts a service contract — home or vehicle — from being "the business of insurance" and from regulation as insurance. The page identifies no Tennessee license track.Massachusetts home warranty regulationMost service contracts aren't regulated as insurance here — but a home service contract provider is a named exception, requiring two separate layers of financial backing at once.Iowa service contract regulationA 2026 law rewrites the whole chapter effective January 1, 2027 — a revenue-based regulatory fee unlike any other state here, and violations tied straight into Iowa's consumer-fraud statute.Alabama service contract regulationA manufacturer selling a contract on its own product only has to meet a reduced subset of Alabama's law. A separate provision adds a 10%-per-month penalty to a late refund.New Mexico service contract regulationNew Mexico keeps a service contract inside the Insurance Code — which means the same unfair-claims-practices rights an insurance policyholder has, including a private right of action, reach a warranty holder too.North Dakota service contract lawA property service contract is exempt from the insurance title under N.D.C.C. § 9-01-21; a separate section sets an insurance-policy requirement for automobile contracts.What a written warranty must discloseThe nine items 16 C.F.R. § 701.3 requires in a written consumer product warranty, and how to use the list.Wyoming service contract regulationA quantified 5%/$25,000 deposit plus a separate 40% funded reserve — but unlike Wisconsin, the state never reviews or approves the contract's own terms before it's sold.Arkansas service contract regulationNot insurance; providers that are not exempt register each year with a $200 fee and show financial backing under the Act.Montana service contract regulationThree allowed ways to back claims, and a statement in the contract that says which one applies.Kansas and Delaware service contract statutesTwo statutes that define a service contract and exempt it from insurance law, and what the sections do not contain.New Hampshire consumer guaranty contractsFor contracts inside the chapter, registered obligors, three ways to back claims, and a list of prohibited pressure tactics.District of Columbia service contractsRegistration, three ways to back claims, a 30-day return right and limits on automatic renewal.Rhode Island and West Virginia statutesTwo short statutes that define a service contract and keep it out of insurance law, and what they do not contain.Cancelling a service contract: five statutesReturn windows, fee caps and refund rules in Alaska, D.C., Idaho, Maine and New Hampshire, side by side.Provider, administrator and seller rolesWho the contract has to name, and which party is legally obligated, according to four state texts.Implied warranties and disclaimersWhat the sales-law text says about implied warranties and exclusions, and the federal limit when a written warranty or service contract is given.Oregon home warranty regulationA flat $25,000 continuous bond instead of a net-worth test for a home service agreement obligor — and a completely separate statute for the warranty a builder offers on new construction.Mississippi service contract regulationHome warranties moved out of the Insurance Code into general consumer-protection law. Vehicle service contracts, in the same statute, stayed fully inside it.Vermont service contract regulationA real 20-day, no-questions refund right, a consumer made an actual party to the contract, and direct reinsurer liability if the provider fails — built into the statute itself.Reimbursement insurance vs. funded reserveTwo different ways a state makes sure your provider can pay — a separate insurer's balance sheet, or the provider's own regulated reserve. They aren't interchangeable.Do you have to send in the registration card?A federal FTC interpretation bars making a "full" warranty depend on the card; a "limited" warranty can be different. The label decides.What "full" and "limited" warranty meanFour core federal standards, plus conditions rules, separate a "full" product warranty from a "limited" one — and a service contract needn't carry either label.Reading a warranty before you buyFor a consumer product over $15 with a written warranty, an FTC rule requires the warranty text to be available before sale — in store, by catalog, or online.Florida home warranty cancellation rightsThis page covers Florida only. It explains the cancellation and refund rules that Florida's home warranty statute sets.What a home warranty service fee is and how to compare itThis page explains what a home warranty service fee is and how to compare it between contracts.
Auto / vehicle service contracts
Start here: other warranties and protection plansExtended warranties, service contracts and add-ons beyond home warranties.Start here: vehicle warranties (US)A map of our vehicle warranty and service contract guides by question.Start here: scams and deceptive marketingA map of our guides on unwanted offers, marketing rules, cancelling and reporting.US state regulation: where to startA map to our state guides and a way to check each one against the regulator.How a vehicle service contract claim worksWho decides, pre-approval, shop choice and records, from FTC and Texas sources.Add-ons packed into a car loanA checklist, from CFPB and FTC guidance, for seeing add-ons inside a loan payment.How appliance warranties workWhat federal rules say about a manufacturer's written warranty on an appliance.Appliance plan vs. manufacturer warrantyHow the FTC describes a protection plan beside the warranty, and the questions it lists.Right to repair and your warranty (Minnesota)What Minnesota's Digital Fair Repair Act says, and what it leaves alone.Travel protection plans vs. insuranceHow Florida and Virginia define a plan's insurance and non-insurance parts.Verify a vehicle service contract providerA licensing and identity checklist with Texas and Florida examples.Comparing vehicle service contracts (US)Six things worth checking side by side before you sign — the obligor, the coverage structure, the deductible mechanics, and more.Extended warranty vs. manufacturer warrantyAn "extended warranty" is legally a service contract, not a warranty — the FTC says so directly. Here's why that matters.Reading a vehicle service contract's exclusionsWhat almost every exclusions list contains, and the state rules requiring a provider to disclose who's actually backing the promise.Recall vs. known-defect exclusionA safety recall is a federally mandated free fix. A service contract's "known defect" exclusion is a different, generally lawful thing tied to a technical service bulletin.Missouri vehicle service contract regulationAn unbacked provider has to print it: state law requires the exact phrase "backed only by the full faith and credit of the provider" when there's no insurance policy behind the contract.FTC Used Car Buyers Guide & service contractsA single federal window-sticker rule applies to every used-car dealer in the US — and by the FTC's own rule, what it says can legally override your separate sales contract.Vehicle protection products vs. service contractsA theft-deterrent "vehicle protection product," a GAP waiver, and a vehicle service contract are three legally distinct categories, not three names for one thing.Vehicle service contract cancellation and refund rightsCalifornia, Florida, and Washington each write their own free-look window and refund formula into state law — and none of the three calculate it the same way.Independent repair shops and your warrantyA sticker warning that skipping the dealer voids your factory warranty is, in most cases, exactly the kind of statement federal law already makes illegal to print.Mechanical breakdown insurance vs. service contractBoth promise to pay when a covered part fails. One is a state-filed insurance policy; the other is backed by whatever the state's service-contract law requires instead.Massachusetts vehicle service contract testMassachusetts asks who is actually obligated to pay the claim first, and a manufacturer, a dealer and a third-party administrator each get a different answer.FTC Holder Rule & financed service contractsWhen a service contract's cost is rolled into your car loan, a fifty-year-old federal rule — not the loan paperwork — is what lets you raise a problem with it against whoever ends up holding that loan.GAP waiver refund rightsA growing list of states requires a refund of the unused portion of a GAP waiver charge when the loan ends early, and the CFPB has repeatedly caught lenders not paying it.What is GAP coverage?What the CFPB says GAP is, how it is sold with a loan, and what it says to check.Repairs after the warranty ends (California)California's adjustment-program law: who must tell you and how to claim a refund.Maintenance records and your warrantyWhat the FTC says about service records for a warranty or service contract.Car modifications and your warrantyAftermarket and recycled parts: what the FTC says stays in effect and what can be denied.GAP charges and Reg Z disclosureA GAP charge can legally skip your loan's disclosed APR — but only if a dealer itemizes it, discloses it as not required, and gets an affirmative signed request first. Skip that, and it's a federal TILA violation.GAP and add-on enforcement recordThree real, closed public records — a federal consent order, a state attorney general's multi-settlement initiative, and a joint FTC/state action — reported here exactly as the regulators themselves described them.The vacated FTC CARS RuleA federal rule written specifically for no-benefit dealer add-ons was stayed before it ever took effect, then struck down entirely in January 2025 — on procedure, not substance.Nebraska vehicle service contract regulationOne financial-backing path, not a choice of two — and a specific statutory right to go straight to the insurer if the provider doesn't get your car fixed within 60 days.Lemon laws vs. vehicle service contractsA state lemon law and a purchased vehicle service contract get confused constantly, but they're separate legal mechanisms with different triggers, remedies, and parties on the hook.Vehicle warranty robocalls: TCPA & TSRThe illegal call pitching your "expiring" warranty usually breaks federal law before a single sales claim is made — and one of those laws pays you $500 to $1,500 a call.Extended warranty vs. manufacturer warranty in CanadaNo Magnuson-Moss here — but CAMVAP's own eligibility rule is the cleanest proof Canada treats these as two genuinely separate products too.Comparing vehicle service contracts in CanadaThe auto-specific version of our contract-comparison checklist — including the one thing most buyers wrongly assume covers a dispute: CAMVAP.Yukon, NWT & Nunavut warranty consumer protectionOur province pages don't reach the three territories. Each runs its own consumer protection statute, with a real statutory warranty and direct-sales cancellation right — but no Alberta/BC/Saskatchewan-style insurance test."As is" sales and service contractsA seller that gives a written warranty, or enters into a service contract within 90 days of sale, generally can't disclaim the implied warranties under federal law.The federal emissions warrantyA manufacturer must warrant emission controls for 2 years or 24,000 miles, and specified major components for 8 years or 80,000 miles — a legal duty, not a purchase.Louisiana vehicle service contractsProviders register with the Secretary of State, the contract must say it is not insurance, and the statute gives a short return window with a full refund if no claim was made.Idaho vehicle service contractsAn insurer's policy behind every contract, a direct claim after 60 days, a 30-day refund right (less a fee of no more than $50), and no Title 41 license required for providers.Maine vehicle and consumer service contractsAnnual registration, two ways to show a provider can pay claims, a return period, and an exclusion for home service contracts.Alaska vehicle service contractsA provider license, director-approved contracts, two backing routes and a 30-day return right.Service contract solicitation rulesWarranty-expiring mailers, required purchases and sample contracts in five state statutes.Florida vehicle service agreementsA state license, minimum net assets, a $100,000 to $200,000 deposit and a 60-day cancellation right (premium refund less claims paid, fee up to 5%), under Part I of Chapter 634.Recall, bulletin or warranty repairThree terms that are not the same under federal law: a recall's free remedy, a service bulletin and a warranty repair.Louisiana lemon lawFour repair attempts or 45 days out of service, within the warranty term or first year and after any required dispute step, can trigger a replacement or refund. What R.S. 51:1941-1948 says.Warranty contract checklistA short checklist built on the FTC pre-sale rule: how a store, catalog, website or door-to-door seller must make a written warranty's text available before you buy.How vehicle service contracts workThe FTC used-car rule defines a service contract as a written agreement sold for an extra charge to repair, replace, refund or maintain a vehicle, and requires the Buyers Guide to say so.Home warranty claim deniedWhere a denied home warranty claim can go: your state consumer protection office, what the CFPB accepts, and the steps its page lists if you suspect a scam.Louisiana redhibitionThe Civil Code's warranty on what you buy applies by default unless validly excluded. Notice, remedies, exclusions, and time limits, and how it differs from the lemon law.