We all love getting new things, what we do not love is when we bring those new things home and there is something wrong with them. There are laws in place to protect consumers from items that may be faulty, dangerous, or broken, and your new RV may fall into that protection. Lemon law covers a wide range of things and taking the time to figure out just what that is can help you file your case.
What is the Lemon Law?
The lemon law was passed in 1975 as a response to a man that purchased a vehicle that subsequently did not work and the company refused to fix the vehicle under warranty. The case was known as Magnuson-Moss Warranty act, and it was meant to protect citizens from products that are faulty that the manufacturer or the seller knows are faulty or that they are refusing to repair or replace.
Lemon laws generally apply to vehicles, at least that is what most people associate with them when they hear the phrase. In truth, in states like California, lemon laws apply to a ton of different products and consumer goods in an effort to keep consumers safe and happy.
Do RVs Fall Under the Lemon Law Clause?
Each year the lemon law year ranges change to help protect both the buyer and the seller. Currently, lemon law year ranges are from 2014 to 2022 and yes, your RV does fall into the category of protected items. Your recreational vehicles also fall into this category as the manufacturer has a duty of care to create and provide products that they know to be safe, tested, and reliable to their consumers. The law is in place to make sure that manufacturers are not making items that they know are less than reliable and that they know are less than safe than selling them to consumers.
Lemon laws apply to vehicles, consumer goods, household appliances, and even medication in some cases. If you feel that you have a lemon law case on your hands, it is always going to be best to speak with a lawyer as soon as you can to start the filing process. The lemon law filing process is simple enough with the help of a lawyer, and you can get your money back or get a new product to help satisfy the terms of your lemon lawsuit.
How to File a Lemon Law Claim
The first step of any lemon law claim is to talk to the person that sold you the item. Often times they will get in touch with the manufacturer and see what they need to do to have the item repaired free of charge if it can be repaired or replaced if it cannot. If they refuse, or they do not have the ability or authority to do that on their own, they may refer you to the manufacturer yourself so that you can speak with them and explain what is going on.
If that does not work, you can then start the legal process. When dealing with something like a vehicle under the lemon law, you want to make sure that if you are dealing with issues, that you take it back to the dealership immediately rather than try to have something done yourself to fix it. Often times if you have work done on it, the dealership will try to argue that something you had done is actually what caused the problem.
With any lemon law case, proof and evidence are going to be your best bet. You want to document the entire process so that you can have a timeline from start to finish when the problems started to when they were resolved if they were at all. Your attorney is going to use the information that you provide, along with the information that they collect to build a case and to create a narrative that tells exactly what happened, how it was handled, and what the desired outcome is.
If you were injured by the vehicle or the item in question, you may be entitled to more than just the cost of the item and the cost of repair. Say for instance you purchased a new RV, the RV ran great for a day or two, so you decide to take it out on a trip. It then malfunctions and causes an accident in which you are injured. You would be entitled to the money you spent on the RV as well as money for your medical bills, pain and suffering, and more.
Hiring a great lemon law layer is going to help you build a strong case that is going to help you get the settlement that you deserve so that you can get your money back, you can start recovering, and you can potentially get an item that you want that is actually going to work well and that is actually going to be quality. Lemon laws were created to protect the people, and they do just that. With the right lemon law lawyer, you can get your case heard, you can get it taken care of, and you can make sure that you are going to be safe and cared for every step of the way. No one should have to put up with faulty merchandise and the lemon law helps to ensure that.
