Car Rejection Sticker Go to Another Place and Have It Rejected Again
Dale Shannon of Saugus was shocked that her 2004
Why, then, was she given a rejection sticker?
"They rejected the car because I had a crack in my license plate and a tear in my registration," Shannon said. "You could read all the numbers on the license plate perfectly, and the registration, at the bottom, there was probably a quarter inch by half inch tear. I had had it folded in my wallet, so I guess it got a little tattered."
Shannon thought the car inspector - she got the car examined at her local Honda dealership - wasn't being fair. But what could she say?
"It seemed petty, but maybe I'm uninformed," she said.
Hearing Shannon's story, we wondered something else. Namely, do motorists have the right to appeal an inspector's decision?
This week's topic, inspired by our dejected reader, is inspection rejection recourse. If your car fails, is that really the end?
The law says
After failing her inspection, Shannon immediately got new plates and a new certificate of registration at the Registry of Motor Vehicles' Beverly office. The officials she met there were actually sympathetic to her plight - they'd never heard of anyone failing an inspection on such grounds.
The Registry staffers, however, failed to mention to Shannon that she absolutely could have appealed the verdict.
All she needed to do was fill out a simple one-page form - the "Inspection Station Complaint Form" - and submit it to the Registry. Complaints are typically answered within 48 hours, according to Registry spokeswoman Ann Dufresne.
If you appeal anything that has to do with safety requirements, a representative from the Registry's Vehicle Compliance Unit will schedule a meeting with you and the inspection station that failed you.
If your car passes the so-called "challenge test," you get your inspection sticker. If you fail, the inspection station may charge you another $29 for the test. Once you've repaired the defects, you get a free retest as long as you bring it back to the original testing station within 60 days.
"In some instances, the fee is ordered waived by the RMV field investigator," said Dufresne. "In other instances, the station may be ordered to give a sticker without a challenge test."
The only catch is that the law requires you to repair safety problems "immediately" after failing inspection, regardless of whether you have a pending appeal. So, if you forgo repairs, you really shouldn't drive your car again until the challenge test.
Emissions tests fall under the purview of the state Department of Environmental Protection. Spokesman Edmund Coletta said the DEP doesn't have an appeals process for motorists who want to challenge their emissions readings. If you have serious cause to suspect the inspection station's equipment or operators are faulty, you should probably appeal to the Registry, he said.
If you're unhappy with the test outcome, Coletta continued, you could alternatively request a one-year emissions waiver. Waivers are granted to car owners who prove that the cost to repair their emissions problem is exorbitant, or to owners who've spent between $550 and $750 trying to fix the problem without success.
How many motorists appeal their inspection reports? Not many. Fewer than 400 appeals are filed for the 300,000 or so cars that fail inspection each year, according to the Registry. Interestingly, inspection stations are not required to tell motorists their rights. The car inspector who failed me two years ago because of bad brakes and a shabby wiper blade never mentioned I could appeal his decision, although to be fair, his waiting room has two prominent posters with appeals information. I just didn't see them.
Shannon said she, too, had no idea she could appeal her verdict, though in all likelihood she would have passed on the chance. Shannon's replacement plates and registration were free.
But had she appealed . . . would she have prevailed?
For that answer I consulted state laws, Registry officials, and the actual manual that inspection stations use. A small tear in your certificate of registration is absolutely meaningless, I found. In fact, you don't even need to present your actual registration during a vehicle inspection: a photocopy will do.
As for the hairline cracks in Shannon's license plate, again, I found no laws or regulations specifically outlawing them. The lone mention of license plate condition in state law is found in Chapter 540 of the Code of Massachusetts Regulations, which reads, in its entirety, "License plate(s) shall be undamaged." Pretty open-ended, huh?
The inspection station manual says a plate can fail if it, "is damaged, not securely mounted, faded, repainted or not clearly visible." Again, pretty subjective.
According to Dufresne, the Registry's primary requirement is for license plates to be legible at a distance of 60 feet. "And that includes at night. If it's lost its reflective coating, you can be cited for that by law enforcement," she said.
So inspection stations are required to perform a specific test to measure night visibility? Guess again. The manual they follow is silent on the matter.
"Basically, it's a judgment call," said Giorgio Petruzziello, owner of Somerville's Mass Inspection,
For more information, see www.massvehiclecheck.com or search for "FAQs - Inspections" on the Registry's website. 
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
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Source: http://archive.boston.com/news/local/articles/2009/01/18/sticker_rejection_worth_an_appeal/
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