Introduced last year and carried over in the state’s 2009-10 legislative session, Oklahoma Senate Bill 1903 proposes new law to regulate home service contracts. Entitled the “Oklahoma Service Contract Act, this legislation would create an independent framework within which home service contracts would be marketed and sold in the state. Current law regulates home, motor vehicle and consumer goods service warranties under the same insurance laws requiring that obligors be licensed as warranty associations and comply with insurance-like requirements that some would describe as “onerous” for this type of product. SB 1903 would exempt home service contracts from the insurance laws of the state and would impose more simple registration and financial responsibility requirements considered standard among a majority of states. This bill, which has passed out the Senate and is headed to the House, proposes an effective date of November 1, 2010.
