The Florida Senate

325.212  Reinspections; reinspection facilities; rules; minority business participation.--

(1)  All inspection stations shall be authorized to reinspect any motor vehicle which fails to pass an inspection required by this act. However, no fee shall be charged for such reinspection.

(2)  Any motor vehicle repair shop, as defined in ¹s. 559.903(7), may apply to the department, on a form approved by the department, to be licensed as a reinspection facility to reinspect motor vehicles which fail to pass inspections required by this act.

(3)  Reinspection facilities licensed pursuant to this section may reinspect motor vehicles which fail to pass inspections required by this act. Upon reinspection of a motor vehicle and a determination that such motor vehicle passes the inspection required by this act, the reinspection facility shall certify such passage on a reinspection certificate and shall furnish such certificate to the motor vehicle owner. The reinspection certificate shall be in the same form and content as the original inspection certificate.

(4)  The Department of Environmental Protection shall adopt, by rule, standards for certification of equipment used for reinspections, shall obtain and approve the most advanced technology available on the open market, and shall periodically update and evaluate currently certified equipment.

(5)  To ensure uniform and consistent repairs and reinspections by qualified mechanics, reinspection facilities shall only utilize equipment which has been certified by the Department of Environmental Protection.

(6)  The department shall compile and maintain records necessary to evaluate the quality of all repairs and reinspections performed by reinspection facilities licensed pursuant to this section, shall establish requirements for reinspection facilities licensed to conduct reinspections, and shall monitor their performance.

(7)  Record and data collection systems for the reinspection facilities must provide the same capability of being directly integrated into the original or first inspection data collection system. To assure a minimum of expense to the department and a minimum level of monitoring of the reinspection facilities, the department may contract for the data collection, exhaust analyzers, and supervisory assistance necessary to integrate the reinspection data management network into the original inspection data management network. It is the intent of the Legislature that reinspection facilities be supervised, monitored, and audited in the most efficient and effective manner possible.

(8)  The licensing requirements for reinspection facilities, including application fees and any other prescribed fees, shall be at least equal to the licensing requirements established for self-inspectors in this act, except that the surety bond required shall be $25,000 for motor vehicle repair shops licensed as reinspection facilities.

(9)  Reinspection facilities licensed by the department are expressly prohibited from issuing waivers and from assessing a reinspection fee. A licensed reinspection facility is not required to reinspect any motor vehicle on which the facility has not performed repairs.

(10)  To the extent possible, no less than 10 percent of the reinspection facilities licensed by the department shall be owned and controlled by small business concerns defined as minority business enterprises in s. 288.703(2).

History.--s. 11, ch. 88-129; s. 5, ch. 92-323; s. 147, ch. 94-356.

¹Note.--Substituted by the editors for a reference to s. 559.903(2) to conform to the redesignation of subunits by s. 3, ch. 93-219.