How long do I have to warranty my work?
Pick your province and we check your months and kilometres against the minimum on file before we write a word. Free, nothing stored, nothing sent.
Where does your shop operate?
What are you promising?
Kilometres.
What are you standing behind?
The fine print
This page needs JavaScript to build the wording. The explanation below works without it.
Pick your province and we will show you the minimum we hold for it.
Here is what falls short, and two ways to fix it.
Everything here runs in your browser. Nothing is sent anywhere and nothing is stored.
This is a template, not legal advice. Statutory consumer rights apply whatever a shop writes down.
This template reflects common workmanship-warranty terms. Provincial consumer law can add or override terms - in Ontario the Consumer Protection Act (s. 63) and O. Reg. 17/05, in Quebec French-language and consumer rules, in Manitoba MPI-related terms. Check with a local advisor before you rely on it. Checked 25 August 2026; sources: Ontario Consumer Protection Act, O. Reg. 17/05, Quebec Consumer Protection Act, Quebec application regulation, Charter of the French language, Manitoba Consumer Protection Act.
Invoice footer
Posted terms
Counter script
The statement Ontario requires on the invoice
This is not part of your warranty. O. Reg. 17/05, s. 51, para. 23 prescribes it for every Ontario repair invoice, and it is reproduced here word for word.
The Consumer Protection Act, 2002 provides you with rights in relation to having a motor vehicle repaired. Among other things, you have a right to a written estimate. A repairer may not charge an amount that is more than ten (10) per cent above that estimate. If you waived your right to an estimate, the repairer must have your authorization of the maximum amount that you will pay for the repairs. The repairer may not charge more than the maximum amount you authorized. In either case, the repairer may not charge for any work you did not authorize. If you have concerns about the work or repairs performed by the repairer or about your rights or duties under the Consumer Protection Act, 2002, you should contact the Ministry of Consumer and Business Services.
preferredmechanic.ca/tools/workmanship-warranty-generator/
How the wording is built
Nothing here is written from scratch. Every sentence in your invoice footer, your posted terms and your counter script comes out of a library of pre-written clauses, and a rule engine picks the ones that fit the answers you gave. The numbers come from you. The legal wording comes from our own reading of the statutes, and every clause that quotes one carries its section.
Four things happen between your last click and the document.
- Your answers are normalized. Months and kilometres become whole numbers, and a term in months becomes the fewest days it could possibly run.
- Your province's row loads, with its minimum, the instrument it comes from and the date on the copy we read.
- Your numbers, your claim procedure and your exclusions go up against that minimum. If anything falls under it, nothing is written.
- The clauses that survive are assembled into three documents, and all three are checked to carry the same months, the same kilometres and the same exclusions before you see any of them.
That third step is the difference between this and a blank template, which prints whatever you typed.
Which of the three answers you get depends on the province, and the badge that appears once you pick a province tells you which one is coming.
| Badge on the province | Where it shows | What we do |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum on file | Ontario | We hold a verified minimum and check your months and kilometres against it before a word is written. |
| No minimum on file | Alberta, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan | We write the wording, and we say plainly that we have not verified a minimum there. |
| Not covered yet | Quebec, Manitoba | We show what we hold for them and name what still has to exist before we write wording. |
No minimum on file means exactly what it says: we have not verified one. That is not the same as there being none, and we will not print it as though it were.
Workmanship warranty wording for an auto repair shop
A workmanship warranty is the promise you make about your own labour. It isn't the manufacturer's warranty on the part, the extended warranty the customer bought from someone else, or the vehicle's factory powertrain coverage. Confusing those four is most of what goes wrong at the counter.
The split that matters is parts against labour. The alternator you fitted fails in month five, and two questions land at once: does the part carry a warranty, and do you charge to fit the replacement? A shop that has never written the answer down decides it on the spot, and decides it differently on a Tuesday than on a Friday. Pick once, and the invoice, the sign on the wall and the service advisor all say the same thing.
The second split is where the part came from. A part you bought and sold, a remanufactured unit, a used unit out of a wrecker, and a box the customer carried in from an online order are four different situations. In Ontario they are not all the same in law either.
What Ontario actually requires on a repair warranty
Ontario is why this is a Canadian tool rather than one more fill-in-the-blanks template.
Section 63 (1) of the Consumer Protection Act, 2002 deems every repairer to warrant all new or reconditioned parts installed, and the labour required to install them, for a minimum of 90 days or 5,000 kilometres, whichever comes first. You don't opt into that. It is deemed, and section 9 (3) makes void any term that tries to cut it down.
O. Reg. 17/05 carves out fluids, filters, lights, tires and batteries, and any part the vehicle's manufacturer did not warrant when the vehicle was sold new. Those you may exclude.
Then comes the part that's easy to miss. Section 51 of the same regulation tells you what the invoice must say. Paragraph 19: where your own warranty gives coverage equal to or greater than section 63 in time and distance, the invoice states your terms. Paragraph 20: where it does not, the invoice must state the 90 days or 5,000 kilometres, that the warranty is provided under the Act and may not be waived, and that it does not reach the carved-out items. A shorter promise does not shrink what you owe. It changes whose words go on the paper.
Two more traps matter in Ontario. Section 63 (3) lets a customer whose vehicle is inoperable or unsafe have it repaired at the closest available facility, where bringing it back to you is not reasonable. Section 63 (4) lets that customer recover the original cost of the work and reasonable towing charges from you. A clause saying warranty work happens at your shop and nowhere else runs straight into both. So does excluding towing.
One thing to watch. The Act is repealed on a day to be named by proclamation. Its successor is not yet in force, and it authorizes regulations governing minimum warranties for repair parts and labour, so the floor has to be read again when the successor and its repair-warranty regulation commence.
Auto repair warranty questions Canadian shops ask
Do mechanics have to warranty their work?
For a consumer agreement covering vehicle repair within section 63, Ontario's Consumer Protection Act, 2002 deems a repairer to warrant new or reconditioned parts and the labour to install them for at least 90 days or 5,000 kilometres, whichever comes first. Quebec runs its own version, with its own price and same-bill exceptions and its own French-language rules, so we show you what it says and do not write Quebec wording yet. Most other provinces we checked have no repair-specific minimum we could verify, which is not the same as having none.
How long do mechanics warranty their work?
It varies. Where a province sets a floor, a shop can promise more, but it cannot use its own wording to cut the floor down. Write the time and the distance explicitly. Then keep the invoice, the sign on the wall and the advisor's explanation saying the same thing.
What is a parts and labour warranty?
Two promises in one line. Parts covers the component failing. Labour covers the work of fitting it. A shop can offer extra coverage on either or both, but that wording cannot cut down a statutory warranty that already applies. Say which extra promise you mean, and keep the statutory floor separate from it.
Can I refuse to warranty a part the customer brought in?
Don't assume a customer-supplied part sits outside the law. In Ontario, section 63 (1) speaks about new or reconditioned parts installed, not about who sold them, and the regulation carries a separate exception for a part the vehicle manufacturer never warranted. Those predicates have to be settled before we write this branch for you.
What does a used engine warranty cover?
Start by separating the unit from the installation. Record whatever terms the supplier gives on the used unit, then state your own promise about fitting it. Don't let that split read as though it removes a statutory or implied right that still applies.
Does a warranty transfer when the vehicle is sold?
State whether your extra coverage follows the vehicle or stays with the customer named on the repair order. Transfer changes what you are exposed to, so don't promise it casually. And "we guarantee our work" answers nothing at all for a second owner.
Next steps
You have just put in writing what your shop stands behind. That is the one thing a stranger choosing a garage cannot otherwise see. Businesses cannot pay us for inclusion or placement, so a listing shows what a shop actually does. Claiming yours is free.
The categories a shop like yours sits in
Warranty wording changes when the shop does. Bookmark this one and run it again when you add a service line, reprint your invoices, or lose an argument at the counter about what your old wording actually meant.