Massachusetts Advisory Ruling 2026-1 and the 1,476 Shops It Applies To
Short answer: On 14 July 2026 the Massachusetts Auto Damage Appraiser Licensing Board voted to adopt Advisory Ruling 2026-1, issued 20 July. It reaffirms that registered repair shops must maintain one or more licensed appraisers, notwithstanding a separate change to how shops are registered. Our registered-shop roster puts the number of Massachusetts shops in that population at 1,476.
What actually changed, and what did not
Two different Massachusetts bodies are involved, and conflating them is how this gets misread.
The Division of Standards administers repair shop registration under M.G.L. c. 100A. It no longer requires a shop to employ a licensed motor vehicle damage appraiser as a condition of registration.
The Auto Damage Appraiser Licensing Board (ADALB) regulates appraisers under 212 CMR 2.00. Its requirement did not change. 212 CMR 2.04(1)(b) still reads:
All repair shops shall maintain one or more licensed appraisers in their employment for the purpose of preparing motor vehicle damage appraisals.
Advisory Ruling 2026-1 exists to say that the first change does not affect the second.
The parts a shop owner will care about
| Point | What the ruling says |
|---|---|
| Scope | Applies only where an insurer is appraising damage that may result in a claim payment. |
| "Employment" | Includes retaining a licensed appraiser as a subcontractor; provided that appraiser is directly responsible for preparing and negotiating the appraisal. |
| Misrepresentation | Representing an appraisal as prepared by a licensed appraiser, without that appraiser's direct preparation and negotiation, is enforceable as unlicensed appraisal conduct or misrepresentation of appraiser employment. |
| Negotiating | Licensed staff and independent appraisers may not knowingly negotiate repairs with unlicensed individuals or unregistered shops. |
| Effective | On posting to the ADALB public website. It is in force now. |
| Consequence | "Failure to comply may result in fines and penalties as provided by law." |
Source: ADALB Advisory Ruling 2026-1, signed by Michael D. Powers, Legal Counsel to the Board, 20 July 2026.
How many shops this reaches
The ruling binds registered repair shops, so the population is the registered roster. As of our 2026-08-03 build we carry 1,476 registered Massachusetts auto body shops, every one with an RS-prefixed registration number and every one geocoded.
| County | Shops | County | Shops |
|---|---|---|---|
| Middlesex | 337 | Hampden | 76 |
| Worcester | 231 | Barnstable | 29 |
| Essex | 190 | Berkshire | 19 |
| Norfolk | 152 | Hampshire | 19 |
| Plymouth | 149 | Franklin | 16 |
| Bristol | 129 | Nantucket | 2 |
| Suffolk | 126 | Dukes | 1 |
Fourteen counties. The four largest hold 910 of the 1,476, about 62%.
What this figure is not
It is not a compliance rate. We do not publish, and cannot currently obtain, a list of which registered shops employ or retain a licensed appraiser. The Board prepares a roster of licensed appraisers each November and files it with the State Secretary, furnished to the public on request; until that roster is in hand, any claim about how many shops comply, in either direction, would be invented. 1,476 is the size of the population the obligation reaches. Nothing more.
It is not a count of every body shop in Massachusetts. It is the count of shops on the published 211 CMR 133 registered list. AIB publishes a separate "No Longer Registered" section which we deliberately do not ingest, for the reasons in how to verify a Massachusetts registration.
Our Massachusetts sourcing is one step removed from the state. These records come from the AIB published lists, not a Division of Standards feed. That guide explains why, and why Massachusetts records are used for the consumer map only.
If you run a Massachusetts shop
- Read the ruling itself, not a summary of it. It is two pages.
- Check your own arrangement against the subcontractor language. Retaining an appraiser counts, but only if that appraiser is the one actually preparing and negotiating the appraisal.
- Do not let an appraisal go out under a licensed appraiser's name that the appraiser did not prepare and negotiate. That is the specific conduct the ruling names as enforceable.
- Registration and appraiser licensing are separate obligations. Dropping out of one does not release you from the other, which is the whole reason this ruling was written.
Related
- How to verify an auto body shop's registration in Massachusetts
- Auto body shops in Massachusetts
- How our data is verified
- How insurance claims work
General consumer information: not legal, insurance, or financial advice. Requirements, coverage, and practices vary by state, policy, and manufacturer.