Brian has run his shop on Eight Mile Road, Detroit, for twelve years. Three bays, four full-time techs, the standard mix of GM, Ford, and FCA customers — Detroit being Detroit. Brian is registered with the Michigan Secretary of State as a Motor Vehicle Repair Facility under Act 300 of 1974, codified at MCL §§257.1301-257.1340 (the Motor Vehicle Service and Repair Act). He paid the registration fee. He renews annually. The registration certificate hangs framed in the customer waiting area where the law requires.

What Brian did not know — until the Secretary of State investigator stood in the doorway of his bay on a Thursday morning — is that Michigan also requires that every individual mechanic who performs major motor vehicle repairs hold a current Mechanic Certification issued by the Secretary of State under MCL §257.1303. The certification is personal to the mechanic, biennial, and requires passing a written examination administered by the Department of State for each repair category the mechanic intends to work on (engine repair, brakes, suspension/steering, electrical/electronic systems, heating/air conditioning, drive train, body work, transmission, etc.).

The investigator pulls up the Department of State Mechanic Certification database on his phone — a publicly searchable database where any consumer or any investigator can look up any mechanic's certification status by name and date of birth. Two of Brian's four techs are properly certified across the categories they actually work on. One tech — a recent hire from Toledo — has an Ohio ASE certification but no Michigan Mechanic Certification. The fourth tech, a long-time employee, is certified for brakes, suspension/steering, and electrical, but is also performing transmission work — a category for which he is not certified.

What MCL Act 300 of 1974 actually requires

The Motor Vehicle Service and Repair Act is one of the longest-standing comprehensive auto-repair regulatory frameworks in the United States, having been in continuous operation since 1974. The current version requires:

  • Repair facility registration with the Secretary of State for every shop. The registration must be renewed annually. The shop's registration number must be displayed prominently in the customer area and printed on every invoice and estimate.
  • Individual mechanic certification for every person who performs "major motor vehicle repair" — defined under MCL §257.1302 to include engine, transmission, brakes, suspension/steering, electrical/electronic, body work, drive train, heating/air conditioning, and other categories specified by Department of State rule. Each mechanic is certified per category. Performing a category for which the mechanic is not certified is itself a violation.
  • Written estimate or oral notification before any work begins above a threshold set by Department of State rule. The customer's authorization (whether of the written estimate or an oral notification) must be documented.
  • Itemized invoice on completion showing the work performed, parts installed (with new/rebuilt/used designation), labor, and total. The mechanic who performed the work is identified on the invoice.
  • Public registry — the Secretary of State maintains a complete register of motor vehicle repair facilities, their registration status, their disciplinary history, and the mechanics they employ. The register is publicly available at the office of the Secretary of State and online via the Mechanic Search tool.
  • Records retention for the period specified by Department of State rule.

What the investigator does next

The investigator issues a Notice of Compliance Investigation under MCL §257.1332. The Notice cites: (1) the uncertified Toledo tech performing customer work in violation of MCL §257.1303(1), (2) the long-time tech performing transmission work outside his certification categories in violation of MCL §257.1303(3), (3) the corresponding supervisory failure by Brian as the licensed shop owner under MCL §257.1331. Brian has thirty days to respond.

The remedies the Secretary of State can impose include:

  • Fines — up to $1,000 per violation under MCL §257.1339 for the shop, plus separate fines on each individual mechanic.
  • Suspension or revocation of the shop's facility registration, the individual mechanics' certifications, or both.
  • Probation — the shop is placed on probation during which any additional violation triggers stiffer penalties.
  • Public listing — the disciplinary action is recorded in the Secretary of State Mechanic Search database, where any consumer can find it.
  • Referral to the Michigan Attorney General for matters involving fraud or systematic misrepresentation under the Michigan Consumer Protection Act (MCPA, MCL §445.901 et seq.). The MCPA provides for actual damages plus attorney fees in private actions.

Brian's response, after consultation with his attorney, includes: (1) immediate suspension of the Toledo tech from customer work pending his Michigan Mechanic Certification examination, scheduled for the next available Department of State testing date, (2) reassignment of the long-time tech off transmission work until he passes the transmission category examination, (3) a written corrective-action plan including pre-hire verification of every prospective tech's Michigan Mechanic Certification status, (4) settlement offer to the Secretary of State of $2,200 in civil penalties.

The Secretary of State accepts the settlement. The disciplinary order is entered in the public Mechanic Search database. Any consumer searching Brian's shop name on Google for the next twelve months will see the entry. The two affected techs each have their certification status flagged in the database — a status that follows them if they leave Brian's shop and apply at another Michigan facility.

The five lines every Michigan auto repair invoice should print — plus the certification check

1. The Secretary of State Repair Facility Registration number, prominently displayed

Required by Act 300 on every invoice and every estimate, plus posted in the customer-facing area. Format: "Michigan Repair Facility Registration #XXXXXX." The customer can verify the registration status on the Department of State Mechanic Search.

2. The certified mechanic's name on every invoice — with their certification categories

The invoice identifies the mechanic who performed the work and notes the certification categories that authorize the work. This is both a legal requirement (so the customer can verify the mechanic was certified for the work performed) and a defensive practice (so a future investigator can see at a glance which mechanic worked on which category).

3. Written estimate or oral-notification record before work begins

Itemized parts (with new/rebuilt/used designation), labor hours, hourly rate, total estimated cost, customer signature with date or recorded oral notification. The customer's authorization is documented in the customer file.

4. Itemized invoice with parts designations

Each part listed individually with the designation, unit price, labor itemized by job, parts subtotal, labor subtotal, applicable Michigan sales tax (parts are generally taxable; labor on a service is generally not separately taxable in Michigan for repair services), total.

5. The mechanic-certification verification record in every personnel file

The shop maintains, for every employed tech, a printed-screenshot record of the tech's current Michigan Mechanic Certification status from the Department of State Mechanic Search. The record is updated annually at certification renewal. When a Secretary of State investigator asks for the personnel files, the records show that the shop verified each tech's certification status before that tech performed customer work in each category.

Why Michigan's framework bites uniquely

Michigan is one of the very few U.S. states (along with Hawaii) that licenses individual mechanics in addition to repair shops. The Secretary of State's database makes both shop and mechanic certification status publicly searchable in real time. A consumer with a smartphone in the customer waiting area can verify the certification status of the mechanic working on their vehicle before they sign the estimate. A Secretary of State investigator can run the same check during an unannounced visit and identify uncertified-tech violations within minutes.

The economic consequences of an uncertified-tech finding extend beyond the fine. The affected tech cannot legally perform customer work in the violated category until certification is obtained. For a small shop with three or four techs, losing one tech's productivity for the weeks-to-months it takes to schedule and pass the Department of State examination is a measurable revenue impact.

Mekavo automatically prints the Repair Facility Registration number on every invoice and estimate, prints the assigned mechanic's name and configurable certification-category field on the work order, and supports a personnel-file verification workflow that records the date the shop owner confirmed each tech's certification status against the Department of State Mechanic Search. When the investigator visits, the records produce the answer.

Official resources

Last updated: April 2026. Statutes and regulations cited were current at the time of publication. Penalties and Department of State enforcement outcomes vary by the specific facts and the licensee's compliance history. For a specific case — a Notice of Compliance Investigation received, a certification-category dispute, an MCPA action by the Michigan Attorney General — consult a Michigan attorney experienced in Department of State licensing matters before responding.

Note on scenarios: The shops, names, addresses, and case reference numbers in this article are fictional and used solely to illustrate how the cited statutes operate in practice. Any resemblance to actual shops, owners, or events is coincidental. The statutes, regulations, and agency procedures cited are real and current as of publication.