COLUMBIA, S.C. — The agency that regulates your local car dealership could soon be limited. South Carolina lawmakers are looking to crack down on the State Department of Consumer Affairs.
Right now, the Department can visit auto dealers to ensure they are following a 2016 law that limits the number of closing fees.
Legislation moving through the House and Senate takes that power away.
“I’ve never seen the kind of bureaucratic overreach that we have with the Department of Consumer Affairs,” a lobbyist for the South Carolina Auto Dealers Association Sims Floyd told lawmakers in February.
Sims said the Department has abused its authority by randomly inspecting their businesses.
"We need reform in that agency, there’s no way around it," said Sims.
Lawmakers heard the complaint and are now passing legislation that would shrink the department's ability to enforce the closing fee statute.
"They can do the inspections, but there has to be notice, there has to be a reason, you can't just walk into a dealership and say, 'Oh, by the way, we want to see all your records from the last six months," said Rep. Bill Sandifer (R-Oconee).
A separate bill up for debate in the House gets rid of the seven-member appointed commission and puts the agency under the Governor's executive branch.
“I think it’s appropriate to have them be in a cabinet so that you have the force of the governor behind the agency," said Sandifer.
Representative Russell Ott disagrees.
“They need to have that autonomy to be able to do their job the way it needs to be done,” said Ott.
David Campbell, who chairs the SC Consumer Affairs Commission, worries consumers could soon have to be the watchdog of their own wallets.
“Our whole interest is just making sure the consumer has some way, an advocate on their behalf when they’re not being dealt with in a fair way," said Campbell.
According to the department, more than $700,000 in closing fee refunds were given back to consumers between 2017 and 2022.
The Auto Dealers Association sued the Department of Consumer Affairs last year, but the litigation is still pending.