Washington DC caps what a repair shop may add to its own estimate. On a repair of $300 or less the final charge may not exceed the estimate by more than 20 percent; above $300 the cap is 10 percent. The estimate itself is required on any repair, with no minimum, and the shop needs your written authorization before it starts. The same rule covers electronic repair, not only cars. A waiver is possible, but it has to be written.
| Service | Typical |
|---|---|
| Attorney hourly rateDistrict of Columbia average | $392 per hour |
| Full traditional dentureDistrict of Columbia average | $2,399 per arch |
Ranges last checked September 2026. They come down automatically when they are due to be rechecked.
Every figure above comes from a named source we can link to, with the date we last checked it. We publish ranges rather than single prices because a range is what a provider will actually give you: the same job moves with what is being worked on, the materials, how hard it is to get at and how busy the trade is locally. Treat these as the order of magnitude to expect before you call, not as a quote.
Where a source publishes figures state by state, this page shows the figure for this state rather than a national average. Where no state-level source exists, it shows the national range and the local factors that move a job within it. We do not scale a national number by a multiplier of our own invention.
Every range carries a review date. When that date passes the number comes down until it is rechecked, rather than sitting here undated.
The Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection sets out the rule plainly: a licensed repair dealer in the District of Columbia must give a written estimate and obtain written authorization before beginning work. The final charge may not exceed those total charges by more than twenty percent for repairs costing three hundred dollars or less, or by more than ten percent for repairs costing in excess of three hundred dollars.
Two things about that are easy to misread. There is no dollar floor, so the estimate duty attaches to any repair and the three hundred dollar figure only decides which of the two caps applies. And the rule is not about cars alone. It reaches the electronic repair license as well as the auto repair license, so the same protection follows a laptop or a television.
A customer may waive the written estimate under the same body of rules, but the waiver is itself a written act. A shop that says the estimate was waived should be able to show you where.
D.C. Code section 28-3811 gives a buyer the right to cancel a home solicitation sale until midnight of the third business day after the day on which the buyer signs an agreement. The seller must return all payments within ten days, and no cancellation fee is permitted.
The limit on it is where the sale happened, not what was sold. A home solicitation sale is one solicited at or near your residence. A job you arranged by walking into a contractor's office is not covered, and neither is a sale that follows prior negotiations at a fixed place of business. Read as a general three-day right over any home improvement contract, it would be wrong.
The District of Columbia sits at the top of the country on both figures the table carries. Attorney hourly rates are the highest in the state-by-state source, and a full traditional denture is likewise the highest. Neither is startling in a jurisdiction that is entirely urban and has no rural half to pull its averages down. Auto repair shop labor is absent because the index that publishes it covers the fifty states and not the District.
Get the estimate in writing and keep it. It is not a courtesy here. It is the number the overrun cap is measured against, and a verbal figure gives the cap nothing to work from.
Watch which side of three hundred dollars the job falls on. The same overrun in dollars is permitted on a small job and not on a large one, and the switch happens at that line.
If you are asked to authorize more work mid-job, ask for the revised total before agreeing rather than after. Authorization is required before work begins, and a change is a fresh version of the same question.
If the contract was signed at your home after someone called on you, the clock starts at signing and runs in business days. That is a short window.
Yes. The Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection states that a licensed repair dealer must provide a written estimate and obtain written authorization before beginning work. There is no minimum repair value.
Not more than 20 percent on repairs costing $300 or less, and not more than 10 percent on repairs costing more than $300.
Yes. It applies to the electronic repair license as well as the auto repair license, so the same protection covers consumer electronics.
The rules allow a waiver, but it is a written act. A shop claiming the estimate was waived should be able to show you where.
Until midnight of the third business day after you sign, under D.C. Code section 28-3811. The seller must return all payments within ten days and may not charge a cancellation fee.
No. It applies to a home solicitation sale, meaning one solicited at or near your residence. A job arranged at the contractor's own place of business falls outside it.