What changed in New Hampshire
Insurance law does not sit still, but most guides are written once and left alone. Repealed programs and retired forms keep circulating for years. This is what actually changed inNew Hampshire, when, and where to verify it.
Every state we cover, in one feed: what changed across the country · RSS
September 30, 2026
Moving hereVehicle emissions testing repealed
RSA 266:59-b, the statute behind New Hampshire's OBD II emissions test, was repealed by the 2025 budget act (2025, 141:253, XIV). Section 255 of that act set the effective date at September 30, 2026, or earlier if the Department of Environmental Services certified that EPA had approved the related state implementation plan amendment. Because emissions testing was a required element of New Hampshire's federally approved Clean Air Act plan, the state also petitioned EPA under CAA section 176A to be removed from the Ozone Transport Region — the first state to seek complete removal.
RSA 266:59-b — Emission Control Equipment (repealed by 2025, 141:253, XIV; effective date set by 2025, 141:255)January 31, 2026
Moving hereAnnual safety inspection repealed, then suspended amid litigation
The 2025 budget act (2025, 141:253) repealed RSA 266:1, 266:1-a, 266:1-b, 266:2 through 266:6 and 266:8, plus the inspection-station provisions in RSA 260:6-a and 260:6-b, ending New Hampshire's periodic motor vehicle inspection program on January 31, 2026. On January 27, 2026 a federal court ordered the state to keep the program running. The Executive Council then declined to extend the inspection vendor's contract, leaving no approved vendor, and on February 13, 2026 the Department of Safety suspended the program until further notice: stations may not issue inspection stickers and no vehicle is required to be inspected. The state has appealed to the First Circuit, so the status can change. Guides that still say New Hampshire requires an annual inspection are describing the law as it stood before 2026.
NH DMV — Inspections & Emissions (Vehicle Inspection Program Public Guidance, Feb. 13, 2026)
What this list does and does not cover
Recorded here: changes to the rules this site tracks for New Hampshire — liability minimums, SR-22 and proof-of-insurance requirements, penalties for driving uninsured, the fault system, what a lapse costs, new-resident deadlines and crash reporting. Each entry names the session law or statute that made the change and the date it took effect, not the date it was signed.
Not recorded: rate filings, individual insurer decisions, court rulings that do not change the text of the law, and changes to rules outside those seven subjects. A short list does not mean a quiet legislature — it means little moved in the parts of New Hampshire law a driver has to comply with.
A change that has passed but has not yet taken effect is not shown as current anywhere on this site. It sits on the New Hampshire pages as a dated pending value and replaces the current figure on the morning it comes into force. You can see every pending change across the country at the top of the national change feed, and the sources behind the New Hampshire figures on its statute index.