Home Depot Damage Protection Class Action: 2026 Rulings & Status

The Home Depot damage protection class action is not one lawsuit. It is a group of tool rental cases, and none has paid anyone so far. Two ended with wins for Home Depot. A third was still pending in the latest reporting we found (May 2026).

This matters if you rent tools. The add-on costs 15% of your rental price, and it can show up on your contract even if you said no online. A 25-day deadline can also end your right to dispute a bad charge.

Below, you’ll see what judges decided, what is still open, and what you can do on your next rental.

Is There a Home Depot Damage Protection Class Action Settlement?

No. As of October 30, 2026, we found no approved settlement, claim form, or refund fund. The Simmons case was dismissed in January 2026. The Mathews case ended in Home Depot’s favor on appeal in March 2026. A third case, E&G Enterprise, was still pending in the latest reporting we found.

Here is where each case stands.

Case	Court	Main claim	Status
Simmons v. Home Depot USA, Inc., No. 1:25-cv-02409	U.S. District Court, N.D. Georgia	Damage protection was added by default, even though the contract calls it optional	Dismissed January 9, 2026
Mathews v. Home Depot USA, Inc., No. 25-10562	11th Circuit Court of Appeals	Overcharged late fees and damage protection fees	Judgment for Home Depot affirmed March 5, 2026
E&G Enterprise, Inc. v. Home Depot USA, Inc., No. 1:24-cv-03020	U.S. District Court, N.D. Georgia	Late fees and damage protection billed against the contract	Pending as of the latest reporting we found (May 2026); no class certified

Beware of Fake “Claim” Sites

Several auto-generated sites that show up for this topic get the facts wrong. Some describe the case as a product safety suit about defective materials. It is not. These cases are about tool rental fees.

Some of those sites also push a “claim form.” There isn’t one. A real class settlement runs through a court-approved administrator, and you never pay to file a claim. If a site asks for your card number or Social Security number, leave. You can report it to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

News pages about the filing still collect “add me” comments, some posted months after the dismissal. There is no list to add your name to. Also, don’t mix this up with a separate suit that accuses Home Depot of showing fake online discounts. That is a different case.

Say a text message says you “qualify for a Home Depot refund” and links to a form that asks for your bank login. That is a red flag. No court has approved a refund process for this issue.

What Is Home Depot Damage Protection?

Damage protection is an optional add-on for tool and equipment rentals. It costs 15% of the rental price under the current agreement. It covers repair or replacement charges if a tool is damaged during normal use. It does not cover theft, abuse, misuse, neglect, or intentional damage.

It is not an extended warranty on things you buy. These lawsuits are about rentals only.

What It Covers and What It Doesn’t

The contract draws the line at normal use. That line decides most disputes.

Picture a renter running a rented saw. It hits hidden rebar, and the blade cracks. That looks like an accident during normal use, so the add-on may apply. Now picture the same saw left out in the rain all night. A court might call that neglect, which the add-on excludes. The exact words of your own agreement control.

Without the add-on, you may carry more risk. In the 2008 contract in Rickher, the renter accepted the risk of loss, theft, or damage from any cause. The add-on shifted accidental damage back to Home Depot. Your current agreement may be worded differently, so read its risk section.

10% vs. 15%: How the Fee Changed

Older contracts used a 10% rate. The E&G complaint says the contract in use since December 2022 raised it to 15%. The 2008 Rickher case, covered below, involved the older 10% “Damage Waiver.”

Here is a quick way to check your own bill. In Simmons, the charge was $8.85 — 15% of a $59 rental, based on our math. If your line item doesn’t match 15% of your rental price, ask why.

See also: Home Depot Rival Files for Bankruptcy. A look at how competition in home improvement retail is shifting.

Is Home Depot Damage Protection Mandatory?

No. The rental agreement calls damage protection optional. But Home Depot’s checkout system can add it by default, and a federal court held that this did not break the contract. So check page one before you sign, and remove the charge if you don’t want it.

What the Simmons Renter Said Happened

Randall Simmons reserved a tiller online on April 7, 2025. He declined damage protection during the online reservation. At a store in Pelham, Alabama, he later signed page one of the rental agreement. That page listed an $8.85 damage protection charge.

He disputed the charge with Home Depot’s corporate office. According to his complaint, a store employee said the default setting was “wrong” and promised to retrain staff. A manager reportedly said the store defaults to including the protection, but customers can remove it at checkout. These are allegations, not proven facts.

“Optional” vs. “Opt-In”: Why the Difference Matters

Term	What it means	Did the court say the contract required it?
Optional	You can say no and have the fee removed	Yes
Opt-in	You must actively say yes before you are charged	No

Common mistake: Many renters assume that declining online protects them. In Simmons, it did not.

Which Lawsuits Make Up the Home Depot Damage Protection Class Action?

In short: Of the three tool rental class action cases, two were decided for Home Depot and one is still pending. None has led to a payout.

Three cases drive this search, plus one older ruling that shaped how courts think about it. Each attacks a different part of Home Depot’s rental program.

Simmons: Filed in 2025 in federal court in Georgia. Randall Simmons said the contract calls damage protection “optional” and says it must be “selected” before it is charged. He said employees and the checkout system added it anyway. He sought a nationwide class and a Georgia subclass, a jury trial, an order stopping the practice, money damages, and attorney’s fees. His lawyers are at Heninger Garrison Davis LLC. He also said the add-on brings in tens of millions of dollars a year. That figure is his claim, not a finding. Top Class Actions covered the filing.

Mathews: Filed in June 2022 by Darin Mathews and Ronald Reeves over late-return fees and damage protection fees on tool rentals, including a drain camera rental (Mathews) and a jackhammer rental (Reeves). The district court granted summary judgment to Home Depot, and the Eleventh Circuit affirmed on March 5, 2026.

E&G Enterprise: Filed July 8, 2024, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia (Judge Eleanor L. Ross). It targets how late fees and protection fees were calculated, as explained below.

Rickher (2008): An older Seventh Circuit decision that rejected a claim that the damage waiver was worthless.

Why Was Simmons v. Home Depot Dismissed?

Judge Michael L. Brown ruled the contract only required that damage protection be optional, not opt-in. A default setting did not change that. The court also said the online decline did not count because the signed agreement replaced earlier choices. He said the default “may be sneaky,” but not a breach.

On January 9, 2026, the judge granted Home Depot’s motion to dismiss. Here is what drove that result.

The Merger Clause, Explained

A merger clause says the signed contract is the whole deal. Earlier talk, emails, or online choices don’t count. That is why Simmons’s online “no” lost out to the paper he signed at the store.

Why the Class Claim Ended

Simmons was the named plaintiff. When his own claim failed, the court found no workable class claim for other renters either. A class case rises or falls on its lead plaintiff first.

Why He Couldn’t Fix It Later

He asked for permission to amend with a single line in a brief. The court said that isn’t a proper motion and denied it. We found no reporting of an appeal, so check the docket for updates.

What Is the Home Depot 25-Day Dispute Rule?

The rental agreement says you must dispute any charge in writing within 25 days of getting the contract or invoice. If you do not, you give up the right to dispute it. In March 2026, the Eleventh Circuit enforced this rule against renters who only complained by phone.

The case is Mathews v. Home Depot USA, Inc., No. 25-10562, brought by Darin Mathews and Ronald Reeves. The district court granted summary judgment to Home Depot in February 2025. The Eleventh Circuit affirmed on March 5, 2026.

The Real Numbers From the Case

In one example from the opinion, Mathews rented a drain camera for four hours, for an estimated rental fee of $139. The estimated protection charge was $20.85. When he returned the camera four days later, he was charged $796 in total rental fees, and protection fees grew to $45.90.

The math tells a story. $20.85 is 15% of $139. And $45.90 is 15% of $306 — the “new rental charge” figure the opinion uses for the protection fee. So the protection fee grew right along with the rental charges.

What the Court Said About Fairness

The agreement requires written notice of “any disputed amounts, including credit card charges.” The court treated the 25-day notice as a condition precedent. That means you must do it before you can sue. It also found the clause was not unconscionable under Georgia law. It said the period was “perhaps cutting it close,” but not unreasonable.

The opinion is unpublished. That means it isn’t binding precedent the way a published opinion would be. Still, it shows how much weight courts give to written deadlines.

What If You Call and Write Late?

Say a renter spots a wrong charge on day 10 and phones the store. A manager says, “We’ll fix it.” Nothing happens. The renter writes a letter on day 40. Under Mathews, the phone call likely wouldn’t count, and the letter would come too late.

Common mistake: Trusting a promise made over the phone or at the counter.

What Does the E&G Enterprise Lawsuit Claim About Late Fees?

The E&G Enterprise case claims Home Depot billed late fees differently than its contract said. It also claims the damage protection percentage was applied to late fees, not just the base rental price. These are allegations, not findings. No class has been certified in the reporting we found.

How the Alleged Late Fee Cycle Worked

Filed July 8, 2024, the complaint says the contract promised a weekly recurring charge. Instead, it says Home Depot billed one quarter of the weekly charge for each of the first four late days. Then it charged nothing for the next three days, and the cycle repeated every seven days.

Here is an illustration only. Say the weekly rate is $200 and a tool comes back 10 days late. The proposed late-fee class counts renters charged more than the weekly charge times each full seven-day period. That would be $200 for one full week. Under the method the complaint describes, the same renter would owe $200 for days 1 to 4 ($50 a day, one quarter of the $200 weekly rate), nothing for days 5 to 7, and $150 for days 8 to 10 ($50 a day). That totals $350. This is a made-up example of the claim, not proof of how Home Depot bills.

The Damage Protection Claim

The complaint says customers pay 10% of the rental price for damage protection. But if you keep the tool late, it says Home Depot charges 10% of the rental price plus another 10% of the late fees. It argues customers were never told protection could be charged on late fees. It says the newer 15% contract works the same way.

Here is another illustration only. Say a rental costs $100 and late fees reach $60. Protection at 10% of the rental is $10. Under the practice the complaint describes, another $6 (10% of $60) would be added, for $16 total.

The Fine-Print Notice Claim

The complaint also says both contracts require written notice of disputed charges within a certain number of days. It says customers are not told about this clause or given the contract until after they have paid. So, it argues, they have “no way of knowing” about it. This is the same kind of clause the Eleventh Circuit enforced in Mathews.

The Proposed Classes

The complaint asks to represent renters across the United States, not just Georgia. It proposes three groups. First, renters under the 2015-2019 contract who were charged late fees above the weekly charge times each full seven-day period. Second, renters under that same contract who bought damage protection and were charged more than 10% of the rental subtotal. Third, renters under the contract used since December 2022 who were charged more than 15%. Each group is limited by the applicable statute of limitations. Court filings change, so check the docket before relying on any of this.

What Did Earlier Courts Say? The Rickher Case

In short: In 2008, a federal appeals court held that Home Depot’s add-on had real value, and the renter’s claim failed.

Challenges to this product are not new. In Rickher v. Home Depot, Inc. (7th Cir. 2008), a renter argued under the Illinois Consumer Fraud Act that the 10% “Damage Waiver” was worthless. His point was that the contract already excused ordinary wear and tear.

Rickher rented tools from Chicago-area stores on more than a dozen occasions. He wanted to represent Illinois renters who paid the waiver in the three years before he sued. The Seventh Circuit decided his case on July 28, 2008, under Illinois law.

His complaint also made a claim that sounds familiar. He said Home Depot made the waiver a default condition on each rental and never told him it was optional. The trial court rejected that point because he never read the rental agreement, which said the waiver wasn’t mandatory. He did not appeal that part. So the fight over defaults is not new. It was in court nearly two decades before Simmons.

The Seventh Circuit disagreed. It said the waiver covers accidental damage that the base contract would leave on the renter. Two examples: a hidden screw bending a saw blade, or an object falling on a stored tool. Similar federal cases in Florida, New Jersey, and Ohio reached related results.

The judges also split wear and tear from damage. Wear and tear is the slow, expected aging of a tool. A hammer head erodes, a blade dulls, a motor slows. A cracked casing from a drop is damage. The court admitted the situations where the waiver helps may not be many. But it held that they exist, so the waiver has value.

The pattern across Rickher, Mathews, and Simmons is clear. Courts read the contract text closely. Plaintiffs have struggled when the wording or a deadline worked against them. These were mostly contract claims, so they don’t automatically decide every state consumer-protection theory.

How Does a Home Depot Class Action Work?

A class action lets one person sue for a large group with the same problem. Federal Rule 23 sets the test. The class must be “so numerous that joinder of all members is impracticable.” If a court approves a settlement, it must find it “fair, reasonable, and adequate.”

Many big consumer class actions land in federal court under the Class Action Fairness Act, found at 28 U.S.C. § 1332(d).

Here is why the class device exists. Say 10,000 renters were each overcharged $9. Nobody sues over $9 alone. Together, that is $90,000. A class action is built for exactly that gap.

Motion to Dismiss vs. Summary Judgment

	Motion to dismiss	Summary judgment
When	Early, before evidence is gathered	Later, after evidence is gathered
Question	Even if the claims are true, do they state a legal claim?	Is there any real dispute over key facts?
Rule	Rule 12	Rule 56
Used in	Simmons	Mathews

Can I Join a Home Depot Class Action?

There is nothing to join right now. No class has been certified, and no settlement or claim process exists. Generally, you do not sign up when a class action is filed. If a settlement is ever approved, notice comes through an official administrator. You never pay to file a claim.

See also: Homeland Security Student Visa Lawsuit. It’s another example of how federal court cases move from filing to ruling.

Do These Rulings Apply Where You Live?

Not automatically. Simmons and Mathews turned on Georgia contract law and on Home Depot’s own agreement. Other states have their own consumer-protection rules.

Say you rented a tool in Ohio and were charged protection you declined. A Georgia ruling doesn’t bind an Ohio court. Your state’s consumer law, and the exact wording of your own agreement, will matter more.

A few places to look if you think you were overcharged:

• Your state attorney general or consumer office, listed on USA.gov’s state consumer page
• Your local small claims court, for smaller amounts
• Your card issuer, which has its own dispute rules and deadlines. Ask early.

See also: Homeschool Diploma Lawsuit Pennsylvania. It shows how state-level rules can shape a lawsuit’s outcome.

What Should Tool Renters Do Now?

If you do only one thing, dispute any wrong charge in writing within 25 days. The other steps below support that one.

1. Read page one before you sign. Look for a damage protection line.
2. Ask to remove it if you don’t want it, even if you declined online.
3. Compare the estimate to your final invoice. Late returns change both the rental charge and the protection charge.
4. Dispute in writing within 25 days. Keep a copy and note the date.
5. Save photos of the tool at pickup and at return.
6. Talk to a lawyer if the amount is large or you’re past the deadline.

Ask for every page of the contract before you pay. The E&G complaint says customers don’t get the full agreement until after they have paid. In the 2008 contract in Rickher, the page you sign held special terms, and the customer’s copy didn’t repeat them. The full terms sat on a third page. Contracts change, so photograph every page you can.

When	What to check
Before you sign	Is damage protection listed? Does the amount equal 15% of the rental price?
Before you leave	Do you have a copy of the contract? Did you photograph the tool?
After the invoice	Is the total higher than the estimate? Did you send a written dispute within 25 days?

Consider two renters who both spot a wrong charge on day 12. One writes an email and keeps a copy. The other calls and gets a friendly promise. If a dispute comes later, the first renter has proof of timely notice. The second has nothing in writing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Home Depot damage protection class action settled? No, not to our knowledge. We found no approved settlement or claim process. The Simmons and Mathews cases ended in Home Depot’s favor. The E&G Enterprise case had not been resolved in the latest reporting we found (May 2026).

Can I join the Home Depot damage protection class action? There is nothing to join right now. No class has been certified. If that changes, official notice will come through a court-approved administrator.

Is Home Depot damage protection mandatory? No. The agreement calls it optional. But it may be pre-selected at checkout, so confirm it is removed before you sign if you don’t want it.

How much does Home Depot damage protection cost? 15% of the rental price under the current agreement. Older contracts used 10%.

What is the 25-day rule on a Home Depot rental? You must dispute charges in writing within 25 days of getting the contract or invoice. The Eleventh Circuit enforced this rule in Mathews.

Can I get a refund for damage protection I declined? Start by disputing it in writing, right away. Keep your agreement and any online reservation screenshots. The Simmons ruling shows a refund isn’t guaranteed, so consider legal advice if the amount is large.

Do these lawsuits cover warranties on products I bought? No. They concern tool and equipment rentals only.

Conclusion

The Home Depot damage protection class action has produced rulings, not refunds. Simmons was dismissed. Mathews was affirmed for Home Depot. E&G Enterprise is the one to watch.

Your best protection is simple. Check page one, remove charges you don’t want, and dispute errors in writing within 25 days. If a charge is large, or you may be past the deadline, talk to a licensed consumer attorney in your state.

Disclaimer: This is general information only and not legal advice. It is not a substitute for advice from a qualified attorney licensed in your jurisdiction, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.