Tarion and Ontario’s New Home Warranty Program

For over 40 years, Tarion has provided new home warranty protection to more than two million Ontario homes. Tarion serves new home buyers and new home owners by ensuring that one of life’s biggest investments is protected. More than 365,000 homes are currently enrolled in the warranty program.  Every year about 50,000 new homes are enrolled.

Tarion works hard every day to serve the public interest by resolving warranty disputes between homeowners and builders; providing deposit and delayed closing protection for new home buyers; and prosecuting illegal builders.  Tarion also regulates new home builders and ensure they meet a province-wide standard of technical competence and financial capacity.  All of this enhances fairness and confidence in Ontario’s new home building industry.

What does a new home warranty cover?

Builders in Ontario are must to provide statutory warranty coverage as outlined in the Ontario New Home Warranties Plan Act.  All builders in Ontario must provide a seven-year statutory warranty on every home they build.  Click here to find out more about the new home warranty.

The coverage includes:

• Protection for deposits;
• Protection against financial loss for contract homes;
• Compensation for delays in closing or occupancy; and
• One and two-year warranties for certain defects in work and materials;
• A seven-year warranty for major structural defects; and
• Coverage for condominium common elements (the common or shared area of condominium buildings).

Warranty coverage begins on the date of possession of a home or condominium unit and remains in effect until the end of the warranty period, even if the home is sold before the warranty expires.

For condominiums, warranty coverage also includes the shared areas of the building, referred to as the common elements?.  Coverage for common elements begins on the day the condominium corporation is registered. However, there is no warranty coverage for common elements condominiums or the common elements of vacant land condominiums.

Tarion and the Construction Performance Guidelines

Tarion’s Construction Performance Guidelines (CPG) provide measurable benchmarks to assist new homeowners and new home builders with performance-related issues arising from workmanship and material deficiencies. It is used to determine whether or not a reported issue is warranted by providing objective and uniform criteria regarding construction performance. The purpose of the guidelines is not to set new standards but to provide advance information on how Tarion will decide disputes between builders and homeowners about defects in work or materials. The CPG is meant to be consistent with the Ontario Building Code – not supersede it.

Homeowners often reach out to home inspectors to assist them when completing their statutory warranty forms. The CPG for Freehold and Condominiums can be found online at www.tarion.com. To learn more, please contact stakeholderrelations@tarion.com.

Pre-Delivery Inspections

It’s important to know that the Pre-Delivery Inspection (PDI) provides an opportunity to record a new home's condition before a homeowner move in. The PDI is an opportunity to record the condition of a new home before a homeowner moves in. The homeowner or the homeowner’s delegate will do a complete walkthrough of the home with the builder and note any issues on a PDI Form. Ideally, the builder will correct them right away, so that those issues are not there when the homeowner moves in. Compared to a standard home inspection, the PDI tends to be much shorter and can occur on a working jobsite.

The PDI form does not represent a request for warranty service, so if the homeowner fails to note an item this does not necessarily impact the homeowner’s warranty coverage. However, if the problem concerns a damaged or missing item, it may be difficult to establish that this issue existed before the homeowner moved in if it is not noted on the PDI Form.

Any items that are not corrected by the time the homeowner moves in should be listed on a 30-Day or Year-End form.  These forms represent a request for warranty service and listed items that are covered under warranty must be addressed by the builder within a specific timeframe.

How can I work with Tarion to provide homeowners with a higher level of customer experience?

Tarion is in the process of developing education material related to new home inspections and pre-delivery inspections. In the past, Tarion has also partnered with home inspection associations to provide continuing education seminars on these topics.

If you would like to learn more about either topics or would like to host an education seminar for your home inspection organization, please contact stakeholder relations at stakeholderrelations@tarion.com.

---