For more than 40 years, Tarion has provided new home warranty protection to more than two million Ontario homes.  We serve new home buyers and new home owners by ensuring that one of their life’s biggest investments is protected.  Almost every new home in the province is covered by a new home warranty.  This warranty protection is provided by Ontario’s builders and lasts up to seven years.  It is backstopped by Tarion.  More than 365,000 homes are currently enrolled in the warranty program.  Every year about 50,000 new homes are enrolled.

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How We Serve the Public Interest

Tasked with administering the Ontario New Home Warranties Plan Act (ONHWP Act), Tarion has a mandate to:

• First and foremost, protect consumers when builders fail to fulfill their warranty obligations;

• Educate new home buyers and new home owners about their warranty rights and responsibilities;

• Fairly and impartially resolve disputes between homeowners and builders over warranty coverage;

• Be an effective steward of the Guarantee Fund and build confidence in the sustainability of the warranty program;

• Ensure new home builders and vendors abide by the ONHWP Act;

• License new home builders and vendors;

• Investigate and prosecute illegal building practices; and

• Set standards and raise accountability in education, construction performance and customer service.

Our mandate to serve the public interest guides us every day.

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One Year Warranty

• Requires a home is constructed in a workman-like manner and free from defects in material;

• Protects against unauthorized substitutions

• Requires the home to be fit for habitation;

• Protects against Ontario Building Code violations; and

• Applies for one year, beginning on the home’s date of possession even if the home is sold.

Two Year Warranty

• Protects against water penetration through the basement or foundation walls;

• Protects against defects in materials that affect windows, doors and caulking and defects in work that results in water penetration into the building envelope;

• Covers defects in work or materials in the electrical, plumbing and heating delivery and distribution systems;

• Covers defects in work or materials that result in the detachment, displacement or deterioration of exterior cladding (such as brickwork, aluminum or vinyl siding);

• Protects against violations of the Ontario Building Code that affect health and safety; and

• Applies for two years, beginning on the home’s date of possession.

Seven Year Warranty

Your home’s seven year warranty covers major structural defects (MSD) and begins on the date you take possession of the home and ends on the day before the seventh anniversary of that date. For example, if your home’s date of possession is October 23, 2005, the seven year MSD warranty begins on October 23, 2005 and remains in effect until and including October 22, 2012. A major structural defect is defined in The Ontario New Home Warranties Plan Act as:

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In respect of a post June 30, 2012 home, any defect in work or materials in respect of a building, including a crack, distortion or displacement of a structural load-bearing element of the building, if it,

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(i) results in failure of a structural load-bearing element of the building,

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(ii) materially and adversely affects the ability of a structural load-bearing element of the building to carry, bear and resist applicable structural loads for the usual and ordinary service life of the element, or

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(iii) materially and adversely affects the use of a significant portion of the building for usual and ordinary purposes of a residential dwelling and having regard to any specific use provisions set out in the purchase agreement for the home

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The seven year MSD warranty includes significant damage due to soil movement*, major cracks in basement walls, collapse or serious distortion of joints or roof structure and chemical failure of materials. In addition to the general exclusions, the seven year MSD warranty specifically excludes: dampness not arising from failure of a load-bearing portion of the building; damage to drains or services; and damage to finishes.

Common Elements

For most condominium projects, warranty coverage also includes the shared areas of the building, referred to as Common Elements.

*Soil movement means subsidence, expansion or lateral movement of the soil not caused by flood, earthquake, "acts of God" or any other cause beyond the reasonable control of the builder.

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Source: TARION.com