Tarion Warranty Corporation: Denied Home Owner Claims

Background:
Tarion’s advertising includes statements like:

• “We’ve been operating for 30 years, protecting more than 1.3 million new home buyers”
  
  and
  
  
• “If you’ve purchased a new home in Ontario and you want the peace of mind that comes with knowing your purchase is protected, you’ve come to the right place”.

The Issue:
Tarion is a mandatory warranty program, so consumers have no choice but to pay for this coverage when they purchase a new home in Ontario.  Unfortunately, CPBH hears regularly from new home purchasers, who often found that when they submitted their claims to Tarion, many issues were “unwarranted”.  A few of these home owner stories have been posted to this web-site.  This begs the obvious question:  How many issues claimed by Ontario homeowners have been denied by Tarion in the past 30 years?

In a seminar held on Feb. 4, 2006, when discussing the topic “Claims to Tarion”, Nancy Houle, a lawyer with Nelligan O’Brien Payne LLP made the following statements:

Purchasers should recognize Tarion as an insurance company that will require that you prove your claim.  Tarion does not serve as an advocate to purchasers;

• The Tarion claim process is complicated, and, therefore, must be pursued with great care in order to avoid pitfalls.

There are also strict limitations to what Tarion covers, e.g., it does not cover “design” issues.

Canadians for Properly Built Homes’ Position:

• Tarion must release statistics regarding accepted and denied warranty coverage on issues claimed by new home purchasers so that all interested parties can clearly see the extent of this problem.  Open disclosure by Tarion related to this basic issue is important.
  
• The government of Ontario must review the situation related to homeowners’ denied Tarion warranty claims, and make necessary changes to provide reasonable warranty protection for the largest purchase made by consumers:  their home. 

What can concerned citizens do?

• Write to:
  • your Provincial Member of Parliament and/or
  • Mr. Harold Levy, the “consumer advocate” on Tarion’s board of directors at Tarion’s corporate address:  5160 Yonge Street, 12th Floor, Toronto M2N 6L9 and/or
  • Minister Ted McMeekin, the Minister responsible for Tarion and consumer protection generally.  His address is: Minister of Government and Consumer Services, Office of the Minister, 99 Wellesley Street West, Room 4320, Whitney Block, Toronto, ON, M7A 1W3.  His e-mail address is: tmcmeekin.mpp@liberal.ola.org  and/or
  • Premier Dalton McGuinty at Legislative Building, Queen's Park, Toronto, ON, M7A 1A1. His email address is dmcguinty.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org

and request that statistics related to homeowner claims denied by Tarion compared to those claims supported by Tarion.