Tarion Warranty Corporation - Reporting related to builders
(formerly the Ontario New Home Warranty Program:

Background:

Currently, Tarion's Web site has a "Find a Builder" section, where Tarion provides some information about to its experience with the builder, e.g., the number of chargeable conciliations. Chargeable conciliations are defined by Tarion as: "a warranty dispute where Tarion identifies one or more warrantable items and the builder was not denied access and could have repaired the warrantable item(s) before the conciliation".

The Issue:

The current reporting is ineffective and inadequate, e.g.,
·

• it does not provide information related to the total number of warrantable defects in a particular home/conciliation;
• it does not distinguish between major and minor issues;
• in some cases, after Tarion has intervened and a chargeable conciliation has been confirmed in the home, the builder may decide to "cash settle" directly with the homeowner. This results in the issue being kept off Tarion's books, and, therefore, out of the domain of available public information.   When approached about why this type of incident does not appear in Tarion's statistics reported to the public, Tarion advised that this it is the "builder's prerogative" to "cash settle" directly with the homeowner.

Canadians for Properly Built Homes' Position:

There is virtually no reliable, objective information available related to builders.   Tarion, as a mandatory warranty program in the province of Ontario, has a responsibility to provide much better information to the public relating to its experience with builders. As a minimum, Tarion should:

• report the total number of warrantable defects for a conciliation;
• categorize and report warrantable defects, e.g., code violation, non-code violation, major structural, etc.;
• once involved, and once a chargeable conciliation has been confirmed in the home, report this to the public, regardless of whether the builder chooses to "cash settle" with the homeowner. Tarion must be a source of reliable information to the public regarding chargeable conciliations.

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 more accurate and complete information relating to builders.