Tarion Warranty Corporation - Professional Expenses
(formerly the Ontario New Home Warranty Program: 
Substantiating warranty claims through hiring professionals

 Background:

Often for a home owner to substantiate a warranty claim to Tarion, given that most home owners are lay people, a professional firm must be hired to determine the cause of the issue being experienced in the home, e.g., to satisfy Tarion:

• it may not be sufficient for a homeowner to point to a leak appearing inside the home -  the homeowner may be required to determine the source of the leak; 
• it may not be sufficient for a homeowner to complain about heating issues – the homeowner may have to retain a heating company to investigate in order to determine what is wrong with the heating system.

 The Issue:

Homeowners are often out of pocket in order to substantiate their warranty claims to Tarion – often at a significant cost.

 Canadians for Properly Built Homes' Position:

Where the homeowner has substantiated his/her claim by hiring experts, and Tarion ultimately agrees that the issue is covered by warranty, Tarion must reimburse the homeowner's costs incurred to substantiate the warranty claim.

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 express your concerns.