Consumer Protection: Tarion

By NextHome Staff
April 27, 2017
It is business as usual at the new home warranty provider.In late March, the Ontario government announced it intends to make substantial changes to the regulation of the building industry and Tarion. You may have read about these proposed changes, as the announcement generated quite a bit of media attention.As a result, shortly after the announcement, Tarion staff began to receive a lot of enquiries from both new homeowners and builders, asking how these changes affect them. They wanted to know where they can get help on warranty questions and issues.I would like to assure new homeowners and builders that, for the time being, it is business as usual at Tarion.The government’s plans for changing how the industry is regulated are wide-ranging and complex. They will significantly affect how Tarion operates in the future. However, I expect it will likely take some time before these changes come into effect.In the meantime, our staff remains ready, willing and able to provide information, resources and answers to homeowners and builders alike on the province’s new home warranty.I think it is worth reminding consumers that Tarion is more than just a warranty provider. For more than 40 years, we have proudly served to protect new homebuyers and owners by anticipating and responding to changing markets and consumer needs.Some of our improvements and initiatives have raised the bar for builders, which ultimately benefits consumers. For example, we introduced construction performance guidelines to ensure a consistency in construction quality and we recently brought in new education requirements for new builders to improve qualification standards for builders entering the industry.Our warranty program has also seen significant enhancements over the years, again in response to the changing needs of consumers and the industry. For example, warranty coverage limits have increased to reflect the rising costs of homes and repairs.The seven-year warranty covers illegally built homes – something no other warranty in Canada offers. And, we were the first and only province to provide coverage for radon gas remediation and for delayed closings.Along the way, our staff has won international awards for customer service. This is not surprising to us. In annual surveys we sent to new homeowners and builders, Tarion consistently scores above an 80 per cent approval rating for its customer service.Given that we help administer the warranty to more than 350,000 homes and regulate more than 5,000 builders, I believe that rating is a strong indication of our dedication to customer service and consumer protection.One hot issue in today’s housing marketing is deposit protection coverage for buyers of new homes and condominiums. This is especially important now, as house prices continue to escalate.That’s why, as a consumer protection organization, we support changes to deposit coverage limits to better protect consumers against builders who, for one reason or another, are unable to complete building homes. We are therefore pleased that the government indicated it wants to work with Tarion to review deposit protection coverage limits in the coming weeks and months.To sum up, I believe the changes the government is proposing could take considerable time to put in place. So, for the time being, our staff remain committed to delivering their award winning customer service, and new home owners and builders should take comfort that it is business as usual.Howard Bogach is president and CEO of the Tarion Warranty Corporation. His column appears five times a year in HOMES Magazine. For more information about how Tarion helps new home buyers, visit tarion.com or find them on Facebook at facebook.com/tarionwarrantycorp

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