New Home Warranty in Canada: What Each Province Covers

A new home built by a builder in Ontario, BC or Alberta comes with a warranty the law requires, and each province runs it its own way: Tarion's 1, 2 and 7 years in Ontario, the 2-5-10 in BC and the 1-2-5-10 in Alberta. If you are building on your own lot, who puts the house up decides whether any of that cover applies.

New home warranty coverage by province

Ontario, BC and Alberta each make a builder cover a new home for set periods, and the periods are where the three schemes differ most. Ontario runs one warranty through Tarion for every builder. BC and Alberta have the builder cover each home through a warranty provider, and both keep a public registry of covered homes.

The limits are the most each scheme pays out on a home, and on a detached house they can fall short of what a house costs to build: $375,000 to $750,000 for 2,500 square feet before land, on a national 2026 planning range. BC's cap is the lower of the first owner's purchase price and $200,000, so a structural failure in a larger custom home can cost more than the warranty will pay.

Ontario: what the Tarion warranty covers

Ontario's new home warranty is run by Tarion, and its three layers of coverage all start on the date of possession:

• 1 year: defects in work and materials, Ontario Building Code violations, substitutions you did not authorize, and anything that makes the home unfit to live in.
• 2 years: water penetration, defects in the exterior cladding, and the electrical, plumbing and heating systems.
• 7 years: major structural defects, ending on the seventh anniversary of possession.

The clock does not restart when the home changes hands. The periods run from the original possession date even if the home is sold, so a second owner who buys in year 3 keeps what is left of the structural layer and nothing of the first two.

BC: the 2-5-10 home warranty

BC's 2-5-10 is home warranty insurance, which every new home built by a licensed residential builder must carry, and BC Housing's coverage terms run 2 years on materials and labour, 5 on the building envelope and 10 on the structure. The first 2 years split by item:

• 12 months for defects in materials and labour in a detached home, or in a strata unit's own space.
• 15 months for the common property of a strata building.
• 24 months for the major systems, exterior cladding, windows and doors, and any defect that makes the home unfit to live in.

The 5-year layer covers the building envelope, including water that gets in where it was not meant to and could cause damage. The 10-year layer covers load-bearing parts and the structure of the home. For a custom detached home the clock starts at occupancy or the first occupancy permit, whichever comes first; for spec homes and strata units it starts at first occupancy or transfer of title.

Coverage stays with the home, not the owner. A buyer who takes over on the third anniversary of occupancy still has 2 years of envelope cover and 7 of structure, and nothing left of the materials and labour layer.

Alberta: the 1-2-5-10 warranty

Every home built in Alberta under a building permit applied for on or after February 1, 2014 needs warranty coverage, a custom home in Calgary as much as a tract house in a new subdivision. Alberta's minimum coverage runs in four layers:

• 1 year on labour and materials.
• 2 years on delivery and distribution systems: electrical, plumbing, heating, ventilation and air conditioning.
• 5 years on the building envelope, which a builder can extend by 2 more years.
• 10 years on major structural components.

Coverage begins at the first of occupancy, permission to occupy or title transfer. The minimum limits are $265,000 on a single-family home, $130,000 on a condo or multi-family unit and up to $3.3 million for the common property of a building. Homes under warranty are registered, so a buyer can look a house up on the province's public property registry before making an offer.

How to make a new home warranty claim, and the deadlines

Each scheme pays only for a defect reported in writing, through the channel the province sets, before the layer that covers it expires. After that the defect is yours, however clear the builder's fault.

Ontario: Tarion's claim forms

Tarion counts every deadline from the date of possession, and its claim forms open and close on fixed days:

You also have to tell the builder about each issue and give it the chance to review and fix it. A submitted form starts a 120-day repair period for the builder, except for major structural defects. If items are still open after that, you can ask Tarion for conciliation: up to 150 days after the Year-End Form for the items on it, and within 30 days after the repair period ends for second-year and structural items.

BC: written notice to the provider and the builder

BC Housing's claims page requires written notice to both the home warranty insurance provider and the builder, as soon as possible and before coverage expires. A repair the builder makes without that written notice to the provider does not count as a formal claim, so a defect that returns after the period has closed has no claim on record behind it.

The provider then contacts you, arranges any inspection and asks for the documents it needs. An approved claim ends with the repair specifications, a letter confirming the completion date and the details of the repair warranty; a denial comes as a written decision with its reasons and the dispute options.

Alberta: claims go to the warranty provider

In Alberta you file the claim with the home's warranty provider, which works with the builder on the repairs. Check the coverage dates first: the province's claims page gives no deadline beyond the 1, 2, 5 and 10 year periods. A dispute can go through Guideline 05-2022 on warranty claims and disputes, the insurance consumer complaints process or the Residential Protection Program's complaint process.

A custom home built on your own lot

Building a custom home on land you own carries the warranty in all three provinces when a builder takes on the construction. The line falls where you start running the job yourself, and each province draws it in its own words:

In BC the authorization comes before the building permit is issued. BC Housing's bulletin for owner builders expects the house to be for the owner's own use for at least a year before it is offered for sale or rent, and the applicant has to pass an exam first. Buyers of an owner-built BC house take any defects up with the owner builder directly.

What a new home warranty does not cover

Tarion and BC Housing publish their exclusions, and the two lists overlap:

• Work, materials or design you supplied yourself, in Ontario and BC.
• Normal wear and tear, and in Ontario the normal shrinkage of materials as they dry after construction.
• Your own alterations, deletions or additions, in Ontario.
• Landscaping, site grading and surface drainage, roads, curbs and lanes, and detached structures that are not living space, in BC (driveways are covered); in Ontario, settling of land other than beneath the footings.
• Damage from outside the build: acts of God and damage caused by municipal services or utilities in Ontario, damage caused by others or by natural events in BC.
• Damage the owner failed to prevent or minimize, in BC.

A renovation is not a new home. On Alberta's warranty rules, a renovation needs no warranty coverage unless it leaves more than 75% of the finished home as brand new construction. Tarion excludes alterations and additions the homeowner makes, so a basement finished after possession sits outside it, while a teardown and rebuild on your own lot is a new home, covered as a contract home when a builder supplies all the labour and materials.

Alberta's act also does not apply to homes built on federal lands such as First Nations reserves and national parks, and multi-family rental units need no warranty if the owners plan to keep them for at least 10 years.

Provinces with no mandatory new home warranty

Manitoba passed a New Home Warranty Act in 2013 but never proclaimed it, and The Reducing Red Tape and Improving Services Act, 2020 repealed it on May 20, 2021, so no warranty is mandatory there. In Saskatchewan, CMHC's 2018 fact sheet for condo buyers says provincial rules do not require developers of new condominiums to provide a new home warranty, though many developers belong to voluntary programs. In the Atlantic provinces, ask the builder in writing which program covers the home, if any, and get the enrolment or policy papers before you pay.