New Home Warranty Inspections
Cherry Home Inspections offers exceptional service for your home sales and purchases, but did you know that we also offer New Home Warranty inspections?
All new homes and condos are registered with Tarion, which is the organization that administers new home warranties. Prior to you moving into your newly-built home, your builder will perform a pre-delivery inspection (PDI) to assess any missing or damaged items in the home and to ensure everything is functioning properly. It is important that you are present so that you can take note of everything and discuss any issues that arise. You also have an opportunity to learn more about how your home functions.
Once you move in, there are several warranty periods and each one has certain items that are included. As described in the Tarion literature:
1 Year Warranty
- Defects in work and materials
- Unauthorized substitution of materials
- Ontario Building Code violations
- Everything included in the 2 and 7 Year Warranties
2 Year Warranty
- Ontario Building Code health and safety violations
- Water penetration through foundation
- Water penetration through building envelope
- Defects in the plumbing, heating, or electrical systems
- Defects in the exterior cladding
- Everything included in the 7 Year Warranty
7 Year Warranty
- Major defects in the building structure
Contrary to what many assume, new homes can have just as many issues as any older home you might buy. This is why this warranty exists in the first place. It provides protection to the homebuyer and is intended to hold builders accountable. House construction can seem like organized chaos which can be exacerbated in a large subdivision development. With so much going on, it's quite easy for material or fixtures to be installed incorrectly or damaged in the construction process. Sometimes these issues don't get noticed during construction and sometimes they get ignored. Some issues take time to be apparent or to manifest at all.
As a homeowner, you shouldn't be expected to be able to identify all of the warranty issues that exist. Even when you do identify these issues, some builders will exploit your lack of knowledge and explain away issues that they should be correcting. For these reasons, it is often a good idea to hire a home inspector. It provides a third party assessment of your home which is documented in your inspection report.
On a recent inspection of a new home I found a number of concerning issues: no interior caulking around windows or trim work, flooring was installed incorrectly, insulation was falling off the wall in the basement, lifted roof flashing, and double taps in the electrical panel, and several other issues. The homeowners now have the inspection report that lists every issue with accompanying photographs as identified by an experienced qualified inspector. It's much easier for the homeowner to work with the builder to fix these issues with a third-party objective report in hand.
The best time to get in touch with us is as you are closing in on one year in your new home. We can walk through your house identifying any warranty issues and you can ask as many questions as you like so that you fully understand all aspects of the warranty and your home. You can use the information in the inspection report to easily fill in your warranty form.