Tarion Warranty Corporation

The Tarion system let my family down on one of the largest purchases we will ever make in our lifetime.

We thought that as a public purpose corporation Tarion would be there to protect us as consumers and to warn future consumers if our builder failed his responsibilities and obligations. This didn’t happen in our case.

Afterall, Tarion’s tag line is: “Protecting Ontario’s New Home Buyer’s”. Unfortunately, the tag line is just a tag line. We question why we didn’t receive the protection from the designated governmental organization of Tarion we deserved and were promised.

It seems the Tarion system is designed to favour builders. As a result, the consumer is left to bear the burden of a diminished value on their home after considerable time, aggravation and legal expenses.

We don’t understand why as new home buyers we are forced to pay the Tarion tax and why there is no government oversight over what Tarion actually does with the vast amounts of money it has collected from Ontario’s New Home Buyers.

Tarion’s board of Directors is dominated and elected for the most part by the building industry so sadly it appears Tarion’s front door is broken and deemed “not warranted” to hear the voices of real consumers: Ontario’s New Home Buyer’s.

Tarion's new home warranty is very limited.They boast they insure you for around $300,000 in defects, but they refuse to cover many, relying on their deadlines and definitions. No record of these defects recorded on builder's record Tarion record. Beware of Tarion: they will fight you in court, take the builder's side, and not compensate you for home defects. Consumers complain Tarion is builder-biased, and have urged reforms.

Tarion let us down. It appeared that Tarion colluded with our builder to work against us. Tarion fought us at every turn and we ended up in court 3 times with them. Tarion seems to us to be a system designed by builders for builders protection.

I wish Ontario New homeowners had a choice to use a private company to insure and warrant their new homes and not be forced to pay for Tarion insurance.