Tarion, explained — what your new-home warranty actually covers

Not quite, and the distinction decides who you call. By law, the builder provides the warranty on every new home built in Ontario. Tarion administers the system and backstops it — stepping in when a builder does not resolve something, or when coverage itself is disputed.

So the first call is almost always to your builder. Tarion is what stands behind that conversation, not what replaces it.

There is a third body people conflate with both: the Home Construction Regulatory Authority licenses and regulates Ontario's builders and vendors. Tarion handles warranty; the HCRA handles who is allowed to build and sell at all — and publishes the Ontario Builder Directory, where you can look up a builder's licence and any enforcement history. That directory is worth ten minutes before you sign anything at a sales centre.

The coverage is automatic — it begins when you sign the agreement of purchase and sale, and it follows the home for its full term even if the home is sold.

Before you take possession, the warranty covers your deposit, compensation where closing or occupancy is delayed, condominium cancellations, and financial loss on contract homes. This is the part buyers forget exists — and it is the part that matters when a project stalls.

After you move in, coverage runs on three overlapping clocks, each protecting different things:

• One year — defects in work and materials, and unauthorised substitutions.
• Two years — water penetration, and defects in the electrical, plumbing and heating delivery and distribution systems.
• Seven years — major structural defects: significant damage from soil movement, major cracks in basement walls, collapse or serious distortion of structure.

Coverage is capped, and the cap depends on when you signed. For agreements signed on or after July 1, 2023, the maximum is $400,000 for a freehold home and $300,000 for a condominium unit, with separate coverage for a condo's common elements.

Tarion — what the warranty covers

This is the single most useful thing to know about Tarion: a genuine defect can go uncovered simply because a form was not submitted inside its window. The warranty is real, but it is administered by deadline.

In your first year there is an early form that opens the day after possession and submits itself at around day 41, a mid-year form running to roughly day 183, and a year-end form that closes at day 365 with a short grace period. Year two has its own form, usable at any point during that year and more than once. From the end of year two up to seven years from possession, the major structural defect form is the route.

Two habits protect you. Write things down as you notice them, from the day you move in — memory is not evidence and the year-end form comes faster than you expect. And tell your builder first, in writing, before filing with Tarion; the system assumes that sequence.

Tarion — claim forms and timelines

They cover opposite things and you need both. The warranty covers defects — work and materials that were not right when the home was built. Home insurance covers events — fire, theft, water damage, liability. Neither one fills the other's gap, and a new home still needs an insurance policy from day one.

Normal wear, damage you cause, and anything you or a later contractor changed are outside the warranty. What is not automatically outside it — despite how often this is stated the other way round — is something you failed to write down at your pre-delivery inspection. Tarion is explicit that the PDI form is not a request for warranty service, and that failing to note an item does not necessarily affect your coverage. What it does is shift the burden onto you: if an item was damaged or missing and it is not on the form, it becomes much harder to establish that the condition existed before you moved in. That is an evidence problem, not a forfeiture — but it is reason enough to give the walkthrough real attention rather than a signature. Our PDI checklist covers every check in the order you walk the house.

Verified against Tarion and the HCRA on July 25, 2026.