After years of hearing complaints from homeowners across the province, the Alberta government is expected to introduce new legislation that will improve new home warranty programs. A home warranty act is expected to be tabled at the fall sitting of the legislature. The goal is to make home warranties mandatory, because right now about 20 percent of homes do not have warranty protection.
It is a move many homeowners say is a long time coming.
Elizabeth Leenheer and her husband purchased a new home in March of 2011. Since then, they say it has been one nightmare after another.
“The insulation and framing in our basement wasn’t done to code, our hardwood was buckling, our tile grout was cracking,” said Leenheer.
Those were just a few of the problems they noticed shortly after moving into their home.
“We were assured by our realtor and actually the builder and his realtor that they would take care of any problems we had and that home warranty would cover anything that came up,” Leenheer explained.
She says that has not been the case. While the hardwood has been replaced, she says she has been in a constant battle with her builder and the home warranty program to get the repairs done, adding that the tile grout has been replaced but, it is still cracking.
“How many times do we have to get new grout, that’ll be the third time in a year and a half.”
Leenheer’s neighbour, Kelsy Propp is dealing with similar problems.
“We spoke with our builder and he said ‘don’t worry about it, it’s normal to have cracks, it’s the settling of the house. Come spring time I’ll replace all the damaged tiles.””
Propp says the work still hasn’t been done and is hesitant to bring in new home warranty.
“We have one neighbour who had problems with her foundation, another neighbour that has had problems with flooring. Both have gone through home warranty and have had just nothing but a fight with it,” said Propp.
“This is supposed to be our dream house and it has just been really frustrating,” Propp said emotionally adding, “Now we’re a month away from our home warranty expiring and we’re kind of at a loss at what to do.”
She thinks the work is being delayed until her warranty has expired.
“It’s not fair that they’re building these houses to last a year and then they’re in the clear.”
It’s stories like these that have prompted the government to bring in new legislation.
Municipal Affairs Minister, Doug Griffiths will be tabling legislation to make home warranties mandatory and increase protection for consumers. Under the new rules, home warranty coverage from water and structural damage, and plumbing and electrical problems is expected to be increased.
“Front and centre, the intent is to make sure that there is a home warranty that protects people when they’re making the largest purchase of their lives,” said Griffiths.
“This legislation will make sure it’s a standard warranty, everyone will know what they get and there will be a process in place so that they can ensure action when they need to access the warranty, and that security is what Albertans are looking for,” Griffiths said. “Having a standardized long-term warranty on the largest purchase most families make to give them some security is important and that’s what we’re doing.”
In order to crack down on negligent builders, fines for building code violations could be going up to $100,000 for a first offence, and $500,000 for a second offence. The statute of limitations on those offences will increase from six months to three years, as many homeowners don’t notice problems as soon as they move in.
It’s a move the Canadian Home Builders’ Association supports.
“We’re very much in favour of the government’s legislative proposal, we think it’s an important thing to do,” said CEO Jim Rivait.
While it may be too late for Leenheer and Propp, they hope the new legislation will help future homeowners.
With files from Julie Matthews.
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