If you own a brand new home, purchased in the past 10 to 11 months, your New Home Warranty is one of the main things you need to be aware of. There are many important dates and details involved with it and it’s important that homeowners are as informed as possible on the subject to make sure nothing slips through the cracks.

With that being said, we have put together a Checklist of important facts, terms and deadlines for homeowners to know.

New Home Warranty Checklist

1. All new homes in B.C. fall under the 2-5-10 warranty. 2-5-10 refers to:
   1. Construction defects and BC Building Code violations – under a 2-year warranty
   2. Water leakage from outside (basement, roof, exterior walls, windows and doors) – under a 5-year warranty
   3. Major structural defects – under a 10-year warranty
2. On top of, and beyond, those important dates and deadlines, there are also two more that often get overlooked:
   1. All new detached homes and strata units have coverage on defects in labour and materials for the first 12 months (inside, if a strata)
   2. The common property for strata properties carry an all-inclusive warranty – starting at 15 months. It then proceeds to decline in coverage over the upcoming 24 months, 5 years and 10 years, separate from each strata unit owner.
3. If there are any issues with your new home, it’s up to you to document all deficiencies in writing and report them to the builder, BC Housing and the warranty provider, before those dates run out. This is where we can help, by checking your new home thoroughly for these deficiencies and creating a detailed and thorough report for you to submit.
4. These deadlines can creep up very quickly, so it’s important to get your new home checked well before the initial 12/15-month deadlines are up. We recommend having your home checked carefully after you have been living in it for a while, but well before the deadline, so you are able to take advantage of the warranty coverage and avoid paying out of your own pocket.
5. It’s important to note that the 2-5-10 warranty is attached to the home, not to the owner of the home and therefore remains in effect upon the re-sale or transfer of that home until the coverage fully expires.
6. Once your new home is complete, your builder or warranty provider should also provide a home maintenance manual advising how mechanical systems work, where to find the controls and a maintenance schedule to help protect and maintain the home.
7. Your warranty insurance coverage is conditional on proper maintenance of your new home being carried out according to the manual mentioned above and minimization of any further damages/failure due to a lack of adequate maintenance.

We have run into plenty of examples of property managers and homeowners realizing at the last second that their limited initial 12-month deadline is about to expire and be gone for good, so we had to rush into action. Sometimes it was even too late to accommodate them, so don’t let that happen to you!

If you have any questions about new home warranties or any other inspection or consulting needs, please contact Glenn at Duxbury & Associates. We know how to author a hard-hitting report that gets results and are here to help in any way we can, so you can count on us!