Ontario strips home warranty corporation, Tarion, of some responsibilities

Real estate lawyers say new regulator will better protect buyers

Ontario has just announced that, based on an examination of Tarion and the Ontario New Home Warranties Plan Act, the Provincial Government is setting up a new regulatory body to monitor home builders, replacing the self-regulatory one that was created under former Premier Bill Davis’ government in 1976. In his final report, former associate chief justice John Douglas Cunningham found that Tarion's "framework has given rise to real and perceived conflicts of interest."

Last summer CBC reported, with respect to Tarion, "188 homebuyers left waiting as courts untangle abandoned construction projects...". A primary concern was would-be buyers losing deposits & life savings…which often left them unable to buy into the rising Toronto & GTA Real Estate Market simply because their deposits were tied up in courts.

Says one would-be homeowner in that CBC column, “…if you work you can succeed, and you can establish and build a life for you and your children, and do it in a very honourable way, and when you see what has happened now and how those dreams are taken away and why they're taken away it's really gross, really disgusting."

Tarion President Howard Bogach was quoted,“”This is a rising real estate market, and they've been left out of that real estate market; there is a lot of unfairness in this."

Now, CBC reports, the Province will relieve Tarion Warranty Corporation of responsibilities for the regulation of home builders and replace it with a non-for-profit operating on behalf of the Government of Ontario.

Tarion's senior strategic communications manager, Laurie Stephens, said that even though the company has always looked for ways to improve its process, it has "serious concerns about some of the recommendations contained in the Justice's Final Report.

Read the full CBC article here.

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