Quick answer: New homes in Ontario carry a statutory warranty administered by Tarion, structured in one-year, two-year and seven-year periods. For homes with a possession date on or after 1 May 2024, warranty items are submitted through MyHome and auto submitted at three points in year one: the Initial Form at day 41, the Mid-Year Form at day 183, and the Year-End Form at day 365. Miss a window and you may lose the ability to have Tarion assist with those items.
New does not mean defect free. It means the defects are new.
A house is assembled by a lot of different trades working to a schedule, often in weather. Even with a good builder, things get missed: a bath fan that terminates in the attic instead of through the roof, grading that sends water back toward the foundation, a downspout that was never extended, insulation that never made it into the corner over the garage, a window that will not lock.
Most of those are fixable and covered. The problem is almost never the defect. The problem is the calendar.
Know your actual Tarion timeline
This is the part that changed, and a lot of the advice still circulating online is out of date.
Tarion's Customer Service Standard was updated effective 1 May 2024. For homes with a possession date on or after that date, you no longer chase a single 30-Day Form. Instead you add items to a list in MyHome as you find them, and MyHome auto submits that list at three set points in the first year:
| Form | Auto submitted | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Initial Form | Day 41 | Locks and submits your list so far, starts a builder repair period |
| Mid-Year Form | Day 183 | Submits everything added since the Initial Form |
| Year-End Form | Day 365 | Final chance to report items under the one-year warranty |
After year one there are two more: the Second-Year Form, for items covered by the two-year warranty, and the Major Structural Defect Form, which can be submitted any time within the seven-year window.
Homes with a warranty start date before 1 May 2024 are still processed under the legacy rules, which used the 30-Day Form. If you are in that group, the older timeline applies to you.
Two more things worth knowing. Each submission starts a builder repair period, commonly 120 days. If your builder does not resolve a warranted item, you can request a conciliation, and for the Year-End Form you have up until 150 days after the end of the first year to make that request.
Do not rely on a blog post for your dates, including this one. Log into your MyHome account and confirm your own possession date and deadlines. Tarion's claims process page and its Customer Service Standard update page are the authoritative sources.
Start at the pre-delivery inspection
The PDI is your walkthrough with the builder before you take possession, and it is the single most useful hour of the whole process.
Document everything, in writing, on the PDI form itself. A scratch on the hardwood noted at the PDI is a builder issue. The same scratch reported three weeks later is a movers issue, and that argument is very hard to win. Photograph as you go with timestamps.
Many buyers bring a third party inspector to the PDI or book a separate inspection shortly after possession, before the day 41 submission locks. That timing is not accidental.
Water first: grading, drainage, and the building envelope
On new construction, the exterior is where the expensive problems start.
Backfill around a new foundation settles over the first year or two. Grading that looked fine at closing can be pitched back toward the house by the following spring. Look for:
- Negative slope at the foundation, especially at the side yard between closely spaced homes
- Downspouts discharging within a foot of the wall, or extensions that were never installed after the sod went in
- Window well depth and drainage, particularly on lookout and walkout basements
- Missing or shrunken sealant at window and door perimeters, hose bibs, dryer vents, and gas line penetrations
- Driveway and walkway settlement creating low spots that pond against the garage or entry
Inside the garage, check where the garage floor meets the house wall, and look at the ceiling below any bedroom over the garage. Insulation gaps there are common and produce cold floors and, eventually, condensation.
The attic is where builder shortcuts hide
Attic defects are the most under reported category on new homes, because the space gets visited roughly never.
What shows up regularly on new builds:
- Bathroom exhaust fans venting into the attic rather than through a roof or wall termination
- Blocked soffit vents, where blown insulation was pushed into the eaves without baffles
- Insulation shortfalls at the perimeter, over the garage, and around the attic hatch
- Disconnected or crushed flex duct on the exhaust runs
- Staining or frost on the sheathing, visible in the first winter
Any of these can produce a comfort complaint, an energy bill you did not expect, or a moisture problem that surfaces two winters later as a stained ceiling.
Systems: plumbing, electrical, heating and cooling
New systems are still installed by humans on a deadline.
A proper inspection runs the fixtures and watches the drains, checks for leaks under sinks and at the water heater, confirms the sump pump operates and discharges properly, opens the panel to look at the breakers and connections, tests GFCI protection at wet locations, and runs the heating and cooling equipment through a call to confirm they respond.
Common new build findings include slow draining tubs from construction debris, toilets that rock, a missing GFCI at an exterior or garage receptacle, unbalanced airflow to upper floor bedrooms, thermostats wired to the wrong zone, and condensate lines that terminate somewhere they should not.
Interior finishes: separate cosmetic from structural
Some finish issues are just finish issues. Nail pops, minor drywall cracks at door corners, and paint touch ups are normal in the first year as a house dries and settles.
Other things are not cosmetic even though they look it. A door that binds seasonally is one thing. A door that has gone out of square, plus a diagonal crack from the corner of a window, plus a sloping floor in the same area, is a pattern, and patterns get reported.
Tarion publishes Construction Performance Guidelines that set out what is considered acceptable versus a defect for specific items. Reading the relevant section before you argue with a builder saves a lot of time.
Condos and townhomes: know where your unit ends
If you bought a new condo or a common element townhome, your warranty splits.
Your unit has its own one, two, and seven-year coverage, and you submit your own forms. The common elements, meaning the roof, corridors, garage, building envelope, and shared systems, are handled by the condominium corporation through a performance audit process, on a different schedule.
Practically, that means you should document everything inside your unit yourself and not assume property management is capturing it. Balcony drainage, window and slider leaks, in suite ventilation, and HVAC performance are unit items in most cases, but read your declaration and confirm.
Coverage limits and who does what
Coverage limits are tied to the date your agreement of purchase and sale was signed, and they were increased in stages, so do not assume a number you read somewhere applies to you. Tarion lists the current tiers on its coverage and coverage limits page.
Also worth separating the two organizations people mix up. Tarion administers the new home warranty. The Home Construction Regulatory Authority licenses and regulates the builders themselves, and it publishes expectations for your builder including the fact that a builder pressuring you not to submit a claim is a Code of Conduct violation.
Why a third party inspection helps here
Your builder's warranty service team works from a list. The quality of your outcome depends heavily on the quality of your list.
An independent inspection gives you that list in an organized form: findings grouped by system, photographed, described in language that matches how the item will be assessed, and separated into what is likely warrantable versus what is maintenance. It also gives you a dated record of the home's condition, which is genuinely useful two years later when someone asks when a problem started.
Book it with enough runway before your deadline that you can still submit. A Tarion warranty inspection two days before your Year-End Form auto submits does not leave you much room.
Frequently asked questions
What are the Tarion warranty periods?
One year, two years, and seven years from your possession date. The one-year warranty is the broadest and covers defects in work and materials, unauthorized substitutions, Ontario Building Code violations, and fitness for habitation. Two year coverage focuses on water penetration, the delivery and distribution systems for electrical, plumbing and heating, exterior cladding, and Building Code health and safety violations. The seven-year warranty covers major structural defects.
When is the Tarion 30 day form due?
The 30-Day Form applies to homes with a warranty start date before 1 May 2024. For possession dates on or after 1 May 2024 it was replaced by the Initial Form, which auto submits at day 41 through MyHome. Confirm which applies to you in your MyHome account.
Can I still report something after the Year-End Form?
Items covered by the two-year warranty can be reported on a Second-Year Form. Major structural defects can be reported any time within seven years. Items that were only covered by the one-year warranty generally cannot be added afterward, which is why the Year-End submission matters.
Do I need an inspection if the builder already did a PDI?
The PDI is a walkthrough with the builder, run on the builder's form. An independent inspection is a separate, more technical review with no interest in the outcome. Many homeowners do both.
Does Tarion cover everything a home inspector finds?
No. Maintenance items, homeowner damage, normal shrinkage and settlement within the published guidelines, and anything outside the warranty periods are not covered. A good report tells you which is which so you are not submitting items that will be declined.
