TORONTO – Following public consultation, Tarion is implementing a new enrolment fee schedule. The enrolment fee is the per home fee charged to new home vendors and is Tarion’s principal source of revenue to finance the cost of administering Ontario’s new home warranty and protection program.
The one-time enrolment fee supports the guarantee fund which backstops the warranties provided by Ontario’s new home builders and provides access for new homebuyers in Ontario to 7 years of protection with the highest per home coverage limit ($400,000) offered by programs of this kind anywhere in Canada.
According to Statistics Canada, building construction price indexes have increased by 50 percent over the past five years and during the same period Tarion has not increased the home enrolment fees. A change to the fee structure is necessary in response to the rising costs of construction and repairs which have increased the cost of claims, the recent financial market volatility, and the ongoing need for investments in the operations of the organization to continually improve service delivery.
The changes include an average enrolment fee increase of $300 with this average fee increase being applied progressively starting from homes with sale price greater than $600,000 up to homes with a sale price of $1.5 Million. The $300 average fee increase represents an increase of 23% compared to the current average fee.
The new average one-time fee will be $1,600 payable by the vendor for a new home up from an average of $1300 per home. About 56.8% of enrolments will see a fee increase of $425 or less. There will be no change in the enrolment fee for homes with sale price of $600,000 or below (approximately 23% of total homes enrolled annually) and, in addition, charitable homes built by not-for-profit organizations will continue to be exempt from the fee.
Tarion is also extending the fee table upper sale price limit from $1.5 Million to $4 Million with an upper limit on enrolment fees of $6,000. While these homes will see a fee increase higher than the $300 average for homes with sales prices lower than $1.5 million, the new fee impact on these homes is still limited to 0.15% of the sale price.
These changes will take effect January 1, 2024, and are outlined in the updated Registrar Bulletin 15, which can be found here.
Tarion’s mandate is to promote consumer confidence in the new home construction sector and provide Ontario’s new home buyers and owners with peace of mind on one of life’s biggest purchases.