Toronto – Following public consultations in 2024, Tarion is taking action to fight illegal activity and protect current and future new home purchasers.
While most builders are in compliance, there are bad actors who do engage in illegal building and selling of new homes. This is a serious problem which hurts consumers. That is why Ontario has a regulatory system in place to protect consumers – and these changes will help identify illegal activity, and enable action to be taken earlier to protect consumers.
In a phased approach, starting July 1, 2025, new freehold home purchasers will need to provide notice of their new home purchase to Tarion within 45 days of entering into an agreement of purchase and sale with a vendor/builder.
This change will apply to all purchase agreements signed on or after July 1, 2025.
Providing notice of agreements will be free and easy to do - using an online tool already available to new home purchasers. The notice to Tarion will include information about the purchaser, the property, the deposit paid and the vendor/builder. To help prepare for these changes, Tarion will build on existing public awareness initiatives to help consumers and the professionals that support consumers with their new home purchases.
Starting January 1, 2026, freehold purchasers who provide this notice will qualify for the maximum amount of deposit coverage currently available under the warranty program, while those who don’t provide notice will be eligible for coverage under a separate deposit claims process.
It is important to note that all new home buyers will continue to benefit from Tarion’s deposit coverage and consumers will continue to receive the full construction warranty coverage and protection against defects in their new home.
For more information on these changes, please visit our public Q&A.
By making this change, Tarion will be better able to identify illegal vendor/builder activity and act to stop it in partnership with the Home Construction Regulatory Authority (HCRA), preventing cases of large scale illegal new home sales like we have seen in the last two years.
This change also allows Tarion to provide valuable information about the warranty program directly to the purchaser at the start of their new home buying journey.
About Tarion
Tarion is an independent, not-for-profit, consumer protection organization designated by the provincial government to administer the Ontario New Home Warranties Plan Act (ONHWPA). Tarion provides education, warranty support and dispute resolution services to Ontario’s new home buyers and vendor/builders and has been providing consumer protection to Ontarians since 1976.
For media requests please contact:
Andrew Donnachie
media.inquiries@tarion.com