Alberta Legislature: New Home Buyer Protection Bill Introduced

The Alberta government has proposed a new legislation that would mandate that all new home buyers have warranty coverage.

Bill 5, the New Home Buyer Protection Act, introduced in the legislature on Thursday would require builders to provide warranty coverage for all new homes built starting in the fall of 2013. It would also new include detached homes and condominiums.

“While most homes in Alberta are built to stand the test of time, if things do go wrong, homeowners will have stronger protection to get their homes repaired,” said Minister of Municipal Affairs, Doug Griffiths in a press release.

“Albertans should be reassured that the single largest purchase their family makes will be protected by one of the strongest warranty programs in the country.”

Under the proposed legislation some of the new warranties a new home would receive would include one year in labour and material protection and a ten year coverage for major structural damage.

The new home warranty is expected to cost between $1,700 to $2,000 for an average home, or less than one per cent of the cost of the average house, the release adds.

Owner-builders will be exempt from the requirement to carry a new home warranty unless the property is sold within the warranty period, in which case they would have to provide the buyer with coverage for the remaining warranty period.

Finally a step forward to protect the consumer. But there will always be some builders who will drag their feet to fix the a problem whithin the one year warranty period, and they may purposely report it to the new home warranty progam after the one year is up.   So it may be up to the consumer to report the problem to the new home warranty program directly in orde to get things done.