Tarion covers new houses, and not the one you live in
Tarion administers the new home warranty in Ontario. If you are renovating a house you already own and live in, that warranty is not what stands behind the work. Homeowners tend to find this out after something has gone wrong.
One Group holds a builder licence under Ontario's Home Construction Regulatory Authority, so we sit on the licensed side of a line most homeowners do not know exists. Five things protect you on a renovation, and the Construction Act's ten per cent holdback sits under all of them. None of them is a Tarion certificate, and every one can be checked before you sign, in an afternoon, for free.
An HCRA licence and a Tarion warranty are different things
The HCRA is the regulator. It licenses builders and can discipline them. Tarion is the corporation that administers the warranty on new homes, and it has no role in a renovation of an occupied house.
The HCRA reviews competence, conduct and financial standing before it issues a licence, and it can discipline or revoke. The licence is a statement about the builder. Tarion coverage is a statement about a new home.
Renovation work to an existing occupied house generally falls outside new home warranty coverage. Very large projects can get complicated. Certain rebuilds can cross into new-home territory depending on what remains of the original structure and how the deal is structured. If your project is that scale, confirm your status with the HCRA and Tarion before construction starts.
Most renovation work in Ontario does not require an HCRA licence at all. Anyone with a truck can quote your kitchen. The licence exists for new homes and full rebuilds. We hold it anyway, which means we went through a vetting most renovation work does not require, and the register is public.
Where the confusion comes from
The word warranty gets used loosely, and Tarion is the only construction warranty most Ontario homeowners have heard of. They bought a new build once, received a warranty package, and assumed the same net stretches over the addition on the back of their current house.
It does not. There is no provincial backstop waiting to finish your renovation if your contractor walks off the site. What stands between you and that outcome is the paperwork you insisted on before the first wall came down, and that is manageable once you know it.
What protects you
Five things, in the order they matter.
A written contract with a defined scope, which an estimate is not. It names the work, the exclusions, the products, the price, the payment schedule, and how changes get priced and approved. Read the exclusions first. That is where the surprises live.
A builder you can verify publicly. Look up the licence. Look up the corporation. Look up how long the business has operated.
Insurance and WSIB coverage, in current documents. Ask for a certificate of insurance showing commercial general liability, with your name and address on it, sent directly from the broker. Two million dollars is a common minimum to ask for on residential work. Ask for proof of WSIB coverage for the crew and confirm it with WSIB yourself, because coverage lapses and a printout from March means nothing in September. As a homeowner hiring a contractor for your own house you are not required to obtain a clearance certificate, but the trades on your site are required to be covered. Then call your own insurer and tell them you are renovating. Policies carry conditions about major work and about a house sitting empty, and you want to hear those from your broker rather than from an adjuster.
A payment schedule tied to completed work rather than to dates. Money moves when something is finished and you can see it. Framing complete and inspected. Drywall complete. Cabinets installed. If a contractor wants a large deposit up front and further payments on the first of each month regardless of progress, you are financing them, and you have given away the only leverage you had.
A written warranty from the contractor. Ask what it covers, how long it runs, what voids it, and how to make a claim. Ours is in the contract, in plain language, with a length attached. Manufacturer warranties on products sit on top of that and are separate. Keep both in the file.
The clauses that matter
The scope, the exclusions, the price, the payment milestones, the change order process, the site rules and the warranty. Those seven resolve almost every dispute we have seen between a homeowner and a builder.
Add these and you are ahead of most people:
- Who pulls the permits and who pays for them.
- What the site protection plan is if you are living in the house.
- What hours work happens and where materials are stored.
- Who is the single point of contact on our side, and on yours.
- What happens to the schedule when you change your mind.
Change orders deserve their own line. Every change is priced and signed before the work happens, with no verbal approvals in a hallway. That rule means nothing appears on your final invoice that you did not agree to in writing.
Checking a contractor takes an afternoon
Verify the licence with the HCRA if the work requires one. Confirm the legal business name and how long it has existed. Get the insurance certificate directly from the broker. Verify WSIB clearance at the source. Ask for two references on projects of similar scope and phone them. Ask what went wrong and how it was handled, because something always goes wrong and the answer is the useful part.
Then read the contract. All of it, including the exclusions.
Ask us for our contract before you commit to anything, and we will walk you through what it covers and what it does not. Start a conversation.