New Home Warranty - Deficiency
 

Hi,

Taking possession of a new house tomorrow and there's still outstanding deficiencies with it. The home warranty completion certificate asks that we list any deficiencies that still exist with the house and seems to imply that they won't cover any of those items under warranty and that those items are between you and the seller (and the purchase contract).

For those in the know, am I reading this right? Basically any incomplete work by the builder/seller isn't covered under the home warranty and the list I provide is their way of not covering me?

thanks,

Deficiencies like what?

Warantee does not cover most deficiencies found on like, a home owner walk through etc

even stuff like door seals and drafts are really up to the builder until it becomes an actual "warantable issue" or somthing that is going to cost the warantee provider $$$

First thing if it is a brand new unit and you purchase it from the developer what you should have done is not sign the from till everything is fix. What you need to do through the new home owner walk through list anything that needs fixing and don't sign it till everything is fix.

Once you sign it they will come up with an excuse not to fix it coz they already have your money.

^ no the best way to go about is to put it into your purchase agreement and the lawyer/notary public will hold X amount of money until all repairs are completed.

has the builder received all their $ or is there still a holdback?

never seen this happen once in over 300+ units i've been a part of as far as i know. Good idea though if people will go for it

ya i don't see that happening...the home warranty is for major things that the developer won't take care of....of if they ignore you long term

calling the NHW for things like a bad caulking job or paint issues isn't going to get you anywhere, they'll just say contact the builder

if you have any paperwork that still needs to be signed or any leverage on them hold off....talk to your lawyer, i'm sure they'll have other recommendations

but really just become an annoyance to the builder...phone call after phone call and emails will eventually get them to come take care of the issues......or make friends with the deficiency guy and they'll probably help you out. for the first couple months they're will be one guy directing all the trades in the building who are coming through to take care of the deficiencies. they also may not have started yet as they're waiting for a large number of units to start on at once they the guys are busy all day and not just coming for small jobs.

who's the developer and builder?

my parents did that with their current house. it took a couple months but the builder finally came back to do some minor stuff they said they would do which was really minor. iirc it was put on some cupboard doors and a pole & clothesline. the holdback wasn't a lot of money but i guess he finally had time and wanted the rest of it.

yup, my parents did the same with our previous house. there was very minor stuff that needed to be corrected so the lawyer suggested that we did this. it sure worked because all the work was completed fairly quickly.

Thanks, in our case a holdback wasn't possible b/c the seller refused to acknowledge our list and our proposed holdback amount during the 2 weeks before the deal completed. Though he actually did complete a lot of the work on our list he refused to ever sign it or agree to an amount. Technically he is in breach of contract and we could sue him for anything that's not done.

We've since taken possession and the seller has gone from very dickish to surprisingly pleasant and willing to help. Hopefully we can get him to address the remaining items over the next couple weeks.

taking a holdback is easy when you're paying the builder directly who's building your house.....when buying a condo that's impossible to do