Toronto, ON, September 13, 2005 – A Kanata-area home builder and company officer were recently charged with 29 counts of failing to enrol a unit with Tarion Warranty Corporation (“Tarion”) and 29 counts of failing to register with Tarion.

The company, 1597761 Ontario Inc. was fined a total of $184,375, which is one of the largest fines ever charged for the offences committed.  In addition, company officer Gurbakhshish Bal was fined $3,125 on one count of furnishing false information.

Under the Ontario New Home Warranties Plan Act (“the Act”) every builder or vendor of a new home sold in the Province of Ontario must be registered with Tarion and must enrol each new home prior to its construction.  Builders who do not register with Tarion and enrol new homes in Ontario’s mandatory warranty program often do not inform purchasers of their right to statutory warranty coverage.

“The fines in this case are the largest I’ve ever seen for the offences committed.  This proves that the courts are clearly taking a serious approach to dealing with illegal building activity,” said David Roberts, Director of Enforcement at Tarion. “This builder did not register with Tarion and failed to enrol all 29 units in the condominium they were building in Arnprior.”

In 2004, Tarion’s Enforcement team laid 993 charges against illegal builders.  A total of $575,000 in fines was levied by the courts and two repeat offenders received jail time.

Details about illegal home builder convictions and license revocations are available through Tarion’s website at www.tarion.com or by calling 1-877-9TARION. In addition, consumers are encouraged to visit the “Find a Builder” section of Tarion’s website to confirm that a builder is registered and to obtain additional information about their after-sales service performance.      

If you suspect that illegal building is taking place in your community, you can anonymously report this information by calling Tarion toll-free at 1-800-786-6497 or by sending an email to enforcement@tarion.com.

About Tarion
Tarion Warranty Corporation is a private corporation established in 1976 to administer the Ontario New Home Warranties Plan Act which outlines the warranty protection that all builders must provide to new home and condominium buyers in Ontario. Tarion licenses home builders and ensures that they abide by this legislation, and that consumers are protected when builders fail to fulfill their warranty obligations. Since its inception, over 1.3 million homes have been enrolled by the Corporation.

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For more information, please contact: Janice Wong, Senior Manager, Corporate Communications,  Corporate Affairs at 416-229-3863 or janice.wong@tarion.com