Case Stories

In 2023, the Ombuds office made several recommendations to address concerns we identified with Tarion’s process for issuing Decision Letters. When Tarion makes a warranty decision, they are required to inform the homeowner about the decision in writing. If a homeowner appeals Tarion’s warranty decision to the License Appeal Tribunal (the Tribunal), they must request and attach the written notice, referred to as a Decision Letter, when submitting the appeal. You can find a summary of our Own Motion review on page 10 of our 2023 Annual Report. 

One of the recommendations the Ombuds made in 2023 was for Tarion to clearly communicate timelines to homeowners and inform homeowners if those timelines change. Clear communication is important, especially when dealing with contentious issues as it enhances trust and improves transparency. 

While the Ombuds has seen improvements in Tarion’s communication on timelines for Decision Letters, we continued to receive complaints about this issue in 2024. 

One homeowner complained to the Ombuds office after waiting three months for Tarion to issue their Decision Letter so they could submit their appeal to the Tribunal. 

We found Tarion had not provided the homeowner with a timeline for when they could expect to receive the letter. Also, we found the letter writing process was stalled while Tarion determined the status of some of the items. 

We recommended Tarion apologize to the homeowner for the delay in issuing the Decision Letter and look for ways to expedite the completion of the letter.