Last reviewed: 14 September 2026

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How home warranties work in Canada

Two genuinely different products share the name "home warranty" in Canada, and they get conflated constantly. One is a mandatory, government-created builder-defect warranty tied to new construction. The other is a purchased, private home-systems-and-appliance service contract — the closer cousin to what a US "home warranty" means. Neither replaces the other.

The statutory new-home warranty: mandatory, and about construction defects

Quebec, Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia all legally require new-home builders to provide a statutory warranty against construction defects — administered in Ontario by Tarion (under the Ontario New Home Warranties Plan Act), and by comparable provincial programs elsewhere. Tarion's own published coverage runs on fixed windows: one year for workmanship and materials, two years for the building envelope and major systems (electrical, plumbing, mechanical), and seven years for major structural defects. Outside these four provinces, warranty coverage on a new home is generally left to the individual builder rather than required by statute. Critically, this program does not cover an aging appliance breaking down years after move-in from ordinary wear — that's a different problem entirely, covered (if at all) by the second product below.

The purchased home-systems warranty: closer to the US product, but regulated differently

A private, purchased plan covering breakdowns of home systems and major appliances — the direct analog to a US home warranty — also exists in Canada, sold by companies including Canadian Home Shield and, notably, by SGI Canada (a licensed insurer) under its Home Systems Protection product. Unlike the US, where many states run a dedicated licensing regime specifically for this category of service contract (see our US home warranty guide), Canada has no federal or uniformly provincial equivalent: a provider structured as an insurer (like SGI Canada) is regulated as one, while others operate under general provincial consumer-protection law rather than a warranty-specific licensing framework. That's a real regulatory gap worth knowing about before assuming a Canadian provider is licensed the same way a comparable US one would be.

Why the distinction matters before you buy

If you're buying a newly built home in one of the four provinces above, you already have statutory defect coverage — you don't need to purchase anything extra for that specific protection, and no private seller can legally take it away from you. If what you actually want is protection against your furnace or refrigerator failing five years from now, that's the second product, and it's worth reading its contract exclusions with the same care described in our US home warranty guide — the pre-existing-condition and lack-of-maintenance exclusions that drive most complaints in the US industry are not US-specific problems.