Last reviewed: 15 September 2026

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Manitoba passed a mandatory home warranty law, then let it lapse

Our Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec pages all cover provinces that legally require a new-home builder to carry statutory warranty coverage. Manitoba is a genuinely different story: it passed a law that would have joined that list, then reversed course before the law ever took effect.

2013: a mandatory-coverage law, passed but not yet in force

The New Home Warranty Act, S.M. 2013, c. 23 (C.C.S.M. c. N85), passed by Manitoba's government of the day in 2013, would have required every new home built for sale in the province to carry warranty coverage against defects in materials, labour, and design, plus major structural defects — the same basic idea behind Alberta's and Ontario's mandatory programs. Like a lot of Canadian legislation, though, passing the Act and bringing it into force are two separate steps: a statute can sit on the books for years as law that technically exists but doesn't yet apply to anyone, waiting on a proclamation date the government sets separately.

Delayed twice, then reversed in a budget

That proclamation date kept moving. The Act was originally on track to take effect years earlier, then was pushed back twice after a change in government, landing on a planned 2020 start date. It never reached that date either: Manitoba's 2019 budget announced the government's intent to repeal the Act instead of proclaiming it, framing the reversal as a red-tape and cost-reduction measure — the budget papers argued that the private, voluntary warranty market already covering most new-home sales in the province made a new mandatory regulatory system unnecessary, and estimated that bringing the Act's roughly 250 new regulatory requirements into force would have added meaningfully to the cost of a new home.

Where the Act stands today

The New Home Warranty Act was never proclaimed into force. Manitoba's own consolidated public statutes catalogue lists C.C.S.M. c. N85 as repealed, spent, or not in force, effective May 20, 2021 — meaning the law that would have made warranty coverage mandatory is now off the books entirely, not merely paused. Manitoba's Consumer Protection Office confirms the practical result directly: new-home warranty coverage in the province today is a private, voluntary arrangement between a builder and a third-party warranty provider, not something provincial law requires.

What this means for a Manitoba buyer

Because there's no statute behind it, there's also no government-run registry a Manitoba buyer can check the way an Alberta or Ontario buyer can verify a builder's standing against a public list (see our Alberta and Ontario pages for what that looks like where it exists). Point 1 of our standard — plain, pre-purchase disclosure of terms — still applies just as much here: ask a Manitoba builder directly, in writing, whether this specific home is enrolled with a third-party new-home warranty provider, and get the certificate before you sign, since no law will surface that answer for you if you don't ask.