Photograph by: John Lucas, Edmonton Journal
Residents of a north Edmonton condominium learned last week it will cost $8 million to repair mould and rot in their six-year-old building.
Patricia Lo, who sits on the board of the 200-unit condo, said residents don't know how they will be able to pay their share of the repairs.
"We just feel so ripped off," she said. "We bought this condo. It was supposed to be built properly and it wasn't. We just feel really helpless."
Lo, who works as a researcher at the University of Alberta Hospital, said she doesn't know where she will find $45,000 to pay for her share.
She was one of the last people to move into the complex, purchasing a $150,000 condo in January 2004.
She began noticing problems the following spring when rain started pouring into her unit. She notified the condo board, which advised her it had notified the home warranty program, but the warranty program officials advised that the one-year warranty had passed.
It's a common story.Problems that result in water leaking into buildings are generally not considered structural, so they are not covered by the five-year structural warranty.
The one-year warranties offered by some of Alberta's four home-warranty companies begin when the first condo owner moves in.
The Canadian Condominium Association is pressing the Alberta government to take action comparable to Ontario and British Columbia to make it mandatory for builders to warranty their work and have warranties that provide protection.
"For purchasers of a new build or converted property, the onus is on the developer to supply the purchaser with a list of deficiencies," the association advised the province in a letter.
"It is an honour system, of sorts. On the whole, this is an unregulated system and by its very nature is inherently flawed and open to deception and fraud. It favours the developer and builder."
The association wants Alberta to follow B.C.'sleadandestablishhome warranty programs that are not operated by the builders, as the Alberta New Home Warranty Program is, because it is a conflict.
"We suggest that similar action may be required in Alberta to achieve a non-biased warranty provider," the association says.
It suggests Ontario's home warranty program has "far more transparency and accountability" than the Alberta programs.
Municipal Affairs Minister Ray Danyluk said his department has checked to see what other provinces are doing as it prepares to better protect people.
"We're looking at different avenues and we're hoping that what we bring forward will be very acceptable and address the needs of homeowners in Alberta," he said.
Danyluk recently told the legislature he is committed to ensuring people have safe and reliable homes.
"We want to ensure Albertans have the confidence in the construction industry which they should have."
Guy St. Germain, president of the Edmonton chapter of the Canadian Home Builders Association, said his members support bringing in mandatory warranties.
"There are builders building without third-party warranties and consumers have to be very concerned about that," he said.
St. Germain said there's also support for the idea of a specific warranty that would better protect consumers from having to pay to repair leaky homes.
John Garbin, president of the Exterior Insulation Finish Systems Council of Canada, said there's a gap in Alberta that leaves homeowners "exposed" because they are not required to hire a builder who provides a warranty for the work.
"Maybe the report coming down from the minister is going to contain some obligatory requirement for home warranty protection. To me, that would be a sea change for the province, if it happens. It turns the business upside down in terms of responsibility."
Building consultant Al Cowie said B. C. has a two-year warranty on labour and materials, double Alberta's warranty, plus a five-year warranty on the building envelope and a 10-year warranty on the building structure.
Nick Trovato, managing principal of the Edmonton engineering firm of Read Jones Christoffersen, said warranties are only as strong as the companies providing them.
"When they had the leaky condo crisis in B. C., the new home warranty provider actually went bankrupt," he said.
Sandi Cooper, a spokeswoman for the Edmonton branch of the Canadian Condominium Institute, said people sitting on condo boards are struggling to deal with having to raise funds through special assessments to pay for repairs to new buildings.
"It will be very prevalent for the next little while because during the building boom phase, qualified contract people were hard to find," she said.
Water is getting into walls and causing mould, which can be expensive to repair, said consultant Dennis French, who does mould inspections throughout Alberta.
"We're seeing rather significant problems in a large number of buildings," he said. "I won't live long enough to not be working on these building envelope failures."
He said poor installation of stucco has been a major problem.
"It's not being installed to specifications or they are using the wrong type of materials for our climate and it can't handle the expansion and contraction," he said.
"It's frustrating in a lot of respects to see the same faults repeated over and over again. We see it routinely."
French said he would like to see building codes tightened and warranties extended.
"Right now it is pretty much buyer beware, even on new homes, even if they are supposed to have warranties," he said.
Journeyman carpenter Ian Parker said he just went shopping for a new home and spotted deficiencies in many of the homes he saw, even the one he decided to buy.
"They don't even come close to building code, which is the minimum," he said. "There are a lot of fellows claiming to be carpenters who are ripping off the general public."
© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald
Subscribe