Homeowner Care
Home Warranty Coverage
Karvin warranties all of our homes with the following coverage.
Summary: we’re reasonable people – if something is out of place that obviously shouldn’t be, we’ll fix it.
We put extra effort in to avoid home defects from the start. You can find a list of common deficiencies that we cover here.
- First 12 months – coverage for any defect in materials and labour
- First 15 months – coverage for any defect in material and labour in the common property of a multi-unit building.
- First 24 months – coverage for any defect in materials and labour supplied for the electrical, plumbing, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning delivery and distribution systems. In addition, coverage for any defect in material and labour supplied for the exterior cladding, caulking, windows and doors that may lead to detachment or material damage to the new home.
- 5 Year Building Envelope Warranty
- 10 Year Structural Defects Warranty
Our Home Warranty Provider
Travelers Insurance Company of Canada
A warranty with Travelers means your house is protected with a money bond that stays active for 10 years. You can trust Karvin to uphold our warranty, but with the added insurance of Travelers on your side, you’re completely protected.
A few notes about Travelers:
- Take a long-term approach to their products.
- Accept only professional builders and developers who are committed to the industry.
- Provide exceptional service to us and our homeowners.
- Work with us to build lasting relationships.
- Extremely knowledgeable staff that go the extra mile.
Home warranty is insurance, and companies providing insurance have to be approved by the Financial Institutions Commission. Travelers Insurance Company has these approvals and provides two essential services:
- Provide builder with an endorsement so they may apply for a residential builder license.
- Provide policies of home warranty coverage.
Documents
The definition of a defect is outlined in the Residential Construction Performance Guide.
Proper New Home Maintenance is outlined in the New Home Maintenance Manual.
Deficiences
Deficiencies are defects in your house that are covered by your home warranty. While the general deficiency list is long, there are some common deficiencies that are the worst offenders.
With this in mind, we do our best to catch deficiencies early and work hard to solve the issue quickly. To avoid any problems in the first place, we thought of an elegant solution – just build good houses that last and avoid deficiencies altogether.
We adhere to HBO’s policy on customer service: “The best way to handle a disappointed customer is to make sure they don’t become one in the first place”.
Deficiencies are defects in your house that are covered by your home warranty. While the general deficiency list is long, there are some common deficiencies that are the worst offenders.
Here are the proactive processes we follow so you don’t encounter deficiencies:
- Company walk-through – prior to moving into your new home we perform a company walk-through to make certain your home is clean, complete, and free of deficiencies.
- New home orientation – we are committed to familiarizing you with your new home before you move in and provide you with a new Home Warranty maintenance manual and other official transfer documents.
- One month review – we inspect the home with you and review any matters that may concern you.
- One year review – we inspect the home with you and repair any deficiencies that are no longer covered after one year.
| Walls/Drywall | 13% |
| Bathrooms | 8% |
| Exterior Doors | 8% |
| Basements | 6% |
| Windows | 6% |
| Linoleum | 5% |
| Interior Doors | 5% |
| Cupboards | 5% |
| Carpet | 4% |
| Squeaky Floors | 4% |
| Interior Paint | 3% |
| Condensation | 3% |
| Heating | 3% |
| Garage Floor | 3% |
| Foundations | 3% |
Before you see the home, we do a builder’s walkthrough to help catch all minor deficiencies. We say “minor” because there are no major deficiencies by the time the house is done.
After the builder walkthrough, we do an orientation walk through with you. We want you to be impressed when you walk into your house for the first time, and the orientation is where it happens.
Orientation is where you get the opportunity to see if everything is in order. With your approval, we’ll have you sign off that we delivered you a deficiency-free home that will last for decades to come.
Drywall issues are visible immediately upon your first inspection of the house. More complaints come from poor framing that shows itself 6 or 9 months after the build.
Upon your 1 year inspection, we’ll be able to address any of these problems, but we usually avoid them because of the steady workmanship of our framers.
We glue, nail, and screw-down all of our floors to keep them from squeaking.
This is a huge problem for homeowners, and we know it. Providing non-squeaking floors is vital.
Many builders use metal exterior doors, which dent, expand, scratch, and warp very easily. Often they’re already damaged by the time you move into your house, so we avoid them at all costs (we simply don’t use them in any of our homes).
We exclusively use fibreglass exterior doors to prevent any of that from happening. They last longer, and look better for a much longer time. While it might seem smart to cheap out on your doors during construction, you’ll regret it a year from now.
Garage floors can crack due to poor sub-grade or failing to install rebar. By using rock-based subgrade or well-placed rebar, we can avoid these types of issues entirely.
Deficiency Reviews
Karvin’s Core Values represent who we are and provide, without question, the standard of behaviour by which we conduct business. These values are the heart, soul, and character of Karvin.
Reach out to us directly
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If you have any general questions or inquiries please feel free to contact us.