BC New Home Warranty: What 2-5-10 Really Covers, the Caps, and How to Claim
A BC new home warranty on a condo can be capped as low as $100,000. The median asking price of a Vancouver condo listed on EstateBlock today is $798,057 (asking prices of active listings, not sales). So the minimum cap covers about 12.5% of that price, and the warranty pays only for defects, only for a set number of years, and only if you put the claim in writing before the clock runs out.
That isn't a reason to ignore it. BC's 2-5-10 warranty is mandatory, it comes with no deductible, and it follows the home to the next owner. It is also the reason a three-year-old condo can be a different purchase from a twelve-year-old one. The name "2-5-10" is well known. The details aren't: when each piece starts, what the caps really are, how a strata's common property coverage runs on its own clock, and what happens when the house was built by an owner builder with no policy at all.
Here is what the Homeowner Protection Act and its Regulation actually say, how to look up any home in two minutes, and what I'd check before writing an offer on a new or nearly new home.
Source: Homeowner Protection Act s.22(2); Homeowner Protection Act Regulation s.12 and Schedule 3; BC Housing.
What's covered, year by year
Section 22 of the Homeowner Protection Act sets the floor: at least 2 years on materials and labour, 5 on the building envelope, 10 on structure. The Regulation then trims the first number. The "2 years" is really three different windows:
| Window | What it covers | Applies to |
|---|---|---|
| First 12 months | Any defect in materials and labour, plus Building Code violations that are a health or safety risk or cause material damage | Your unit, or a detached home |
| First 15 months | Same as above | Strata common property, common facilities and other strata assets |
| First 24 months | Electrical, plumbing, heating, ventilation and air conditioning; exterior cladding, caulking, windows and doors where the defect may lead to detachment or material damage to the home; any defect that makes the home unfit to live in | All new homes |
| 5 years | Building envelope defects, including water getting in where it shouldn't and causing (or likely to cause) material damage | All new homes |
| 10 years | Structural defects | All new homes |
Source: Homeowner Protection Act Regulation, Schedule 3 ss.1-3; Homeowner Protection Act s.22(2). These are minimums: some policies give more, so read yours.
So a cracked tile or a sticking cabinet door in month 14 of a condo is usually your problem, not the warranty's. A leaking supply line, or a window or door that lets water into the wall, in month 14 is still covered, because plumbing gets the full 24 months and so do windows and doors when the defect can cause detachment or material damage.
When the clock starts matters as much as how long it runs. For a strata unit, coverage starts on the earlier of the day someone moves in or the day title transfers. For a spec house bought from a builder, it's the same test. For a custom house built on your own lot, it's the earliest of move-in, the occupancy permit, or the home being complete and ready. And for strata common property, the clock starts when the first unit in that building starts its coverage. If you complete on the last unsold unit eight months after the building opened, the common property's 15-month window already has seven months left.
The Regulation also requires the warranty provider to send each owner a schedule of expiry dates, including the common property dates for a strata unit. If you bought new and can't find that schedule, ask the provider for it. It's the single most useful page in your closing package.
The dollar caps, and why they matter more than the years
A warranty provider can cap what it pays. Section 12 of the Regulation sets the lowest caps allowed; a policy can set higher ones, so check yours:
| Home type | Minimum claim limit | Worked example |
|---|---|---|
| Detached house (fee simple) | Lesser of the original purchase price or $200,000 | $1.8M new house: $200,000 |
| Strata unit (condo or strata townhouse) | Lesser of the original purchase price or $100,000 | $650,000 condo: $100,000 |
| Strata common property | Least of the total original price of all units, $100,000 x units, or $2.5M, per building | 120-unit tower: $2,500,000; 18-unit townhouse building: $1,800,000 |
Source: Homeowner Protection Act Regulation s.12(1)-(2). Worked examples are hypothetical and assume the total price of the units is higher than the other two limits.
Three details that people miss:
First, the limit covers more than the repair. The provider can count investigation, engineering, design and supervision against it (legal costs are excluded). On a building envelope job, the engineering and investigation come out of the same limit as the repair itself.
Second, it's a limit for the policy, not per claim. BC Housing says a claims history shows "how much policy coverage has been used". If the first owner already had a large claim paid, a second owner may inherit a smaller remaining limit.
Third, in a high-rise, the common property limit can be capped at $2.5 million for the whole building, and every owner relies on that one limit. A 120-unit tower and a 25-unit low-rise can both be capped at $2.5 million per building. Spread across 120 owners, that minimum is about $20,833 a door for an envelope or parkade problem.
Here is how the $100,000 minimum unit cap compares with what condos are listed for right now across Metro Vancouver. These are EstateBlock asking prices of active listings, new and resale combined, not sale prices.
Source: Homeowner Protection Act Regulation s.12(1)(b); EstateBlock.com live listings, snapshot Nov 7, 2026 (asking prices of active listings, new and resale, not sale prices).
Show the numbers
| City | Minimum cap as % of median asking |
|---|---|
| Surrey | 20.0% |
| Langley | 19.6% |
| New Westminster | 18.2% |
| Coquitlam | 15.9% |
| Richmond | 14.7% |
| Burnaby | 14.5% |
| North Vancouver | 12.8% |
| Vancouver | 12.5% |
| City | Median condo asking | Median townhouse asking | Median house asking |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vancouver | $798,057 | $1,394,787 | $2,774,104 |
| North Vancouver | $784,133 | $1,299,900 | $2,249,725 |
| Burnaby | $688,701 | $988,000 | $2,098,000 |
| Richmond | $679,850 | $1,038,750 | $2,288,000 |
| Coquitlam | $629,420 | $1,090,000 | $1,790,000 |
| New Westminster | $549,900 | $849,950 | $1,548,500 |
| Langley | $509,000 | $832,944 | $1,805,064 |
| Surrey | $499,002 | $788,196 | $1,599,935 |
Source: EstateBlock.com live listings, snapshot Nov 7, 2026 (asking prices of active listings, new and resale, not sale prices). Strata townhouses fall under the $100,000 minimum unit cap; a fee simple house under the $200,000 minimum.
For a detached house the gap is wider. The $200,000 minimum cap is about 7.2% of Vancouver's median house asking price of $2,774,104. None of this makes the warranty worthless. The minimum cap is a floor on the limit, not a typical payout, and the envelope and structural coverage is aimed at exactly the failures that are hardest to fix. It does mean a warranty is not a substitute for a home inspection, a careful read of the strata documents, or your own insurance.
What isn't covered
The Regulation lists what a provider is allowed to exclude, and every exclusion must be written in the policy. The ones buyers run into most:
| Excluded (if the policy says so) | Still covered (can't be excluded) |
|---|---|
| Landscaping, fencing, detached patios, planters | Driveways and walkways |
| Detached sheds, garages, carports | Parking structures in multi-unit buildings |
| Roads, curbs, lanes; site grading and surface drainage | Amenity and recreation facilities in the building |
| Normal wear and tear, normal shrinkage after construction | Retaining walls that support the home, driveway or walkway, or that need an engineer |
| Anything you supplied or changed yourself (materials, labour, design, renovations) | |
| Damage made worse because you didn't act or didn't give prompt notice | |
| Fire, flood, earthquake, windstorm and other natural events (that's home insurance) | |
| Damage to your belongings or injury, including from mould | |
| Contaminated soil; loss of market value |
Source: Homeowner Protection Act Regulation ss.10-11; BC Housing, Home warranty insurance: what homeowners need to know.
Two things work in the owner's favour. The policy can't make you pay a deductible or sign a release before repairs. And if the builder or provider never gave the original owner the maintenance instructions for a component, the provider can't deny a claim on that component for poor maintenance. Keep the maintenance manual that came with the home and hand it to the next buyer when you sell.
Also worth knowing: if warranty repairs make the home unlivable, the policy must cover reasonable living-out costs, and any daily cap must be at least $100 a day. Repaired work carries its own warranty until the later of one year after the repair or the end of the original coverage.
How to look up a builder and a home
Two free BC Housing registries do most of the work, and I'd run both before talking numbers on any home built in the last decade.
The New Homes Registry searches by street address and city, or by legal description. It shows whether the home has a warranty policy, whether a licensed builder built it, or whether it was built under an exemption like an Owner Builder Authorization or a rental exemption. It also shows the builder's warranty number, the warranty provider's name and phone number, and whether an Owner Builder Disclosure Notice is on file. It covers homes registered since November 19, 2007; for homes registered between July 1, 1999 and November 18, 2007, BC Housing asks you to call 1-800-407-7757.
The Public Registry of Residential Builders searches by company name, licence number and licence status. For a presale, check the developer's licence before you sign. BC Housing also points out that only insurers approved by the BC Financial Services Authority can provide this warranty, and suggests getting confirmation in writing that warranty is included.
A home with a building permit applied for before July 1, 1999 was never required to have this warranty. That's the cut-off BC Housing uses.
Making a claim: deadlines and steps
The rule that sinks claims is simple. Notice has to be in writing, go to both the warranty provider and the builder, and arrive within a reasonable time after you find the defect and before that coverage expires. BC Housing is blunt about the trap: repairs a builder offers without written notice to the warranty provider don't count as a formal claim. If that repair fails after the coverage expires, it may be too late.
| Step | Who | What the rules say |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Find the defect | Owner (unit) or strata corporation (common property) | Owners report defects inside their unit; the strata reports common property |
| 2. Written notice | Owner or strata | To the warranty provider and the builder, in reasonable detail, before expiry. The provider can ask for the warranty number and correspondence |
| 3. Limit the damage | Owner | Written notice meets the duty to mitigate, but urgent defects need reasonable steps right away. The duty applies even if the home is empty or rented out |
| 4. Evaluation | Warranty provider | Must promptly try to contact you; you must allow access at reasonable times with reasonable notice to inspect (Reg s.9) |
| 5. Decision | Warranty provider | If denied: written reasons plus your dispute resolution rights |
| 6. Repairs | Provider and builder | Done in a timely way; you get the repair specs and a completion letter |
| 7. Dispute | Owner | You can require mediation: mediator appointed within 21 days, first session within 21 days of that, cost split equally unless agreed otherwise |
Source: Homeowner Protection Act Regulation ss.9, 16-17 and Schedule 2 ss.1, 3; BC Housing, Home warranty insurance claims.
In a strata, the second half of this table is where things go wrong. The strata council has to notice the common property problem, agree to act, and get the written notice out before the 15-month, 2-year or 5-year date. BC Housing's advice is to inspect both the unit and the common areas before each expiry date. If you're buying into a building that's four years old, I want to see in the council minutes that someone ordered a building envelope review before the five-year mark.
Buying a home under 10 years old
The warranty stays with the home. The Regulation says no notice is needed on a change of ownership and every unused benefit transfers automatically to the next owner. That's true for a resale and, in my read, for a presale assignment too: unit coverage starts at the earlier of move-in or title transfer, so an assignee who completes is simply the owner when coverage begins. If your assignment has an unusual structure, have your lawyer confirm it.
What a second owner usually doesn't have is the paperwork. So ask for it:
- The policy and the expiry schedule, for the unit and, in a strata, the common property. These are two separate policies with two sets of dates.
- The claims history. The current owner requests it from the provider, the fee is no more than $25, and it lists each claim, how it was resolved, the repair, the date and the cost. Ask the seller to get it.
- The strata's paper trail. Minutes, the Form B and the depreciation report show whether warranty claims are open and whether anyone is watching the expiry dates.
A hypothetical to make the dates real. Say you're looking at a Burnaby condo whose unit coverage started in March 2022, and the first unit in the building was occupied in January 2022. Today, in November 2026, the unit's 2-year coverage is long gone. The 5-year envelope coverage on the unit runs to March 2027, and on the common property to January 2027, about two months away. Structural coverage runs to 2032. If that building has a leak the strata hasn't reported in writing, my read is that the next eight weeks are the moment that matters, and it's the strata, not you, that has to send the notice.
| Time since coverage started | General materials and labour | Systems, windows, cladding | Building envelope | Structure |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 1 year | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 1 to 2 years | No (common property to 15 months) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2 to 5 years | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| 5 to 10 years | No | No | No | Yes |
| 10+ years | No | No | No | No |
Source: Homeowner Protection Act Regulation, Schedule 2 s.2 and Schedule 3 ss.1-5; BC Housing, Buying a previously owned home. Minimum coverage; a policy can give more.
Owner-built homes: no policy, a lawsuit instead
An owner builder is a person BC Housing authorizes to build a house for their own use, without a builder's licence and without third-party warranty insurance. The rules around selling one are strict:
- The owner builder must live in it for at least one year after the occupancy permit and can't sell or rent it during that first year; BC Housing can permit an earlier sale for undue hardship.
- Within 10 years of occupancy, the seller (the owner builder or any later owner) must give a buyer an Owner Builder Disclosure Notice before a contract is signed. It states whether the home is owner-built, when the 10 years started, and whether any voluntary warranty policy exists.
- Instead of insurance, section 23 of the Act makes the owner builder and the vendor liable for the same 2, 5 and 10 year defect periods, measured from the first occupancy permit. A contract term that waives this has no effect.
The catch is enforcement. BC Housing says there is no third-party policy backing an owner builder, and "litigation may be the only remedy available." A lawsuit must be started within 10 years of first occupancy. If the owner builder has moved away or has no assets, a court win may not be worth much.
Source: BC Housing, New Homes Registry Report, August 2026, Table 1 (province-wide).
Show the numbers
| Owner-built homes | |
|---|---|
| 2002 | 3,268 |
| 2003 | 3,507 |
| 2004 | 3,666 |
| 2005 | 3,854 |
| 2006 | 4,124 |
| 2007 | 3,959 |
| 2008 | 3,373 |
| 2009 | 2,749 |
| 2010 | 3,199 |
| 2011 | 2,596 |
| 2012 | 2,445 |
| 2013 | 2,067 |
| 2014 | 2,335 |
| 2015 | 2,549 |
| 2016 | 2,211 |
| 2017 | 1,136 |
| 2018 | 1,173 |
| 2019 | 960 |
| 2020 | 984 |
| 2021 | 1,085 |
| 2022 | 932 |
| 2023 | 692 |
| 2024 | 582 |
| 2025 | 623 |
Owner-built homes are now a small share of new construction: 623 authorizations in 2025, down from 4,124 in 2006, and 433 in the first eight months of 2026. They still come up in resale listings. My read: an owner-built house can be a perfectly good home, but price it like a house with no warranty, because it has none. Get a full inspection, ask for the disclosure notice early, and check the New Homes Registry yourself.
Why most new homes registered in BC have no warranty
Every new home in BC has to be registered with BC Housing before a building permit is issued, so the registry doubles as a count of what's being built. In 2025, 47,338 new homes were registered province-wide. Only 20,446 of them (43.2%) were enrolled in home warranty insurance. 26,269 (55.5%) were purpose-built rentals exempt from it, and 623 (1.3%) were owner-built.
- Multi-unit with warranty
- Rental, warranty-exempt
- Detached with warranty
Source: BC Housing, New Homes Registry Report, August 2026, Table 1 (province-wide; rentals included in report totals since August 2016).
Show the numbers
| Multi-unit with warranty | Rental, warranty-exempt | Detached with warranty | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 17,899 | 4,736 | 8,845 |
| 2016 | 22,749 | 5,272 | 10,625 |
| 2017 | 20,411 | 9,406 | 10,999 |
| 2018 | 25,866 | 7,724 | 9,468 |
| 2019 | 21,153 | 13,428 | 7,465 |
| 2020 | 13,144 | 9,146 | 8,123 |
| 2021 | 26,720 | 13,255 | 10,309 |
| 2022 | 25,907 | 14,663 | 7,299 |
| 2023 | 19,118 | 19,370 | 5,323 |
| 2024 | 21,107 | 18,525 | 4,912 |
| 2025 | 15,672 | 26,269 | 4,774 |
The rental exemption comes with a Section 219 covenant on title that bars selling any unit for 10 years from first occupancy, exactly because those units have no warranty. So you can't buy one of those units during the years a policy would have covered. What the numbers do tell buyers is that the pipeline of new homes you can buy with a warranty is shrinking. Warranty-enrolled multi-unit homes fell from a peak of 26,720 in 2021 (and 22,749 in 2016) to 15,672 in 2025, and enrolments for January to August 2026 (9,046) are down 27.7% from the same months of 2025.
For anyone weighing a presale against a resale, that's context, not a forecast. Fewer warranty-backed homes are being registered now, ahead of their building permits, which says something about what will be completing in two to four years. If you're comparing the two paths, my presale vs resale breakdown and the presale buying guide go through the money side.
What I'd check before writing an offer
None of these take long, and most can be done before you book a second showing.
| Check | Where | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Is the home on the New Homes Registry, and with whom? | New Homes Registry (address search) | Confirms a policy exists, or flags an owner-builder or rental exemption |
| Is the builder licensed, and is the licence in good standing? | Public Registry of Residential Builders | For presales especially; check before you sign |
| Expiry dates for the unit and the common property | Policy documents; warranty provider | Two policies, two clocks. Know which coverage you're actually buying |
| Claims history | Seller requests it from the provider (max $25) | Shows past repairs and how much of the cap is used |
| Open warranty claims in the strata | Council minutes, Form B, depreciation report | An unreported envelope issue near year 5 is a real risk |
| Owner Builder Disclosure Notice | Seller, before the contract | Required within 10 years; no notice is a red flag |
| Maintenance manual and manufacturer warranties | Seller or developer | Maintenance exclusions only apply if the original owner got the instructions |
Source: BC Housing, New Homes Registry; BC Housing, Buying a new home; BC Housing, Buying a previously owned home; Homeowner Protection Act Regulation s.14 and Schedule 2 s.4; Homeowner Protection Act s.21.
On a resale, I'd ask for the policy, the expiry schedule and the claims history before subject removal, and I'd want the documents in hand before the inspection so the inspector knows which items are still under warranty. On a presale, I'd check the builder licence and the registry entry before the deposit goes in, and keep every warranty document the developer hands over at completion. It also pays to know your other new-build costs: GST is covered in my GST on new homes guide, and the closing cost calculator handles the rest. If you're buying for the first time, the first-time buyer guide walks through the order of steps, and BC's rescission rules are worth reading before you sign anything.
FAQ
What does the BC 2-5-10 home warranty cover?
At minimum: 2 years for defects in materials and labour (some items only 12 months, or 15 months for strata common property), 5 years for building envelope defects including water penetration, and 10 years for structural defects.
Does the BC new home warranty transfer to a new owner?
Yes. The Regulation says the warranty belongs to the home, no notice is needed on a sale, and all unused coverage passes automatically to the next owner.
How much will the warranty pay?
Policies can set claim limits, but no lower than the lesser of the original purchase price or $100,000 for a strata unit, or $200,000 for a detached house. The common property limit can be no lower than the least of the total price of the units, $100,000 per unit, or $2.5 million per building.
How do I check if a home in BC has a warranty?
Search the address on BC Housing's New Homes Registry. It shows the warranty provider and number, the builder, or an exemption such as an owner-builder authorization. It covers homes registered since November 19, 2007; for older registrations BC Housing asks you to call.
Do owner-built homes have a warranty?
No insurance policy is required. Instead, the owner builder and vendor are liable under section 23 of the Homeowner Protection Act for 2, 5 and 10 year defect periods, and a buyer must get an Owner Builder Disclosure Notice within the first 10 years.
Sources
- Homeowner Protection Act (B.C.), ss.20.1, 21, 22, 23
- Homeowner Protection Act Regulation, B.C. Reg. 29/99, ss.10-17, Schedules 2 and 3
- BC Housing: Home warranty insurance, what homeowners need to know
- BC Housing: Home warranty insurance claims
- BC Housing: Buying a previously owned home
- BC Housing: Buying or selling an owner-built home
- BC Housing: Buying and selling a new home
- BC Housing: Using the New Homes Registry
- BC Housing: New Homes Registry (search)
- BC Housing: Public Registry of Residential Builders
- BC Housing: Home warranty insurance providers
- BC Housing: Rental exemption
- BC Housing: New Homes Registry Report, August 2026 (PDF)
- BC Housing: New homes data
- EstateBlock.com: Vancouver live listings (snapshot Nov 7, 2026; asking prices of active listings)
Dan Marusin PREC, REALTOR® · Renanza Realty Inc., 777 Hornby St, Suite 600, Vancouver, BC. This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice.