The 2-5-10 new-home warranty

What "2-5-10" covers

What is covered, and for how long

The headline is “2-5-10,” but the first two years are themselves split into shorter windows, because different parts of a home reveal their faults on different timelines.

• First 12 months — everything

  Defects in materials and labour anywhere in the home — for a detached house, and for the part of a strata home an owner holds privately. For the common property of a multi-unit strata building, this all-defects window runs 15 months.

• Through 24 months — major systems and the essentials

  For the full two years, coverage continues on the major systems — electrical, plumbing, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning — and on exterior cladding, windows, and doors, plus any defect that makes the home unfit to live in. Building Code violations that create a health or safety risk are covered here too.

• Through 5 years — the building envelope

  Defects in the building envelope, including unintended water penetration that causes — or is likely to cause — damage to the home. The envelope is the exterior walls, roof, windows, doors, and the assemblies behind them.

• Through 10 years — the structure

  Defects in the load-bearing parts of the home or its overall structure, including any structural defect that makes the home unfit to live in. This is the longest and most fundamental layer of the warranty.

How much it covers

The warranty is capped. The maximum a policy will pay depends on the type of home:

• Detached home — the lesser of the first owner’s purchase price or $200,000.
• Strata unit — the lesser of the first owner’s purchase price or $100,000.
• Strata common property — the lesser of $100,000 per unit or $2.5M per building.

For most homes these limits are comfortably above any realistic repair, but they are worth knowing — especially on a strata building, where a major shared-property repair is shared across the whole corporation.

Which homes have it — and which do not

The 2-5-10 warranty is required on every home built by a licensed residential builder. A few categories sit outside the requirement:

• Owner-built homes — built by an owner-builder for their own use rather than by a licensed builder.
• Homes on First Nations reserve land — coverage is available but voluntary.
• Hotels, care facilities, dormitories, and floating homes.
• Manufactured and mobile homes.
• Multi-unit rental buildings — where a covenant restricting the building to rental use is registered on title.

The exemption that comes up most often for buyers is the owner-built home. An owner-builder does not carry warranty insurance, but they remain personally responsible for construction defects for 10 years after the home is first occupied — so a claim is made against that person, not an insurer. It is genuinely a different kind of protection, and worth confirming a home’s history before you commit. Your lawyer or notary can verify whether a home was builder-built or owner-built.

When coverage starts — and what happens when you sell

All three clocks start on the same date. For a speculative (built-on-spec) detached home or a strata unit, coverage begins at first occupancy or the transfer of title — whichever comes first. For a custom detached home, it begins at occupancy or the date of the first building permit, whichever is first. For strata common property, it starts when the first unit is occupied or its title transfers.

Coverage stays with the home, not the owner. Buy a three-year-old home and you inherit what is left — roughly two years of building-envelope coverage and seven years of structural coverage. Selling does not reset the clock and does not end the coverage. When you are looking at a recently built resale home, ask for the original occupancy date and the warranty policy: together they tell you exactly how much protection is still in force.

Frequently asked questions

• Is the 2-5-10 warranty mandatory?

  Yes. Under BC’s Homeowner Protection Act, every new home built by a licensed residential builder must be covered by third-party home warranty insurance before it can be offered for sale or occupied. The builder arranges and pays for the policy; the buyer does not have to do anything to get the coverage. A handful of home types are exempt — owner-built homes most notably — which is covered below.

• Who provides the warranty, and who regulates it?

  The warranty is an insurance policy issued by a third-party warranty provider, an insurer rather than the builder. That matters: if the builder closes down, the coverage still stands, because the obligation sits with the insurer. The program itself is regulated by BC Housing, through its Licensing & Consumer Services branch, which also licenses residential builders and keeps a public registry of them.

• I’m buying a home that’s a few years old. Does the warranty still apply?

  Yes, if the home was built by a licensed residential builder and is still inside a coverage window. The warranty stays with the home, not the original owner, so a second or third owner inherits whatever time is left. The clock does not reset on resale — a four-year-old home has roughly one year of building-envelope coverage and six years of structural coverage remaining. Ask for the original occupancy or title-transfer date and the warranty policy so you know exactly where the clocks stand.

• What is the "building envelope," and why does it get its own five years?

  The building envelope is everything that separates the inside of the home from the outside weather: the exterior walls, the roof, the windows and doors, and the assemblies behind them. The five-year coverage exists for a specific reason: BC’s "leaky condo" era in the 1980s and 1990s, when widespread envelope failures left owners with repair bills the original builders could not or would not cover. The Homeowner Protection Act and its mandatory envelope warranty were the province’s response. Envelope problems are slow to surface and expensive to fix, so they get a dedicated, longer coverage window.

• I’m looking at a home the owner built themselves. Is it covered?

  Owner-built homes are exempt from the warranty-insurance requirement, so there is usually no third-party policy. Instead, the owner-builder is personally responsible for construction defects for 10 years after the home is first occupied — a claim goes to that person directly, not to an insurer. That is a different risk profile from a builder-built home: if the owner-builder is hard to reach or has no assets, the practical protection is thinner. Owner-built homes also carry specific disclosure obligations when they are sold. Confirm a home’s history and have your lawyer or notary verify it before you write an offer.

• How is the 2-5-10 warranty different from the builder’s own promises?

  The 2-5-10 warranty is the legal floor: third-party insurance that pays out regardless of whether the builder is still in business. Many builders also offer their own customer-care or touch-up commitments on top of it: a deficiency walkthrough, a first-year fix list, a direct line for small issues. Those builder programs are genuinely useful, but they depend on the builder still being around and willing. Treat the insured 2-5-10 coverage as the guarantee and the builder’s own service as a welcome addition.

• What does the warranty NOT cover?

  It is defect insurance, not a maintenance plan. It does not cover normal wear and tear, damage caused by the owner’s own neglect or alterations, landscaping, or anything outside its coverage window. Coverage is also capped in dollar terms (see the limits below), and each policy lists specific exclusions. Read the actual policy for your home — the warranty provider and the start date are on it — so you know the precise terms, deadlines, and claims process rather than relying on a general summary.

Primary sources

• BC Housing — Licensing & Consumer Services: Home Warranty Insurance for New Homes
• Homeowner Protection Act and the Homeowner Protection Act Regulation, via BC Laws

Coverage details and limits are summarized here for general information and were reviewed against the sources above on 2026-05-16. The warranty policy on a specific home is the controlling document — read it for the exact terms, deadlines, and exclusions, and confirm a builder’s licence on the BC Housing registry.