Ontario new home warranty coverage steps down on a schedule, and the one-year anniversary is the largest single drop. After it passes, a long list of defects that were the builder's responsibility quietly becomes yours. The eleven-month inspection exists for one reason: to produce a complete, documented deficiency list while you still have the right to submit it.
Why month eleven and not month twelve
You need time. Time to receive the report, time to write the form, and time for it to be submitted and acknowledged before the anniversary date. Booking at eleven months gives you roughly four weeks of margin. Booking at twelve months gives you none, and we have taken those calls.
A year of living in it changes what we find
The PDI happens in an empty house on a schedule. The eleven-month inspection happens in a house that has been through a full Ottawa winter and summer — one heating season of expansion and one cooling season of contraction. Settlement cracking has appeared. The drafty corner has announced itself. The bathroom fan that does not actually move air has fogged a mirror three hundred times. Grading has settled. The evidence is all there now, and it was not there at the PDI.
What typically makes the list
Drywall cracking and nail pops at framing joints. Doors and windows out of adjustment after a season of movement. Missing or displaced attic insulation. HVAC balance problems between floors and over garages. Grading that now slopes toward the foundation. Caulking and flashing failures at the first freeze-thaw cycle. Floor squeaks, tile cracks, and grout failures. Individually minor, collectively worth thousands, and all of it the builder's to correct if you file in time.
What is included
- Full inspection scope, run specifically against warranty-claimable categories
- Complete infrared scan for insulation gaps and air leakage after a full heating season
- Room-by-room HVAC temperature readings to document balance problems
- Exterior grading and drainage re-assessment against the builder's final grade
- A deficiency list written in the format and language the warranty form expects
- Delivered with time to spare before your anniversary date
Why this matters in Ottawa
Barrhaven, Riverside South, Findlay Creek, Kanata North, Stittsville and Orléans produce most of this work, simply because that is where Ottawa's new homes are. If you took possession roughly a year ago in any of them, this is the call to make this month rather than next.