CONSUMERS' REFORM TARION

Source: ‘New Yorker Magazine cartoon, Conde Nast, by Mankoff.’

Since 2008,  Tarion Warranty Corporation, the Ontario government’s monopoly which regulates builders and provides mandatory home warranties, has been obligated to hold an Annual Public Meeting (“APM”). This was to create a “public service culture”.

With each successive year, Tarion has sought to take the “public” out of this meeting.  This week’s June 1st session was again a step backwards.

At the 2014 APM, consumer backlash seems to have caught management like a deer in the headlights. This year, consumers continued to ask serious questions about bias toward builders, over-lawyering of disputes, the lack of transparency in Tarion’s builder track records, Tarion’s lack of adherence to its own regulations, and the lack of consumer advocates on the board.

The management happy-talk this year only added more fuel to the fire. There’s a disconnect between what Tarion says it does, and what it actually appears to be doing. All the while selling us the “we protect new home buyers” slogan.

This year’s meeting was replete with the usual empty platitudes like wanting to give consumers “confidence in the home buying experience“, “educating consumers“, helping those “having trouble communicating with builders“, and “increasing confidence in Tarion’s decision-making“, and “improving the service experience”.  All of which is of zero interest to someone freezing in their new home, or fighting Tarion’s lawyers to get their homes fixed. One consumer quipped she was pleased to attend the Annual Tarion PR event.

Not to worry, we’re assured, “Tarion is working with the Ministry“; and the Ministry is “working with Tarion“. What a relief.  Now we’re told Tarion is “working with the License Appeal Tribunal“. To perhaps find out how to stop suing its own customers?

It was announced at Monday’s meeting that Tarion has hired yet another “consultant”.  You guessed it, a lawyer, for early dispute resolution.

A very news-y item to come out of Monday night’s meeting was: Tarion has completed a plain language review. From now on Tarion will only use clear language to communicate with consumers, making everything for us easier to understand. As opposed to what?

Here are a few of the measures taken this year to stifle consumer feedback at the meeting:

1) An “external moderator” was hired to control the questions from the audience, shielding the Chair and CEO from angry consumers or tough questions. To ingratiate himself with the audience, the moderator announced he knew nothing of Tarion or its activities. An avuncular figure, he seemed to really get into his role during the meeting, asking one or two questions of his own when his curiosity got piqued, and occasionally answering a question which was directed at Tarion. He unctuously apologized to a Tarion executive for calling him “Ian” when he should have used his surname. But, he explained, it must have been their common background in London, Ontario which caused this slip in formality.  This silly banter seemed a tactic to reduce the time allotted for consumer questions.

2) No video or audio recordings allowed by anyone; only Tarion was allowed to video-record the meeting. No one is permitted to have a copy. (Reason: to protect our privacy!)

3) A limited number of “live” questions were permitted from the audience of approx. 200 attendees. Consumers were instructed to line up behind one of the two standing microphones in the cavernous room to wait for permission to ask their question.  The moderator whittled away more time with silly anecdotes and turned frequently to read anonymous, pre-submitted, questions from the screen, or questions from web viewers.

4) The webcast was cut off half-way, according to several participants, as was the case last year.

5) The meeting was held at a large hotel not easily accessible by public transit;

6) Consumers had to stand in front of an intimidating Spinx-like row of 16 unidentified board members, lawyers, and “leadership team members” to ask their questions.

7) Consumers were cut off from the microphone as soon as their questions became “inconvenient”, such as “How much did you spend on lawyers fighting my family in court?!”   The moderator simply turned off the microphone, the CEO promptly sat down, and the moderator announced he was turning to a question from the web audience.  Oh here’s one: “What can I do about nail pops in my new home”? Panel, anyone like to answer that one?  Many of us haven’t experienced this top-down handling since high school.

8) Consumers who formulated their questions like statements were cut off from the microphone as well. A polite 60-something lady mustered her courage to approach the microphone and say something which represented the feelings of many: “I keep coming to these meetings and you say you’re fixing things, but you’re not…”  The moderator again – No, No, NEXT!

9) Consumers tried to hand out information regarding their Facebook site “Make Tarion Accountable” to other consumers, but were told to stop. As far as I know, freedom of speech is part of our Charter of Rights and Freedom. Tarion seems to be the exception to many rules, so why not this one too.

After the last questioner had been shut down, the audience had no appetite for the closing remarks from the Chair, another prominent builder. The board disappeared into the confines of the hotel away from the madding crowd.

With over $400,000 million in “investments”, $24+ million in salaries, paying out only $9 million in claims, (Annual Report 2014), we all need to keep asking Tarion tough questions.

Thanks to all of you who were brave enough to come out to the meeting, ask your questions, and attend our consumer news conference prior to that. We need to keep asking questions of Tarion, the LAT, and the governing Liberals who continue to stonewall reforms.

Moderator or not, censorship or not, it seems to have fallen to us as individual consumers to make Tarion accountable.

Dear Premier Kathleen Wynne, Premier of Ontario,

Since you took office in 2013, I have written two Open Letters to you asking you to bring urgent reforms to your monopoly, Tarion Warranty Corporation. You have answered neither. My e-mails and calls to your office have been brushed aside. Your automated reply says you are pleased to refer me to Minister Orazietti, Minister of Government and Consumer services, who has also not responded. Worse, he has given media interviews saying he’s open to consumers, positive spin for any politician, but once consumers have taken the time to write, he’s fallen silent.

Is this a political game?

As you know, Tarion’s 2014 annual report was recently presented to the Legislature. This monopoly paid itself approximately $24 million in salaries (executive salaries secret), while paying out only about $4.9 million in claims. It has revenues of $71 million, of which $34 million from home enrollment fees passed on to new home buyers, and $35 million from investment income. You would think this arms-length monopoly with minimal oversight would be subject to strict scrutiny, since it has a public trust function to protect consumers and regulate the building industry. But no, the oversight model is one of the most lenient in your government. For scandal-weary Ontarians, its odd you’ve taken no pre-emptive action to bring accountability and transparency to Tarion.

Premier Wynne, you were recently quoted in the media (17/04/2015, National Post) saying “the days of monopoly are done“. Why is the Tarion monopoly an exception? Monopolies are known to be poor providers of services, since they have no competition and no incentive to improve. In Tarion’s case, it’s also worrying that powerful building lobbies like the OHBA continue to have a major influence on policy-making, with eight builders appointed to the board, and one major builder recently appointed Chair. This is asking the public “trust us”, trust the building industry to basically self-police. When asked to vote for protecting their own profits or protecting consumers, which do you think builders will chose?

Builders and Tarion senior executives seem content with the status quo. No one knows what either you or your Minister think, since Tarion seems to be in a no-reply zone.

Politicians will always sing their own praises when the media spotlight is upon them, as both you and Minister Orazietti have recently done. Premier Wynne, your conflict resolution skills were recently commended in the Toronto Star (06/05/2015), and Minister Oraziettti’s interest in consumer feedback was also featured (02/12/2015), Toronto Star). But reputations are built on actions, not words.  So far consumers have seen neither.

We are baffled that you and the Minister responsible for Tarion do not even respond to consumer concerns about this monopoly.  To read some of the letters written to you from consumers freezing in their newly-built homes, suffering long complex court battles with Tarion, or trying to get compensation for Ontario Building Code defects, it would have to be someone with a very hard heart who could ignore these troubling stories. The human cost of inaction on Tarion has been made abundantly clear to you, and the problem is urgent.

Your party’s stonewalling on legislation like Bill 60 to reform Tarion seems to favour the interests and privileges of the building industry above the interests of the consumer. This can only be understood in the light of the generous political campaign contributions by the building industry, and its cozy connections to power and politics in this province.

Premier Wynne, your government seems to have chosen political expediency over the public interest. It seems to me you’ve sold Ontario’s new home buyers down the river.

(l to r): Dr. Aleksandra Ferenc, Mr. Jeffrey Ferland, and blogger/Volunteer Consumer Advocate, Ms. Barbara Captijn

————

“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were still striking thirteen.“

…George Orwell, 1984

I’ve been attending a hearing at the License Appeal Tribunal (LAT) as a concerned member of the public, for 9 of the last 27 days since it began last September. The applicants are a young, educated, self-represented professional couple, with a small child at home, trying to get their new home fixed under Tarion’s mandatory warranty. The respondent is Tarion Warranty Corporation, with its in-house counsel and legal experts from a top Bay Street firm. The builder is the “Added Party”, which means he’s agreed to “fully co-operate with Tarion.”

Tarion’s heavy-ing up on costly litigators to fight self-represented consumers seems like using a baseball bat to kill a fly. The homeowner is up against two sets of lawyers, Tarion’s and the builder’s, as well as top engineers and technical witnesses.

The homeowners didn’t build the home, yet the burden of proof is on them to prove the defects. The money Tarion has spent so far on engineers and specialized litigators could have been used to fix the home. Lawyers for this type of hearing can cost $1,500 to $4,000 per day, with an up-front retainer costing anywhere from $30,000- $60,000. Its not easy to find a law firm specialized in this area who is not already used by Tarion, the building lobbies, or major builders. No surprises there, that’s where the big money is.

What ordinary new home buyer can afford these legal fees? Not even middle class, two-income families. Tarion can, and does, pay these fees, using the warranty fund which was meant to fix new home defects.

As an Ontario government monopoly “protecting new home buyers” and “regulating the building industry”, Tarion doesn’t have to disclose what it spends on lawyers to fight consumers in court. Who would have thought the government monopoly paid to protect us from building defects would use the warranty fund to fight us in court, letting shoddy builders off the hook, and shifting the cost of someone else’s wrong-doing back to us?

The legislation Tarion administers, the ONHWPA, is “consumer protection legislation”. Its meant to be given “a fair and liberalinterpretation“, according to the courts (Mandos v. ONHWPA, 1995). Anyone observing the LAT would be hard-pressed to find anything going on here which looks even remotely like “consumer protection”. The usual legal tactics of attacking witness’s credibility, withholding evidence as long as possible, using legal procedure to outsmart the other party, delaying the proceedings, wearing down opponents, its all fair game at the LAT against self-represented homeowners.

Tarion enjoys a monopoly and an arms-length relationship to government. The government has created a 900-pound gorilla, and seems to ignore its duty to the public to make this monopoly accountable and transparent. Tarion is not subject to oversight by the Auditor-General of Ontario, nor the Ombudsman of Ontario, nor the Sunshine List which discloses executive salaries. A giant monopoly with a huge public trust function and little or no oversight – is just plain irresponsible.

Tarion brings in about $33 million in mandatory fees annually, and pays itself $26 million in salaries, while paying out only $3.5 million in claims.  Catch me if you can.  And you can’t.

During the LAT hearing I’ve attended – its open to the public – I’ve made notes on things which seem so absurd they could have come right out of a George Orwell novel.

Here are a few:

It seems absurd to me, just like something out of George Orwell’s “1984” or “Animal Farm”. Two plus two is five, and sometimes three. The Ministry of Consumer Services has become the Ministry of Un-Consumer Services, the Ministry of Justice the Ministry of In-Justice. No one’s responsible, no one’s accountable, so lets shift the blame to the most vulnerable party, the homeowner.  And the clock strikes thirteen.

Well-respected lawyer, media professor, and columnist Alan Shanoff weighs in on Tarion.  See below his recent article published in the Law Times (March 30, 2015):

He explains why Tarion, an arms-length monopoly of government with a public trust function “protecting new home buyers” NEEDS accountability and transparency legislation, now.

The only ones turning a blind eye to this problem are those able to fix it : Premier Wynne and her Liberal MPPs.

The current Ontario government seems to have a vested interest in keeping the powerful building industry Goliaths happy. And they’re happy as long as no legislation can check out exactly what’s going on at Tarion Warranty Corporation. They appear to be content with the arms-length staus quo. Ontario’s new home and condo buyers continue to suffer the lack of adequate protection for new home construction defects, which they’ve paid for via a mandatory fee.

See reasons why Premier Wynne and her Liberal majority MPPs need to vote for Bill 60:

http://www.lawtimesnews.com/201503304571/commentary/province-should-make-tarion-more-accountable-transparent

The Ottawa Business Journal recently published an admiring interview (16/03/15) with Chris Spiteri, out-going Chairman of the board of  Tarion Warranty Corporation to showcase “accomplishments” of his ten-year term.

Mr. Spiteri claims he’s “proud of Tarion’s record when it comes to protecting consumers“.   He cites”remarkable” results in keeping disputes away from the provincial License Appeal Tribunal (LAT), saying he’s “boosted protection” for consumers, and Tarion “sucessfully resolves cases almost 100 % of the time”.

To many consumers, this article was like throwing oil on the flames.

It ignited anger from individual consumers and consumer groups who’ve been urging the Ontario government for  years to bring transparency and accountability to Tarion, an arms-length monopoly of the government.

Many consumers have found Tarion unresponsive, its coverage inadequate, many have had to fight for compensation in court, and found Tarion lawyering up against them and shielding builders from accountability. Furthermore, since its also regulator of the building industry, many find Tarion’s Builder Directory inaccurate and misleading about builder performance.

Mr. Spiteri is well aware of all of this.

He also witnessed an angry backlash from over 200 consumers at Tarion’s Annual Public Meeting (30/04/14) where he and his CEO struggled to keep control of the meeting. “I understand the level of frustration”, he said, regarding complaints about Tarion’s use of the License Appeal Tribunal to fight self-represented consumers. “The use of attorneys, the use of lawyers creates an imbalance“, he admitted. He promised to “take this back to the board.”

Another year has passed. A few promises, no action.

The board has known about these “imbalances” for years.  Tarion and builders win 83-96% of LAT appeals, and are presumably happy with the staus quo. With eight buidlers on Tarion’s board, consumer reforms are a hard sell. Mr. Spiteri’s claim of having “dramatically boosted consumer protection” is unconvincing to consumers.

The Ontario Home Builders Association (OHBA) has its own “Tarion Liaison Committee” to develop policy to protect their interests, and they nominate eight builders to Tarion’s board. Its not hard to see why many Tarion policies end up protecting builders instead of consumers. Policies get re-packaged and presented to the public and the oversight Ministry as “protecting new home buyers“, whether they actually do or not.

There are no consumer advocates on Tarion’s board. How does Tarion get feedback from consumers if there are none on its board? This is unclear.

Consumers have been told not to contact Tarion board members, not to contact the so-called “Consumer Advisory Council”, the CEO rarely answers consumer correspondence, and consumers are told all inquiries are to be sent to the Director of “Stakeholder Outreach”, who also happens to be President of the Liberal Party of Ontario. Anyone finding this a conflict of interest is told he’s “not a reasonable person”.

The following statement from Tarion’s chair is puzzling:

“The agency (Tarion) has also launched an external review of its dispute resolution mechanism to ensure its as fair as possible, he noted, adding it sucessfully resolves such cases “almost 100 per cent of the time.”

If Tarion resolves cases almost 100% of the time, why is it launching an “external review” of its dispute mechanism?

Perhaps he means builders and Tarion win almost 100% of the time. True, they win 83-96% of the LAT cases. But that can hardly be sold to us as “dramatically boosting consumer protection“.

Tarion’s Chair says “I dont’ hear (those complaints) anymore”  – referring to complaints Tarion is biased toward builders.  Guess he missed the Annual Public Meeting questions in 2013 and 2014, as well as two bills brought to the Legislature in the past two years, and a petition for Bill 60 by MPP Singh in which states: “Tarion is controlled by the builders it is supposed to regulate, not by the new home buyers it is supposed to protect.”

The title of the Ottawa Business Journal article also seems out of touch: “Tarion Chair says confidence in firm steadily building“?  You must be kidding.  Tarion has a government-granted monopoly, no competition, they collect fees on every new home or condo sold in Ontario, they bring in $33 million in annual revenues (2013), pay themselves $26 million in salaries and pay only $3.5 million in claims. The Chair annonces “confidence” in Tarion  is “steadily building“?!  – in a monopoly?

Consumers often hear Tarion executives tell the media what a great job they’re doing. It sounds like a totally different company than the one many have experienced. Many new home buyers have had to bear the costs of defects not resolved by Tarion, many have resorted to “patch and run”, many have lost their appeals to Tarion at the LAT.  This is surely the opposite of what the Legislature intended when it passed consumer protection legislation, the ONHWPA.

Tarion’s top brass have regular columns in all major print media, they have huge marketing budgets to spin any story they want to the public, they have strong political connections, and the building industry is the largest contributor to political parties in Ontario. We hope we can rely on the press to provide scrutiny of government monopolies and chest-beating executives.

Mr. Spiteri says “I think maybe we’re a little too humble in getting that message out.”

Sorry, Mr. Spiteri, we think Tarion has a lot to be humble about. 

http://obj.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/viewer.aspx

Its often said a good reporter is a good diagnostician.

In his recent column in The Toronto Sun (22/02/15), lawyer and columnist Alan Shanoff wrote about what’s ailing Tarion, the arms-length new home warranty provider and building industry regulator, a monopoly of the Ontario government.

(See link below: “Time to shine light on Tarion“)

As any doctor knows, asking the right questions is essential to making a good diagnosis. Often a good reporter does the same thing. Understanding the cause of an ailment is the key to a cure, and treating symptoms won’t address the underlying cause.

As Mr. Shanoff points out in his column, the problems with Tarion are widely known, varied, and long-standing.

Most observers, including MPPs and the Ombudsman of Ontario, agree the main problem with Tarion is lack of transparency and accountability, a common ailment of government monopolies with scant oversight, as the recent scandals at ORNGE and e-Health showed in such a dramatic way.

Bill 60, the “Tarion Accountability and Oversight Act“, introduced by MPP Singh in December 2014,  is the cure for Tarion we now have before the Ontario Legislature. Will Premier Wynne and her Liberal government support it?

Wynne, like her predecessor McGuinty, has refused to support Bills to bring accountability and transparency to Tarion.  She continues to try to convince us of her belief in accountable and transparent government. “No more spending scandals“, that’s “water under the bridge“, “we’ll do government differently“, she says. Sounds good, but to have any credibility, words need to be matched with action.

During the last month, Liberal MPPs and Cabinet Ministers have been stonewalling consumers, refusing to meet with them to hear why Bill 60 is important to them. “No time!… “traveling abroad“…absolutely no time!”

This is a poor show from our public servants.  No wonder people become cynical about politics and politicians.

Consumers will be watching the televised debates in the Legislature on Bill 60 to see how well our elected MPPs understand Tarion  from the consumer standpoint.

Its clear the powerful construction and development lobbies are not in favour of Bill 60.  They seem to have the ear of the Premier. No doubt she’s delighted with the hundreds of thousands of dollars their industry donated to her re-election campaign.

Consumers are tired of fawning government promises to “work with Tarion“.  We don’t need authorities to “work with Tarion”, …that’s the problem! We need independent oversight of Tarion, someone to scrutinize their operations, not another Tarion team player.

This is a political problem. It remains squarely on the plate of the government who’s watched it grow and fester for the last 11 years.

Action is long overdue. Premier Wynne and her Liberal MPPs need to heed the diagnosis, and cure the patient. Now.

See article here: http://www.torontosun.com/2015/02/21/time-to-shine-light-on-tarion

In January, 2014, the City of Toronto published a “Condominium Consultation Report”, after a year of public consultations with stakeholders on improving various aspects of the city’s condo living.

36 recomendations were made. Item 26 concerns Tarion Warranty Corporation under the heading “Construction Quality”.

Consumers have been telling Tarion for years the warranty provides inadequate protection for new home buyers. Not just condo buyers, but purchasers of newly built freehold homes as well.  Tarion, whose slogan is “protecting new home buyers,” often ends up protecting builders.

Builders have their own powerful, politically well-connected groups to protect their interests. Consumers are supposed to have Tarion.

The consumer stakeholders who were consulted for this Condo Consultation report gave clear signals the current system is not working. Below are some of their comments:

Re: Qu. 27 – Building Quality:

# 78: “There are no laws to protect condo owners and please don’t tell me there is Tarion. That was the most useless organization…”

#8 – “..Tarion offered no help, in fact it was helping the developer by refusing to pull his license for such shabby quality and his refusal to fix it…”

#107 – “Tarion is in the hands of the developers/builders, as of now is useless”.

#120 –  “The TARION  process is also a joke as it provides home buyers a false sense of protection.”

#22 -“Tarion warranty is not trustworthy. Need a public and independently-run governing body for building code and minimum acceptable quality.”

#45 – “Tarion needs to hold developers to account without condo corporation incurring incredibly huge legal fees with still no resolution.”

#48 – “Developers should not be self-governed/regulated when it comes to inspections and follow-ups, Tarion is a perfect example of how developers in this province have carte blanche and consumers have no rights. Tarion is a joke! “

#70 – Reshape Tarion’s Board of Directors, more Directors from the public should be on the board. City inspection is a rubber-stamping in respect of inspection.”

#77 – “Should be more rigorous enforcement than Tarion – developers need to be held more accountable.”

# 95 – “Tarion warranty system is useless – Had to settle with builder for next to nothing.”

#8 – (pg. 24) “Tarion is biased and is in the pocket of the developers.”

#28 – “There is a significant conflict of interest with a privately-run new home warranty program by Tarion. They operate with builders and allowing them to do minimum rather than striving for the best… Warranty guidelines should be drafted and enforced by a government body, not a private company.”

……………… (end of comments)

The report states that construction defects were frequently raised in the discussions.  Recommendation #26 of the report states:

“Encourage Tarion to publish and communicate common construction defects being claimed under warranty.” 

The report goes on to describe the Tarion warranty claims process as “onerous, takes a long time, and is sometimes not well managed (…) leaving condo residents without adequate protection. The process is also adversarial, sometimes creating hostility between condo corporations and builders (…) Participants desired additional disclosure of building defects (…) Rather than develop an approach that relies on the end-user to do the research…. 

Consumer groups have been voicing these concerns for years.  Even Tarion’s own employees voiced these concerns in a letter to the Premier (31/03/2014).  Various Ministers of Consumer Services as well as Premiers Wynne and McGuinty have all been made fully aware of these problems over the past years. All have turned a blind eye to repeated calls for transparency and accountability of this monopoly. The new Minister of Consumer Services has told consumers he won’t support Bill 60, the  “Tarion Accountability and Oversight Bill“. Yet he says he’s all for accountability and transparency. So is Premier Wynne, at least so she keeps telling us. But somehow these principles don’t ever seem to apply to Tarion.

Instead of telling us what they won’t do, we’d like to hear what they will do to solve these problems which have grown and festered under the Liberal government.

The City of Toronto Condominium Consultation Report is a small step in the right direction, and many of its recommendations should include buyers of new freehold homes as well.

There must be a better way to resolve new home construction defects in a a timely and cost-efficient way. Not every problem requires a courtroom. The current system creates an absurd situation where the insurer ends up fighting his own client. Homeowners lose, the taxpayer loses, our communities lose.

Consumer complaints about Tarion are serious, varied, and long-standing.  This Condominium Consultation  shows that. Its time to stop blaming the victim.

According to Tarion, its only critics are a fringe group of whiners who at the end of the day, wouldn’t be happy with Buckingham Palace.  This report certainly dispels that fiction.

Most consumers just want their new home to be free of construction defects, and to see the person responsible for defects made accountable for them.

Click here to view the City of Toronto Condominium Consultation Report.

Click to access Condo%20Consultation%20-%20Recommendations%20Report%20Attachment%20D.pdf

Dear Ms. L. Lamoureux,

Executive Chair, Safety, Licensing Appeals, and Standards Tribunals Ontario (SLASTO)

Many consumers wonder why you continue to believe the License Appeal Tribunal (LAT) is a proper forum for homeowners to appeal Tarion warranty decisions.

You know the probability of failure for consumers at the LAT is 83-96%. (CPBH research 2007-2013).

You know consumers cannot afford lawyers for even a 2-day hearing, at approx. $2,000 – 3,600 per day, plus time off work.

You  know the LAT is a highly legalistic forum, and procedure-driven. Only skilled litigation lawyers know their way around this courtroom.

You know the burden of proof is high on self-represented parties to prove a defect in a home they did not build, and to contest a “decision letter” written by the large corporate defendant, Tarion.

You know the LAT is a two-on-one for consumers, where they’re pitted against two lawyers, Tarion’s and the builder’s, both using procedure and tricky cross-examination tactics to get claims dismissed.

You know Tarion hires top litigation experts, in addition to their in-house lawyers, to fight consumers at the LAT.

You know the Assistant Deputy Minister of Consumer Services recently stated the LAT processes are: “not transparent, complicated, time-consuming, costly, and unbalanced“. (Letter to Tarion CEO, 07/10/14)

You know consumers cannot afford technical experts they need to prove their cases, and that many experts will not testify against future job-providers such as Tarion and builders.

You know the LAT website is UN-consumer-friendly, by your own admission, (09/12/14).

You have acknowledged LAT Chairs have little or no training in dealing with self-represented parties.

You are aware Tarion’s annual revenues are approx. $33 million, it pays salaries/benefits of $24 million, administrative costs of $9 million, yet paid out only $3.5 million in claims. (2013 Annual Report). You know Tarion is a monopoly with a “consumer protection” mandate, and has the responsibility to regulate and license builders. Tarion  has the resources to  provide mediation or other problem-solving options to consumers without recourse to a courtroom. Yet the LAT continues to be the appeal mechanism for Tarion’s decisions, with Tarion/builders winning 83-96% of the cases, at the taxpayer’s expense. Many consumers feel new home defects should be kept firmly on the plate of the person who “owns the problem” and has the resources to solve them -Tarion.

Why is a courtroom being used at all in these cases? Why is the alarmingly high rate of failure for consumers not raising red flags at SLASTO? – or the LAT?

You’ve said (22/01/15) that you intend to “improve the service experience” at the LAT, manage “expectations” of homeowners, “improve processes“, provide “enhanced training and education” for  adjudicators.

With respect, Ms.Lamoureux, in the light of all the above information you have, this seems like re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

For months since Premier Wynne appointed yet another new Minister of Consumer/Government Services (the 5th in 6 years), consumer groups have spent hours meeting with the new Minister and his staff to bring them up to speed on serious consumer problems with Tarion and the License Appeal Tribunal.

While doing this, many of us have wondered – where’s all the information we’ve presented to this Minister’s predecessors? Why are we using our precious time as volunteers to constantly re-brief a revolving door of new Liberal Ministers and staff? Isn’t that what public servants get paid for? Where is the record of all our e-mails and meetings on this topic dating back to 2009-14?

I must be very old school, but it used to be that you’d have to read and understand files BEFORE meeting with various concerned stakeholders. I guess this business practice has also gone the route of the dinosaur.

Tarion Warranty Corporation, the Ontario government’s arms-length monopoly and the appeal body, the Licence Appeal Tribunal (LAT), have failed many consumers who discovered construction defects in their newly built homes.

A surprise to us two days ago was a copy of a letter sent (07/10/2014) to  Tarion’s CEO from the Assistant Deputy Minister, Mr. Denton,  offering kindly to help Tarion fix several serious consumer complaints (among other things) about their use of the LAT.

It stated the following: (re the LAT legal body for appeals of Tarion’s decisions):

“A less litigious and adversarial process would also address concerns the ministry has heard from homeowners that they are dissuaded from pursuing LAT appeals because the existing processes are not transparent, and are complicated, time-consuming, costly, and unbalanced. The Ministry would be pleased to assist Tarion with …development of a possible mediation process and/or other efforts to improve the dispute resolution process for homeowners. We understand that the Tarion board chair committed to a review of this issue (…) April 30, 2014. “

So where has this letter been for the last four months? Why has the Ministry been playing cat-and-mouse games for months about the nature and seriousness of these problems with consumers and advocacy groups?

Consumers continue to proceed like sheep-to-the-slaughter-house to appeal Tarion’s dismissed warranty claims, losing 83-96% of the cases.  The government oversight body of the LAT (SLASTO) admitted in December last year, whoops we really should train our adjudicators in dealing with  self-represented litigants, and consumer-ize our “terrible” website.

It appears this Ministry letter has been a well-kept secret at Tarion for months too, where senior executives continue to say the only consumers complaining about Tarion/LAT are a small group of tough-luck cases and perpetual malcontents.

It seems we’ve been played.

Where has this letter been for the last 4 months, and what has become of the 9-month old “commitment” of April 2014 to reform Tarion’s heavy-handed use of the LAT?

Knowing the new Minister has this information, and has had it for several months, we wonder how he could possibly refuse to vote for Bill 60, new legislation to bring accountability and transparency  to Tarion.

The governing Liberals have a trust and credibility problem with consumers on this issue. They need to “do the right thing” and protect consumers, not Tarion, not the LAT, and not their comfortable connections to the building lobbies.