The guarantee for new residential buildings
Any buyer of a building referred to in the Regulation respecting the guarantee plan for new residential buildings has an unwaivable mandatory guarantee plan.
New sole manager of the guarantee plan
With the coming into force of the new Regulation on January 1, 2015, the Abritat and Qualité Habitation guarantee plans were placed in trusteeship by the Régie du bâtiment du Québec. The provisional management of Abritat guarantee was entrusted to Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton firm, which has also been acting as such with regard to the GMN guarantee plan since 2013. As for Qualité Habitation’s guarantee management, it was entrusted to PricewaterhouseCoopers firm. These provisional managers will ensure that the rights of the beneficiaries of current guarantee certificates, which will expire in the five coming years, are respected.
Since January 1, 2015, Abritat and Qualité Habitation are no longer authorized to issue new certificates to buyers of new residential buildings. The management of the guarantee plan for new residential buildings is now assigned to a non-profit organization, namely the Garantie de construction résidentielle (GCR); only this organization is competent to issue a certificate of guarantee.
For the name of the guarantee manager with which a building is registered, you should first check the purchase date or the date the construction work of the new building started. If the sale contract was signed no later than December 31, 2014 or if the construction work began before that same date, the building is then registered with Abritat or Qualité Habitation. If the signing of the contract or the beginning of construction work took place on or after January 1, 2015, the building is then registered with GCR.
On January 1, 2015, new provisions also came into force particularly regarding the indexation of amounts that could be claimed in the guarantee plan (those relating to partial payments, completion of the work, corrections, defects and poor workmanship, relocation, moving and storage) and the increase of the minimum fee to issue a guarantee certificate. For more information on the main regulatory amendments, please visit the website of Régie du bâtiment du Québec.
New additional guarantee fund
In addition to the guarantee plan that has been mandatory since January 1, 2014, there is a new additional guarantee fund managed by the Régie du bâtiment du Québec.
This new fund is to ensure that guarantee beneficiaries will be compensated by the guarantee plan manager in case of exceptional or unforeseeable major disasters or when a guarantee plan manager is no longer able to fulfil its obligations due to its financial situation.
This additional relief fund compensates owners who are victims of a systemic issue such as the one experienced in 2010 in the Mauricie region, which was related to the presence of pyrrhotite in the foundation of several buildings.
In such cases, a claim to the fund can be forwarded to the Régie du bâtiment du Québec by the authorized manager of the guarantee plan or by the provisional manager appointed by the Régie, which shall in particular justify the requested amount in connection with the claims of the guarantee beneficiaries.
Useful links
- Garantie de construction résidentielle
- Régie du bâtiment - FAQ for the beneficiary of the guarantee plan
- Annotated Regulation respecting the guarantee plan for new residential buildings published by the RBQ
- Authorized arbitration bodies (arbitration decisions published on their website within a 30-day period)
For more information regarding the guarantee plan for new residential buildings, visit the www.rbq.gouv.qc.ca website or contact the customer service of the Régie du bâtiment du Québec at 1 800 361-0761.
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