Tarion has announced the finalists for the 2017 Homeowners’ Choice Awards, the Ontario-based awards that give new home buyers the power to recognize their new home builder for outstanding customer service.
Presented by Tarion, the awards recognize builders with excellent customer service in four categories: small, medium, large volume and high-rise.
“The Homeowners’ Choice Awards are an important opportunity for customers to tell us about their new home buying experience and their level of satisfaction with their builder,” said Howard Bogach, Tarion president and CEO, in a press release. “Each and every home buyer can have a say in whether their builder is worthy of recognition for excellent customer service.”
Every fall, Tarion uses a third party research firm to conduct an Ontario-wide customer satisfaction survey of new home owners in their first year of ownership. For this edition of the Homeowners’ Choice Awards, homeowners who took possession between October 1, 2015 and September 30, 2016 were surveyed. Tarion sent out over 52,500 invitations to complete the survey by email or standard mail. It received 8,500 completed surveys in response, representing a response rate of 16 per cent.
Survey questions focused on homeowners’ satisfaction with their builder, covering every stage in the homeowner-builder relationship, from the signing of the Agreement of Purchase and Sale, through construction and the pre-delivery period, to after-sales service.
To be eligible for the Homeowners’ Choice Awards, builders must have at least five new home possessions during the survey timeframe and a certain number of completed questionnaires must have been returned.
In addition, this year, the inaugural Ernest Assaly Award will be presented to a builder that is a leader in quality home building, innovation and community service. The award is named after Mr. Ernest Assaly, Tarion’s first Board Chair, who held this role from 1976 to 1988. Assaly was a passionate voice for the builder’s warranty program, a highly respected award-winning builder and leader in Ontario’s residential construction industry.
“This new award recognizes a builder’s longstanding commitment to building quality, innovation and involvement in their community,” added Bogach. “Ontario has more than 5,000 registered builders, but only 38 met the challenging eligibility criteria and were invited to make a full nomination submission to Tarion.”
Award recipients will be announced at a luncheon taking place in Woodbridge on April 19, 2017. Finalists for the Ernest Assaly Award were selected by Tarion’s Board of Directors and will be honoured at the luncheon, where the recipient of the award will also be announced.
Here are the finalists for this year’s Homeowners’ Choice Awards:
Small Volume Category (5-20 possessions per year)
Davenport Homes, Peterborough
Greene Homes, Kingston
JF Homes Construction Ltd., Strathroy
Lockwood Brothers Construction, Oxford Station
Luxart Homes Inc., Carleton Place
MacGregor Enterprises Ltd., Kincardine
Medium Volume Category (21-100 possessions per year)
Hayhoe Homes, St. Thomas
Klemencic Homes, Trenton
Neilcorp Homes, Almonte
Opus Homes, Vaughan
Talos Custom Homes Ltd., Richmond
Wrighthaven Homes Limited, Elora
Large Volume Category (More than 100 possessions per year)
Arista Homes Ltd., Vaughan
Mountainview Homes, Thorold
Tamarack Development Corp., Ottawa
Tartan Homes, Ottawa
The Daniels Corporation, Toronto
Tribute Communities, Pickering
High-Rise Category (More than 100 high-rise possessions per year)
Menkes Developments Ltd., Toronto
Onni Group, Toronto
Pratt Homes Barrie, Barrie
The Conservatory Group, Markham
The Daniels Corporation, Toronto
Tridel, Toronto
Ernest Assaly Award
Granite Homes, Guelph
Lockwood Brothers Construction, Oxford Station
Pinnacle Quality Homes, Mitchell
