Lifting the lid on post-settlement warranties

Let’s talk warranties for a second. Every new home is secured with a post-settlement warranty according to the HIA building contract, but they’re not all created equal – and some are even used as marketing tactics to make you feel more secure in your purchase, even when they’re not providing you, the buyer, with any tangible additional benefits. 

We see artificially inflated warranties splashed all over the place, and usually these guarantees are simply provided by the builders and not underwritten by any insurance company at all. So how valuable are they really? Then there’s the fine print to watch out for, for example, most structural warranties aren’t transferable to the new owners if you decide to sell your home. So, we thought in the interest of our trademark transparency,  we’d walk you through builder’s warranties and how it works for you as an Arden customer. All Arden homes come with a 7-year structural warranty and are inspected at the 3-month mark to ensure any potential issues are taken care of. Here are a few key points to keep in mind when it comes to your home warranty.

Our homes are independently inspected. 

Building a home that’s structurally sound and safe for you to live in is a really big deal to us, and something we don’t take lightly. Key inspections during your build are carried out by an independent building inspector. They have no vested interest in ensuring that your build passes its inspection, so you can feel confident that each inspection is conducted based on rigorous standards with professionalism and objectivity. 

We’re committed to quality.

 After settlement, there’s a standard maintenance inspection period that all builders offer which is usually 3 months –  that’s what you’ll get with us, too.  This 3 month period gives our customers an opportunity to live in their homes and identify any defects that may require repair or replacement. Your site supervisor will attend at the 3 month mark and do an inspection of the home with you and run through any concerns that may have arisen in your first 3 months. If your site supervisor identifies items that are considered a defect, we’ll then arrange for maintenance to correct them under your warranty. 

Continuity of relationships. Once your home is built, you won’t get transferred to a new department to manage any issues or warranty claims – the site supervisor who managed the build of your home will be in charge of seeing through any warranty follow-ups, too. Other builder’s often send out a team member that you’ve never met before to conduct these inspections, which means they don’t know your home and you don’t know them. And that can result in things being missed. We’re committed to maintaining the integrity of our relationship with you, even after we hand over the keys.

Our suppliers carry their own warranties 

The benefit of building with a builder who uses high-quality suppliers is that most of those suppliers will have their own warranties. If you find a product is outside the 3 month warranty period, you may still be able to claim it on the manufacturer warranty – and because here at Arden we only use trusted, reputable suppliers, you won’t be left high and dry when you need something repaired.

So, while our warranties at first glance may not look flashy or seductive – rest assured that what they are is genuine. They’re not another ‘hook’ to try and get you to build with us, and we’ll never use them as leverage in this way. What you see is what you get when you choose to build with Arden.