British Columbia requires third-party home warranty on most new homes: roughly two years on labour and materials, five years on the building envelope, and ten years on structure, subject to the provider's terms. Only a Licensed Residential Builder can enrol a home for that coverage.
If you're building or buying a new home in British Columbia, you've probably heard the phrase "2-5-10" and nodded along without anyone explaining what it actually means. It's one of the strongest buyer protections in the country, and understanding it tells you a lot about who you should trust to build for you.
What "2-5-10" Actually Means
In BC, most new homes must carry mandatory third-party home warranty insurance before they can be sold or occupied. People shorthand it as "2-5-10" because the coverage comes in three layers, each with its own length. The exact details always come down to the warranty provider's terms, but the general shape is consistent across the province.
- 2 years — labour and materials: Coverage for defects in the work and the materials used, broken down further by system (for example, certain systems carry shorter sub-periods within those first two years).
- 5 years — building envelope: Protection against defects in the building envelope, including water penetration. On the wet coast, this is the layer homeowners care about most.
- 10 years — structure: Coverage for defects in the load-bearing structure of the home — the framing and systems that hold everything up.
Think of it as concentric circles of protection. The short-term layer catches the small stuff that shows up early. The five-year layer guards the part of the house that fights our climate every day. The ten-year layer backs the bones of the building. All of it is subject to the provider's terms, exclusions, and claim procedures, so the actual policy documents are worth reading.
Why Your Builder's Licence Is the Whole Game
Here's the part many buyers miss: that warranty doesn't appear on its own. A new home can only be enrolled for 2-5-10 coverage by a BC Housing Licensed Residential Builder. The licence is what connects your home to the warranty program in the first place.
That requirement exists for a reason. To hold the licence, a builder has to meet competency and good-standing requirements and stay accountable to the system. So when you ask a builder whether they're licensed, you're really asking two questions at once: can this home be insured, and is this builder operating inside the framework that's supposed to keep them honest?
Pro 1 Construction is a Licensed Residential Builder
We're a BC Housing Licensed Residential Builder, which means the new homes we build are eligible for 2-5-10 coverage through the home warranty system. We've been building in the Lower Mainland and on Vancouver Island for more than 25 years, we carry a clean WorkSafeBC record, and we're members of CHBA and VRBA. We've also worked as a deficiency contractor for home-warranty providers — meaning we've been the company called in to fix other builders' covered defects. That experience shapes how we build the first time.
What the Warranty Protects You From — and What It Doesn't
The warranty is insurance, not a maintenance plan. It's designed to cover genuine defects in workmanship, materials, the envelope, and the structure. It generally won't cover normal wear, damage from deferred maintenance, or changes you make after the fact. Reading your specific coverage summary early — before a problem ever comes up — saves a lot of confusion later.
- Keep your enrolment and coverage documents somewhere you'll find them years from now.
- Note the claim deadlines for each layer so a small issue doesn't quietly age out of coverage.
- Stay on top of routine maintenance, which protects both your home and your eligibility.
- Ask your builder who to contact if something does come up after move-in.
One Builder, Start to Finish
A warranty is only as reassuring as the people standing behind it. We act as a single point of contact across design, permits, trades, and finishing, so there's never a question of which contractor owns a problem. If you're planning a new home and want to understand how this protection applies to your project, request an estimate and we'll walk you through it in plain language.