My Builder Is Behind Schedule: What You Can Actually Do About It

First, what kind of late is it?

A custom home in Ontario takes eight to twelve months to build once the foundation is in, and the number everyone quoted at the start was the optimistic one. Some lateness is built into the business:

• Normal: winter weather, a permit revision, windows on a 14-week lead time, a trade that is a week behind because the trade before it was a week behind. Annoying, common, and not a breach.
• Builder-caused: the builder took on too many jobs, did not order materials on time, lost a crew, or is juggling your draws with someone else’s. Still usually fixable, but it is the builder’s problem to fix and you can say so in writing.
• Warning signs: nobody on site for two weeks with no explanation, trades calling you about unpaid invoices, the builder asking for money ahead of the schedule, phone calls not returned. That is not a schedule problem; read contractor abandoned the project and what if the builder goes out of business now, not later.

What the contract says, and what it probably does not

Pull out the contract and find three things: the completion date or the construction period, the delay clause, and any liquidated damages or compensation for late delivery. Most Ontario custom home contracts have a completion date that is softened by a delay clause excusing weather, permits, material shortages, labour disputes and changes the owner asked for. Few have any penalty for being late. If yours has neither a date nor a delay clause, the law implies a reasonable time, which is a vaguer protection than it sounds. The delay clause guide walks through the usual wording.

Change orders matter here. Every change you asked for gave the builder an argument for more time, and a good builder recorded the extra days on the change order. If they did not, and you signed, the schedule became a negotiation.

Step by step

1. Write, do not phone. A short letter or e-mail: the contract date, the current state of the house, a request for a written revised schedule with trade-by-trade dates within seven days. Polite, factual, dated. This is the document everything else hangs on.
2. Start a log today. Date, who was on site, what got done, photos. Thirty days of a log is worth more than a year of memory if it ends up in front of a lawyer or Tarion.
3. Meet on site with the schedule. Walk the house against the revised dates. Ask what is ordered, what is paid for, and which trades are booked. Builders who are merely overloaded can answer; builders in trouble cannot.
4. Hold the draws to the schedule. Pay for stages completed, on time, every time. Do not pay ahead to “help things along”, and do not withhold for completed work to punish. Both move you into breach.
5. Set a date in writing for the next check. If the revised schedule slips again without a reason you can see with your own eyes, escalate: a formal notice under the contract’s default clause, and a conversation with a construction lawyer. When to hire a construction lawyer says when that moment is.

Does Tarion help with a late house?

Only sometimes. Tarion’s delayed closing and delayed occupancy coverage applies to homes bought from a registered builder under a Tarion-enrolled agreement with a set closing or occupancy date, and it pays set amounts per day up to a cap. A contract home built on your own lot by a licensed builder can be enrolled and covered; an owner-built home is not. If your builder is HCRA licensed and the home is enrolled, read your Tarion addendum: it sets out the critical dates and what the builder owes if they are missed. Tarion explains the coverage; your addendum is the document that applies to you.

When late becomes abandoned

There is no number of weeks that turns a slow job into an abandoned one; the signs are no work, no communication, and unpaid trades. At that point the schedule is no longer the issue. Secure the site, photograph everything, stop any further payments, check the land registry for liens, and get advice before terminating, because terminating badly can leave you owing money to the builder you are firing. The termination clause and liens for homeowners are the next two reads.

Related guides on this site

Sources and further reading

• Tarion: the new home warranty
• Construction Act, R.S.O. 1990
• Consumer Protection Act (home renovation rights)

Questions people ask