A Ontario Tribunal has found First View Homes violated the Ontario Building Code in the installation of ceramic tile floors. The Tribunal also ordered Tarion to warranty the tile floor deficiencies that they wrongly denied over 2 years ago. This is good news for First View homeowners that are still within their 1-Year warranty period.

After we heard of numerous complaints of cracking tile and grout we discovered that the builder had used less than half of the required mortar bed in our tile floors. When confronted about the confirmed violations by a city inspector the builder stated that all their tile floors were done this same way. This message was relayed to us in a voice mail so there is no dispute what was said. We have asked some neighbours and they confirmed the same thin mortar bed violations.

This could affect thousands of homeowners but the city building department has stated they will not inform the public. This is despite the fact they posted an elaborate bulletin on the proper installation of tile floors by code on their website. You do not go to all that trouble for a individual complaint. They must know it is a systemic problem with one or more builders. This bulletin seen at the location www.barrie.ca/docs/Installation%20of%20Ceramic%20Tile.pdf was done soon after the violations were observed and the builders admission of how they built the floors. The city went as far as to send a letter completely praising the builder and defending them with absurd and incorrect statements.

We consider this to be reprehensible behaviour of senior city officials considering the massive violations. There were more than 30 building code violations in our home alone including structural and health and safety violations missed by the building department.

The Chief Building Officer is ultimately responsible for your Town's position on this matter. He/she will likely have a P.Eng designation. The phone number for the complaints department at the Association of Professional Engineers (APEO) is (416) 840-1074 or (800) 339-3716.

If what you say is correct, it may take a year before your particular CBO is relieved of his Engineering license, for a long list of professional misconducts including endangering public safety.

Your effort of complaining is only an hour or so, but the effort you initiate at the APEO can typically be tens of thousands of dollars worth of independent peer-investigation. The APEO has a zero tolerance policy for malpractice by their members.

If the CBO fights the potential charges, you are far more likely to eventually get access to the APEO's investigation evidence, which you could use in your own civil litigation. The CBO's 2-million-ish in malpractice insurance could also be accessed via small claims court for a nominal cost, but there you could only claim up to $10k in damages.

CBO's can be CBO's without a P.Eng license, (no kidding), but the public humiliation that losing a license will give them is key. It means that the Mayor can gain some leverage over them. Otherwise, Mayors tend to be fairly powerless over their non-elected officials, especially CBO's.

In our case, we have many P.Eng's under investigation, some are already undergoing disciplinary hearings. That basically only leaves a handful of P.Eng's in our region with enough qualifications to sign off on documents related to our particular complaint. We have friends going for some of the others who malpractice. Hopefully, those left standing are likely to be the honest P.Eng's, who can then charge a lot more because they no longer have to compete with dishonest "stamps for hire".

So far, we have found no more effective way to fight back than via the APEO.

New Home Victim wrote:
A Ontario Tribunal has found First View Homes violated the Ontario Building Code in the installation of ceramic tile floors. The Tribunal also ordered Tarion to warranty the tile floor deficiencies that they wrongly denied over 2 years ago. This is good news for First View homeowners that are still within their 1-Year warranty period.

After we heard of numerous complaints of cracking tile and grout we discovered that the builder had used less than half of the required mortar bed in our tile floors. When confronted about the confirmed violations by a city inspector the builder stated that all their tile floors were done this same way. This message was relayed to us in a voice mail so there is no dispute what was said. We have asked some neighbours and they confirmed the same thin mortar bed violations.

This could affect thousands of homeowners but the city building department has stated they will not inform the public. This is despite the fact they posted an elaborate bulletin on the proper installation of tile floors by code on their website. You do not go to all that trouble for a individual complaint. They must know it is a systemic problem with one or more builders. The method used by this builder that is in violation is the third listed, 9.30.6.4. Ceramic Tile Applied to 12.5 mm Mortar Bed with Adhesive. The minimum mortar bed thickness is required to prevent direct and relative deflection in the floor. The bulletin as seen at the location www.barrie.ca/docs/Installation%20of%20Ceramic%20Tile.pdf was done soon after the violations were observed and the builders admission of how they built the floors. The city went as far as to send a letter completely praising the builder and defending them with absurd and incorrect statements.

We consider this to be reprehensible behaviour of senior city officials considering the massive violations. There were more than 30 building code violations in our home alone including structural and health and safety violations missed by the building department.

New Home Victim wrote:
New Home Victim wrote:
A Ontario Tribunal has found First View Homes violated the Ontario Building Code in the installation of ceramic tile floors. The Tribunal also ordered Tarion to warranty the tile floor deficiencies that they wrongly denied over 2 years ago. This is good news for First View homeowners that are still within their 1-Year warranty period.

After we heard of numerous complaints of cracking tile and grout we discovered that the builder had used less than half of the required mortar bed in our tile floors. When confronted about the confirmed violations by a city inspector the builder stated that all their tile floors were done this same way. This message was relayed to us in a voice mail so there is no dispute what was said. We have asked some neighbours and they confirmed the same thin mortar bed violations.

This could affect thousands of homeowners but the city building department has stated they will not inform the public. This is despite the fact they posted an elaborate bulletin on the proper installation of tile floors by code on their website. You do not go to all that trouble for a individual complaint. They must know it is a systemic problem with one or more builders. The method used by this builder that is in violation is the third listed, 9.30.6.4. Ceramic Tile Applied to 12.5 mm Mortar Bed with Adhesive. The minimum mortar bed thickness is required to prevent direct and relative deflection in the floor. The bulletin as seen at the location www.barrie.ca/docs/Installation%20of%20Ceramic%20Tile.pdf was done soon after the violations were observed and the builders admission of how they built the floors. The city went as far as to send a letter completely praising the builder and defending them with absurd and incorrect statements.

We consider this to be reprehensible behaviour of senior city officials considering the massive violations. There were more than 30 building code violations in our home alone including structural and health and safety violations missed by the building department.