The Builder Warranty and the Eleven-Month Inspection

Why this matters

Most new homes come with a one-year promise from the builder to fix workmanship and materials, and almost every owner lets it run out without using it. A month before it expires, someone who knows what to look for can walk the house, write down what the builder got wrong, and hand the owner a list the builder is obliged to address at its own cost. That is the eleven-month inspection. For a trade shop it is a natural service to offer the new-home owners in its area, and it is also a trap: a shop that repairs a covered defect on its own invoice can cost the owner the builder's coverage for it. This card explains how builder warranties are built, how a claim is made and lost, and where the trade sits. The walk itself and the report format are in the companion how-to. See related: Performing an Eleven-Month Builder Warranty Inspection.

How a builder warranty is usually built

There is no single builder warranty. There is the booklet this builder gave this buyer at closing, and its terms are the ones that count. That said, most follow a tiered shape, often called 1-2-10:

The 10-year tier is often backed by a third-party warranty company rather than the builder, with its own claims process. Some builders offer shorter terms, some longer, some add a separate roof or window term. Read the booklet before telling an owner what is covered.

Tolerances decide most disputes. A booklet usually says a defect is covered only past a stated tolerance: a drywall crack wider than a stated width, a floor out of level by more than a stated amount over a stated span, a concrete crack past a stated width or displacement. Many builders adopt a published set of performance guidelines, such as the NAHB's Residential Construction Performance Guidelines, in whatever edition the booklet names; others write their own. A finding that sits inside the tolerance is not a defect under that warranty, however much the owner dislikes it, so your report has to cite the tolerance the warranty actually uses.

Equipment has its own clock. A furnace, air conditioner, water heater or appliance usually carries the manufacturer's warranty, not the builder's. Many manufacturers offer a longer parts term only if the unit is registered within a set window after installation, and builders do not always register. Whether that window has closed is a fact to check, not an assumption to make.

How a claim is made, and how it is lost

The mechanics vary by builder, but the ways claims fail do not.

• The clock start. Coverage may run from the closing date, from the date of the certificate of occupancy, or from first occupancy. On a house that sat finished for a month before it sold, those dates differ by weeks, and the earliest one in the booklet is the one to plan around.
• Written notice inside the period. Most booklets require written notice received before the coverage expires. A phone call to the superintendent is not notice. A portal submission or a dated letter is.
• The opportunity to repair. Almost every booklet gives the builder the right to inspect and repair a covered item itself. An owner who has someone else fix it first may lose the builder's obligation for that item, and usually any right to be reimbursed.
• Exclusions written broadly. Maintenance items (caulk the owner was supposed to keep up, a furnace filter, a clogged gutter), damage from the owner's own changes, and consequential damage are commonly excluded.

The working rule for the owner, and for any trade advising them: find, document and notify; do not repair a covered item on anyone's invoice but the builder's, unless it is an emergency.

The state layer under the booklet

The booklet is the builder's express warranty. Underneath it, the state may add obligations or procedures of its own, and they differ sharply.

• Implied warranties. Courts in many states recognize implied warranties of habitability or workmanlike construction on a new home, which can outlast the booklet. Some states let a builder disclaim them in clear language; others do not allow it.
• Notice-and-opportunity-to-repair statutes. Several states require a homeowner to give the builder formal written notice and a chance to inspect and offer a repair before filing suit. California's Right to Repair Act (Civil Code section 895 and following), Texas's Residential Construction Liability Act (Property Code chapter 27) and Florida's construction-defect statute (Florida Statutes chapter 558) are three well-known examples, with different notice contents and timelines.
• Statutes of limitation and repose set an outer limit on suing for a defect, separate from any warranty term.

None of this is a trade question, and this card is not legal advice. Where an owner's list contains something the builder refuses and the owner wants to pursue it past the booklet, that is the point to stop advising and send them to a construction attorney in their state, carrying the booklet, the closing papers, your report and the builder's written responses.

Where the trade sits

A trade shop meets the builder warranty in three different roles, and each has its own rule.

1. Hired by the owner to inspect. You are working for the owner, and your report goes to the builder as the owner's claim. You find and document; you do not repair. Your value is that you know what a builder-grade install gets wrong in your trade, and you write it down in a way the builder's warranty department will act on.

2. Called by the owner for a repair on a home under a year old. Ask the age of the house on the phone. If the problem might be covered, tell the owner before you dispatch that the builder may be responsible, and that paying you to fix it could forfeit that. If it is urgent, you make it safe and stop the damage, document it, and leave the permanent repair for the owner to decide after they notify the builder.

3. Doing warranty work as the builder's subcontractor. A different relationship: the builder is your customer, at the builder's rates and terms, and your job is to close the item to the builder's tolerance. The owner may ask you for extras while you are there; those are a separate job, quoted to the owner, and do not belong on the builder's ticket.

A worked case: the dates, and a leak in month nine

The dates. A couple closed on a new house on March 14. The booklet says the one-year workmanship term runs from closing, so it expires on March 14 the following year. They book an HVAC-and-plumbing shop's eleven-month inspection, which the shop schedules for February 10. The report is delivered on February 13, and the owners submit it through the builder's warranty portal on February 14.

From February 14 to March 14 in a non-leap year is 28 days. The claim is inside the term with four weeks of margin, which is enough to absorb a portal that rejects an attachment or a builder who asks for a clarification.

What changes the answer. Suppose instead the booklet says coverage runs from the certificate of occupancy, and the house got its certificate on January 30, six weeks before closing. Then the workmanship term expired on January 30, and the February 10 inspection is eleven days late; the report is now evidence for a claim the booklet no longer covers. Whether a state's implied warranty or statute reaches those items anyway is the attorney question above, with no guaranteed answer in any state. That is why the shop now books these inspections in month ten counted from the earliest start date the booklet allows, delivers the report within 3 business days, and asks the owner to submit at least 30 days before expiry.

The leak in month nine. Back on the original dates: in December, month nine, the owners call because water is dripping from the furnace closet ceiling onto the floor. The tech arrives, switches off the furnace at its disconnect before touching anything near the wet unit, and finds the condensate line from the air handler in the attic has pulled out of its fitting and is draining onto the ceiling below.

The tech's first job is to stop the damage: reseat the line in its fitting so it drains again, working from the attic on the framing and never on the wet drywall between it, which will not hold a person, place a pan and towels, and photograph the disconnected joint, the wet ceiling and the floor. That is emergency mitigation, and the owner pays for it. The permanent repair, which here means the ceiling drywall and a properly supported and secured condensate line, is very likely a covered workmanship item. The tech says so, writes a short note of what was found and what was done, and the owner sends the builder written notice that day with the photos.

Had the tech replaced the drywall and repiped the line on the owner's invoice, the builder could reasonably decline the item: it was given no chance to see or fix it. The owner would have paid twice over, once for the repair and once in a lost claim, to save a week.

What to write down for the builder

The eleven-month report and any warranty note should do four things for each item, because a warranty department works through a list and acts fastest on a complete one: say where it is, say what you observed, say which booklet tier and tolerance it falls under, and show it. An item without a location gets a callback; an item without a tolerance gets a "within guidelines" denial; an item without a photo gets an inspection visit that delays everything. The companion how-to lays out a report format that does this item by item.

References

• The builder's written limited warranty booklet, which sets the tiers, the clock start, the notice method and the tolerances that apply to this house
• NAHB, Residential Construction Performance Guidelines, in the edition the warranty adopts, where it adopts one
• California Civil Code section 895 and following; Texas Property Code chapter 27; Florida Statutes chapter 558, as examples of state notice-and-repair procedures
• See related: Performing an Eleven-Month Builder Warranty Inspection
• See related: The First Month in a New House: The Calls That Come In