The Homeowner Protection Office (HPO), now a branch of BC Housing, started as a provincial Crown corporation that was formed as a response to the need to create basic consumer protections for buyers of new homes.
The Homeowner Protection Act which passed on July 28, 1998 for the main purposes of strengthening consumer protection for buyers of new homes and improving the quality of residential construction in the province. The Act provided for the creation of the HPO was officially opened on October 1, 1998.
The HPO's mandated responsibilities included:
- residential builder licensing and establishing the framework for and monitoring the provision of mandatory third-party home warranty insurance
- administering a no-interest repair loan program and PST Relief Grant for owners of leaky homes, and
- a research and education function designed to benefit the residential construction industry and consumers.
As of April 1, 2010, many responsibilities for the Homeowner Protection Act transferred to BC Housing and the new HPO branch was created. This includes residential builder and building envelope renovator licensing, owner builder authorization, and the research and education responsibilities under the Homeowner Protection Act.
As part of government’s review of Crown corporations, the Province transferred the administration of the Reconstruction Program to the Ministry of Finance on April 1, 2010. HPO stopped accepting new applications for this program in July 2009. The PST Relief Grant for owners of homes with completed building envelope repairs was terminated June 30, 2010 in conjunction with the introduction of the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST).
