REPORT ON PERFORMANCE MEASURES by the Homeowner Protection Office

On October 1st this year, the Homeowner Protection Office (HPO) celebrated its fifth anniversary of operations. The level of consumer protection has increased significantly since the HPO's inception.

Within the last five years, under the authority of the Homeowner Protection Act, the HPO has introduced a residential builder and building envelope renovator licensing system partnered with a private-sector home warranty insurance system, administered financial assistance programs for owners of leaky homes and has created an on-going research and education program in the areas of consumer information and building science.

We frequently report on our no-interest loans statistics that have helped prevent foreclosures for owners of leaky homes as well as the status of licensed builders in the province. In addition to these measures of progress, the HPO annually develops a service plan. This document is a planning and public accountability document that details the strategic foundation and performance measures for the HPO. The plan is tabled in the legislature along with the provincial budget in February.

The HPO has set out ten performance measures to track progress towards meeting key goals and objectives to increase consumer protection for homebuyers and help bring about an increase in the quality of residential construction in British Columbia. These performance measures include satisfaction ratings as well as indicators of effectiveness and responsiveness in each program area. Below is a brief description of the performance measures set out in the HPO service plan and our results achieved as of our last annual report date. A "Marktrend" survey of new homeowners was conducted on behalf of the HPO to obtain much of this benchmark data.

Homeowner Satisfaction in Home Warranty Insurance — 83% of owners of new homes with the minimum home warranty insurance now required by law (two years on labour and materials, 5 years on the building envelope and 10 years on structure) stated that they were satisfied with the level of protection provided.

Homeowners with Home Warranty Insurance Claims — Established as an indicator of the quality of residential construction in British Columbia, 5% of new homeowners have had a construction defect claim.

Investigations Resulting in Voluntary Compliance — 76% of all HPO compliance investigations confirmed or resulted in voluntary compliance of the Homeowner Protection Act. This is an indicator of the effectiveness of the HPO compliance team.

Timeliness of Licensing Decisions — Used as a measure of HPO responsiveness, applications for residential builder and building envelope renovator licensing are made on average in 3.1 days, considerably quicker than other jurisdictions with similar organizations.

Homebuyer Awareness — 73% of prospective homebuyers are aware of the requirements for licensing of residential builders while 45% are aware of the mandatory third-party home warranty insurance requirements — the strongest in Canada.

Homeowner's Reconstruction Loan Default Rate — This measure tracks the effectiveness of the no-interest loan program to help ensure that homeowners do not lose their homes as a result of building envelope renovation costs. Only 0.85% of HPO loans recipients have defaulted on their repair loan.

Recovery of Homes Values Following Building Envelope Renovations — This performance measure tracks the improvement of assessed values of homes following the completion of building envelope renovations. Fifty five percent of homes have recovered 90% or more of the value of the cost of repairs in the estimated values of their homes. This analysis was based on data for 4,000 homes with HPO repair loans in over 230 buildings in the coastal climate zone.

Leveraging of Additional Research and Education Funding — This measure monitors the effectiveness of the HPO in leveraging additional resources for research and education initiatives with industry partners. The HPO had a 2002-2003 funding commitment of $143,000 for research and education, but with the assistance of other partners, a total financial commitment of $691,000 was achieved.

Research Results Disseminated — In 2002-2003 the HPO funded research profiled at nine industry educational sessions. Three research papers were also profiled at the 9^th Canadian Conference on Building Science and Technology.

Research Results Incorporated into Building Standards and Best Practices — An HPO representative is a member of two National Building Code Standing Committees. The National Windows Standards Committee is considering results of an HPO-funded windows study.

The Homeowner Protection Office will continue to produce yearly service plans and report on these performance measures in our annual report as a means to remain accountable. If you are interested in reviewing these publications in full, they can be viewed on the HPO web site at www.hpo.bc.ca.