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75 YEARS OF HIGH STANDARDS

Consumers buying a new home today expect the highest standards, but these have not always been guaranteed.

75 years ago, NHBC pioneered the world’s first independent home warranty scheme to ensure standards would be met, offering real protection to homeowners who encountered defects with their properties.

NHBC has become the leading warranty and insurance provider and standards setter for UK housebuilding and its model is a demonstrable success. The protection offered by its warranty has been recognised as an example of best practice and NHBC’s experience is shared with the international warranty industry. This year, its expertise will be shared at the 12th triennial International Housing and Home Warranty Conference (IHHWC).

The IHHWC brings together warranty organisations, home builders and housing professionals from across the world, providing a forum for best practice sharing and discussion of the challenges facing the international new homes market.

THE FMB congratulates the NHBC on the celebration of its 75th anniversary.

This year’s conference will focus on the issues pertinent to housebuilding in a post-recession climate,

questioning the financial pressures affecting insurance, assessing technical approaches, reviewing customer satisfaction around the globe and investigating how to incorporate green agenda developments.

This year, the IHHWC will highlight the rise of sustainable housebuilding, encouraging the warranty sector to consider how it will incorporate the different techniques and materials into its future standards and insurance cover. While the challenges facing the industry will continue to change, the IHHWC will encourage warranty organisations to share their knowledge to develop the highest standards for housebuilders and the most effective cover for homeowners, while meeting their country’s specific needs.

THE BEGINNING OF HOME WARRANTIES

NHBC was established in response to a very specifi c problem – a pattern familiar in housing industries around the world. In the 1930s, the UK faced a jerry-building crisis, as untrained and inexperienced builders built poor quality homes quickly and cheaply. To counter this, NHBC’s forerunner, the National House-Builder Registration Council (NHBRC) was established to raise standards across the industry.

As well as inspecting and certifying new homes, NHBRC operated a register of approved housebuilders who committed to build according to the first standard specification for new build housing – the predecessor to NHBC’s Standards, which continue to protect homeowners today.

NHBRC developed an innovative warranty, stating that where defects arose within two years of the date of purchase as a result of a builder’s failure to comply with these specifications, they must be fixed by the builder responsible. In 1965, this evolved into today’s well known ten-year NHBC Buildmark warranty.

NHBRC was renamed NHBC in 1973, having become financially, politically and governmentally independent. Its warranties now cover over 80 percent of new UK homes, with some 1.7 million currently protected. Around 30 percent of the UK’s current housing stock has been covered by an NHBC warranty when first built.

IHHWC 2011 is being held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre between 24 and 28 September. For more information visit www.ihhwc-southafrica.co.za.

BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA

What Happened? British Columbia in Canada faced a rash of water infi ltration problems in wood-frame buildings, causing damage to cladding and widespread timber rotting. The situation sparked significant media interest with published images of severely degraded homes less than five years old, and with homeowners unable to contact their original developers to get them to pay repair bills of up to $35,000 per unit. The incident became known as the Leaky Condo Crisis, with damage currently estimated to have reached a value of as much as $1 billion Canadian dollars.

What solutions and lessons learned? The local government established a Commission of Inquiry into the quality of condo construction, and the adequacy of consumer protection. The Commission called for industry-wide qualifications for anyone involved in building envelope design, recognising it as a component requiring specialised knowledge to ensure it met the requirements of the local climate. Following the path laid by NHBC, organisations came together and British Columbia took on management of a list of approved building envelope specialists, qualified to provide independent inspection and reviews.