Perhaps the last thing on your mind when you’re planning to build a new home in New Jersey is what’s covered by the warranty. After all, one of the big advantages of building a new home is that everything in the home is new! Why should you be concerned about the reliability of brand new stuff?

We’ve been building quality homes in Hillsborough since 1988, and we pride ourselves on our quality of construction. As a matter of fact, if you read customer comments on the independent rating site GuildQuality, you’ll find that our reputation for quality construction is why many New Jersey homeowners choose us to build their homes. Naturally, we stand behind our work, and it’s one reason we’ve won awards such as the Diamond Builder Award and the Metropolitan Builders & Contractors Association of NJ Award of Excellence.

In all our years in business, we’ve found that many homeowners aren’t clear about what is covered in their home warranty—and what isn’t. Why is that important? If something should go wrong with an item in your new home (and, although rare, it does happen), you need to know who to contact in order to have the issue made right.

New home warranties offer limited coverage on workmanship and materials in your new home, including windows, siding, doors and roofing, for example. In addition, your home warranty will generally cover items such as HVAC systems, electrical work and general plumbing. Most home warranties don’t cover purely cosmetic items, such as broken tile or drywall cracks, which don’t impact the quality or structural integrity of your home. A 12-month warranty on these items is pretty common.

What’s not covered under the homeowner warranty (and this can be a bit of a surprise to some homeowners) are household appliances, such as dishwashers, stoves, ranges or disposals. Your home warranty won’t cover your yard’s sprinkler system either. Typically, your home warranty also won’t cover items already covered by a manufacturer’s warranty. The reason your home warranty doesn’t cover those things is because the builder didn’t build/make them. You’re still covered by the manufacturer’s warranty, but that’s who you need to go to on those items.

If you have questions or concerns about your warranty, it’s a great idea to talk to your builder before you buy—just so you’re informed. You can ask about what’s covered, how long coverage lasts, what the builder is specifically responsible for and who you should talk to if you need to make a claim.

Again, we stand behind the work we perform for you, and we’re happy to review what’s covered so you can be confident you’re getting the quality you expect.