Ontario Builder Directory (obd.hcraontario.ca) — public registry showing licence status, homes built, Tarion claims, charges, convictions, discipline

Claim: The Ontario Builder Directory at https://obd.hcraontario.ca/ is the authoritative public record of every licensed (and many formerly licensed) new-home builder and vendor in Ontario. 7,232 licensees as of March 31, 2025.

Source: https://www.hcraontario.ca/blog/2025/07/17/your-guide-to-the-ontario-builder-directory/

Confidence: Verified.

Visible on a profile:

• Legal name, operating/trade names, licence number, expiry date, licence status.
• Years active and number of homes built (including condos).
• Tarion warranty overview: claims paid, chargeable conciliations, per-property claim history.
• Regulatory Activities and Enforcement tab (consolidated 2025): HCRA charges, court convictions, Notices of Proposal, compliance orders, conditions on licences, suspensions, revocations, Discipline Committee outcomes.
• Insolvency filter (bankruptcy/receivership flag).
• Condo project history including cancellations and reasons.

Not visible: active investigation files, builder financial statements, pre-complaint warning letters, narrative warranty-claim detail, complaints not yet matured into a Notice or order.

Searchable by: builder name, operating name, licence number, principal/director/officer name. Filters: licence status, insolvency status.

Reliability caveat: Per Globe and Mail reporting on the 2025 AG audit and industry sources (Craig Macklin of Lumbermens Credit Reporting Group), the OBD is "incomplete, out of date and unreliable" in places. Treat it as the necessary starting point, not the sufficient endpoint.

For Candid client work: Link directly to the builder's OBD profile from the builder's own website footer. No Ontario builder currently does this — best-in-class differentiator. See RULE: Every Candid builder-client site must display HCRA licence number(s) in the footer of every page and link directly to the builder's OBD profile.