Home Warranty Advocates

UPDATE SEPTEMBER 28, 2022HOME WARRANTY ADVOCATES ARE TO CEASE OPERATING AS A BUSINESS UNTIL THEY HAVE COMPLIED WITH ALL OF THE ORDERS LISTED BELOW.DO NOT RETAIN JOHN MCKALE OR HOME WARRANTY ADVOCATES.PUBLICATIONSDirector's Order: John Allan McKale & Warranty Advocates Ltd. o-a Home Warranty AdvocatesSummaryDetailed InformationDESCRIPTIONDirector's Order imposed on John Allan McKale and Warranty Advocates Ltd. operating as Home Warranty Advocates to cease entering into home inspection contracts until the licensing requirements under section 104(1) of the Consumer Protection Act have been met, to cease entering into home inspection contracts without ensuring they include the requisite contract & insurance requirements as set out in the Home Inspection Business Regulation, to cease providing home inspection reports that do not comply with the Regulation, to cease providing consumers with an estimate of the cost or repair or improvement to a dwelling as a result of a home inspection, to cease making a representation that a consumer transaction involves or does not involve rights, remedies or obligations that is different from fact, to cease doing or saying anything that might reasonably deceive or mislead a consumer, to cease providing misleading statements of opinion if the consumer is likely to rely on that opinion to the consumer's disadvantage, and to cease making representations that goods or services will be supplied within a stated period if the supplier knows or ought to know that they will not.UPDATEDMay 18, 2022Home Warranty Advocates have not lived up to any of their claims to deliver money from the Builder’s Insurance for defects and/or deficiencies in my residence. There is no follow up or information on the status of my file and no response when I contacted Home Warranty Advocates to refund my money. I actually did some legal work for them, based on John McKale’s promise that I would be paid right away and they have refused to even pay me for that.I have the names of several other dissatisfied clients and I am seriously considering legal recourse. If a Class Action Suit is an option, I will post the lawyer’s info here at a later date.If you’ve been victimized by this company, don’t just walk away from your money. There are legal avenues available. Fraudulent businesses/business practices are everyone’s concern. Left unchecked and unpunished only makes the victim’s list longer and the offenders bank account bigger.If you wish to start somewhere, contact the Ombudsman of Alberta Office to inquire how and where to register your complaint. If they aren’t the proper place, their website states they are likely to know where you can start your process.

We have had issues with our home since it was purchased. We have tried the working with the builder to resolve the issues and they keep putting quick cheap repairs to keep us quiet. On our second last year of warranty, our builder refuse to help and we reached out to local contractors to inspect our house. Issues like mold in our attic were found and they provided recommended method to perform the repairs properly. We reached out to Alberta new home warranty and they came to inspect and recommended quick fix as well. The builder would not help us and this warranty program company that work for the builder would not either. What chance does anyone has being a home owner. Then we reached out to Alberta new home warranty advocate. There was lots of promises made and really nothing happened after giving him almost a year of our hope that he would help us. We ended up paying for the repairs from our own pocket because our builder could not be trusted because and they wanted to do was bubble fun repairs and new home owners warranty pretty much does what the builder want because he is their customer you are not. Anyway the system is broken and these advocates didn’t work out for us. I left a 2 stars review because John did help us figure out what was wrong and what was needed to repair our home, however he fell short of having the builder pay for it.

Like everyone else, I forked over $2,625 to John and Alberta New Home Warranty Advocates to help me with a resolution. At the point of contacting John, I had two warrantable defects that had already been recognized by Alberta New Home Warranty. I was in the process of disputing the repair method, but had hit a brick wall (as most people do with Government backed programs). John smooth talked me into hiring him and promised all these things he could do for me. He did zero. My case is currently sitting in abeyance and it's two years later now. John filed a bunch of garbage claims that I did not care about instead of dealing with the issue I needed fixed. I feel foolish because I thought I knew better. I have called, texted, left voicemails and he has ghosted me. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. If there was ever a time I could give negative stars, this would be it.

The other reviewers are correct in saying this company is a scam. I wish these reviews were here when I reluctantly handed over 2500$. I listened to words such as guaranteed". John has been avoiding my calls and the last time I got a hold of him was from another number he did not recognize. Please people stay away from this company!!!! I honesty do not know someone can prey on desperate people and still have the nerve to stay open and continuing to screw people over. What is really sad is that the CBC did an article on this company and about how he is helping people in November :( Everyone please contact CBC to take this article down to prevent this company from scamming more people. Could there be a potential class action law suit here?"

John McHale is not a man you want to do business with. He was in my home and we met twice. I didn't want to give him money up front because of the reviews, but offered him 30% with no upfront fee (instead of the standard 20% with upfront fee) if he collected from insurance. He eventually accepted and then went dark on me. I have emails to back up my story. I also left voicemails and nothing. I can only assume that their business model is based on the upfront fee, and then they go dark on you based on my experience and the other reviews. I also talked to a compliance officer with the Government of Alberta and he indicated that Home Warranty Advocates (HWA) did not have a good track record and to stay away. In the meantime, I've hired a reputable law firm and am getting positive results. I was hoping that HWA would expedite the process and save me money and the hassle, but I'm glad they opted out without wasting more of my time. There's only two options as far as I'm concerned: 1) Do nothing, or 2) Hire yourself a good lawyer, preferably one specializing in construction. I'd be more than happy to talk to John if he feels I said something that isn't correct or if I have misinterpreted. He can respond to the many emails and texts I have left him.

Directors order has been given to this company. Please review service Alberta website . They have been issued orders they must comply with before continuing to operate this service.This is a scam. They promise the world and don’t do anything they say. I was told 90 days for process. 7 months later we are nowhere. They did finally file siding claims but not any others. Home warranty requested pictures 3 times John never provided. Needless to say claim denied. John then promised ASAP to file proof of loss however 4 months later nothing done. Today I had to pay another $500 to a LICENSED home inspector as John is not qualified as an inspector. When you get to dispute resolution guess what John wants approximately 25% of any payout. There is no incentive to do claims and or proof of loss correctly as he can bleed you for more money at the dispute resolution process. We have been lied to numerous times. Promised file to be done over and over. 7 months in and audit not done YET. They will tell you they are SOOO busy but they are not to busy to get $2625.00 from next customer by doing their “ inspection” that they aren’t qualified to do. I wasted $2625 on these guys. These guys as advocates are anything but advocates they just rip you off more. Ps I asked for my money back and they just ignored me.I received the following message from John McKale on March 30th need less to say he did NOT return my money. But outright admits he didn’t do the job. But tells me I am ruing his business and hurting his kids.Deborah your refund should be reflected on your end in the next few hours. Your personal satisfaction although it may feel good, I get it, I can understand that. You had a bad experience with us and I am sorry for that but continuing with what you are doing does not help anyone. We are not the risk, we are not the problem. In fact we’re the only entity trying to help consumers. Trying being the key word. Your builder left defects behind that you paid for. Your warranty is not fixing your unrepaired defects, you don’t even know what you paid for that policy.Text from owner of company.I am sorry we didn’t do a good job. I really am. Your refund will be in your inbox momentarily. I am respectfully asking you to please not slander my company any further. We have been able to help a lot of people and are getting better at it as we go. My kids are reading your comments. They are stressed out enough with this pandemic and isolation and it genuinely hurts to be called what you are calling us. You likely don’t agree but I don’t deserve this Deborah. I’m not out to fraudulently take homeowners money. I started this because a warranty provider asked me to screw an elderly couple out of $145,000. I not only refunded, I decided to torch a 17 year home building career to try and help consumers.I know you are mad. We flat out failed to deliver on what your were sold. But please don’t destroy my business and my kids mental health and 100’s of desperate homeowners only chance at accessing their policies just because we did a bad job with you. Please stop Deborah. If you could see the harm you have inflicted I’m sure you’d be satisfied,

STAY AWAY. This company are straight up crooks they show up quick and promise the world in results and then vanish like ghosts after they talk fear into your situation. You will never hear back from them again when you do get them on the phone they will sweet talk you and say they will follow up in a week or 2 which they never will. The inspector we had said my walls felt damp and wet when I had a 19% humidity level in the house?. Right there I felt red flags! They take your money and run. DONT DO IT!

Totally a scammer. Once he gets your money he ghosts you. I was harassed by lawyers for NHW for hiring him. Not one problem was addressed by him. I asked for our money back and no reply, he wont answer texts,emails or respond to voicemails.

About as reliable as the home warranty insurer itself. Multiple followup emails and calls have gone unreturned. They submitted a claim to the Alberta Home Warranty for us and messed up pretty bad by identifying items that the Alberta Home Warranty said were noted before possession and therefore not covered by the warranty. You would think they would know their stuff enough to not claim stuff before a warranty is active. All talk, no actual assistance or resolution. Please don't waste your hard earned money like we did. It is bad enough that we have tons of defects in our home, but now we also don't have the 2,700 that we gave the home warranty advocates. Could've used that money for repairs, instead we got robbed.

UPDATE: John McKale advised me that if I took my initial review down, he would refund my money immediately. I texted and called him after my review was taken down, and he ignored both. I left him voicemails, and he never got back to me. He has ignored me every day since. He clearly only said that he would give me my money back so that I would take down the review. I have gone through my messages and have confirmed 5 separate times that John said he would refund me, not including the numerous times he told me this on the phone, and he never followed through on his word. His partner Carmen Koop, advised me that since I put a negative review up, they would not entertain even the idea of a refund, despite the founder John, telling me I would get one. Carmen was difficult and extremely unprofessional to deal with. Carmen continually cut me off in the conversation, and said he wouldn’t continue discussing anything until the review was down. He was clearly upset that I have put a negative review up, but I am not the first, and I don’t think I will be the last. If they didn’t treat their clients this way, we wouldn’t be in this situation. If you decide to hire these two for their services, please be warned. They will likely lie to you to get you off their backs. Hopefully you have different results than I did, but I am disgusted and appalled that these two take the hard-earned money of families and treat them this way. If you end up chasing your money, the only way you will have a chance at seeing it again, is to sue them. John said to me on the phone If you don't get your refund