Gold Key Service locks in regular home maintenance
Kayla Sambrooke and Kevin Huartson purchased a bungalow in the southeast community of Legacy in January. It’s not their first home and it’s not a huge home, but it does have a lot of modern doodads that require a particular set of skills.
While each considers themselves house-savvy, Sambrooke and Huartson are more comfortable having their builder, Jayman Built, handle the maintenance through its Gold Key Service program.
“We have a tankless water heater, a high-efficiency furnace and solar panels, among other things. We aren’t really sure of the maintenance required and that’s part of why we’re getting this service,” says Huartson, 34.
“My dad is a mechanic and I’ve always been good at building things. But we want to ensure we are taking good care of the house. It’s a big purchase and we are not experts, so it makes sense to have people come in and assess things,” adds Sambrooke, 27.
Launched in early 2019, Jayman’s Gold Key service program provides home maintenance for life. It goes well beyond the usual warranty service provided by all new home builders in Alberta.
The program includes a 128-point inspection and maintenance of the interior and exterior of the home. A Jayman technician does everything, from changing furnace filters and flushing hot water tanks to checking smoke detectors, sealing possible foundation cracks and making sure the fridge is perfectly popping out ice cubes.
All new home builders provide a warranty and a certain level of service as dictated by the Alberta New Home Warranty Program, ensuring customers are looked after within the first year of possession.
Baywest Homes conducts a one, six and 12-month review with homeowners post-possession and facilitates home orientation sessions.
“We have an in-house orientation twice a year with an on-site demo for our homeowners. It’s hands-on training to flush their hot water tanks or change their humidifier pads. It’s better than watching a video,” says Wayne Daniels, customer experience manager. “It can be daunting to actually hook up that hose to the hot water tank — you can actually learn it hands-on.”
Timo Muller, warranty field manager with Morrison Homes, says they do several walk-throughs to familiarize new owners with the systems within it and to review the recommended maintenance requirements.
“We visit four months post-possession to review the operation of all the systems and then again at 11 to 12 months. We provide them with physical guidance in regards to maintenance and try to coach them along the process. In between, we have an online portal for our owners and we decide in consultation with the homeowner if we should come or wait until the next scheduled visit,” Muller says.
“Our policy is that we will always assist our homeowners if an issue arises and we’ll certainly follow up even beyond that one year.”
Jayman homeowners need barely change a light bulb in their home when they opt for Jayman’s Gold Key service for life program, which comes at an additional cost.
Jayman president and chief operating officer, Dave Desormeaux, says the Gold Key service program is $375 for the first year, which includes supplies and equipment, and $750 each subsequent year.
“The parts alone, at our cost, are close to $400. We’re not trying to make money at it — we’re trying to have a customer for life,” he says.
Desormeaux says the idea for the program originated in a focus group conducted by Jayman in 2018.
“People said they were either a professional or that they were too busy to look after the maintenance of their home. We asked, if Jayman offered a program would they be interested, and 24 out of 25 people said they would.”
He says another interesting trend came to light in Jayman’s research.
“My dad taught me to change the brakes on my car. We did our own landscaping. We did everything ourselves. There’s this whole generation coming up that isn’t as technical as some of us were raised to be,” he says.
“We also thought from a resale perspective that it would be nice if you could see the service records of a house. If somebody buys a used car, they want to know if the oil was changed on a regular basis or see a record of when the brake pads were changed. They want to know if this car was maintained and that applies to a house, too.”
Sambrooke and Huartson believe they have the chops to maintain their new Legacy bungalow but would rather leave the heavy lifting to Jayman.
“It’s a fantastic service. It will offer us peace of mind for the entire time we’ll be living in our home,” says Huartson.