Select a domain
You are here :
Citizen
The Régie du bâtiment du Québec (RBQ) plays a major role within the construction sector: the organization ensures not only the proper quality of the work, but also your safety as well as your protection as a consumer. Thus, the RBQ performs many duties within the daily lives of the citizens.
The RBQ is instrumental in ensuring the quality of the buildings and your protection when you are on the premises of buildings subject to the regulations or you are using equipment falling within the regulations, such as an elevator or a ski lift.
To this end, the RBQ provides for enforcement of the Building Act 
. More specifically, it sees that the prescriptions of the Construction Code as well as the Safety Code are complied with.
The RBQ is instrumental in ensuring the quality of the construction or renovation work, or the installation of certain equipment. To this end, it issues the licences relevant to the contractors and owner-builders, provided that certain conditions are being met.
The RBQ not only issues these licences, but it is also empowered to modify, restrict or withdraw these when their holders have failed their obligations. You can refer to the existing decisions rendered [Fr] to this effect.
In order to protect the consumers, two (2) types of financial guarantees are available.
The licence security is an amount which is lodged (deposited) as guarantee by any contractor applying for a licence. This amount is to be used to compensate the consumer who has suffered prejudice as a result of, for instance, the non-performance or the poor performance of the work.
The amount of the security required is $20,000 for the general contractors and $10,000 for the specialized contractors.
The Guarantee plan for new residential buildings offers to the purchasers of houses or new dwellings held in co-ownership which are covered by this plan, a guarantee of the contractual obligations of the contractor. These obligations involve in particular the partial payments as well as a guarantee against construction defects.
In order to benefit from the protections offered by this plan, the purchaser must take certain precautionary measures, the first of which being to do business only with a contractor holding the appropriate licence subclass and duly accredited with a manager authorized by the RBQ.
The RBQ builds upon prevention and awareness-raising in order to inform the public about the hazards and safety precautions which are related to the thrust areas which the RBQ manages. It also promotes the various means at your disposal to have your consumer rights respected in case of a dispute with a contractor.
