I recently got an e-mail from Jason Nemoy who bought a house on Streeper Street in Baltimore. He wrote that the builder did a good job of providing all of the warranty paperwork for the appliances, but he wanted to know if the builder is required to leave warranties on some of the major areas of the house, such as the roof, windows, sprinkler system and smoke alarm.

He said the builder told him there were warranties on all of these areas - 25 years on the windows, 10 years on the roof, etc. - but there was no paperwork.

He also wrote that some roofing shingles had became loose and detached, and the builder sent someone out to fix them. However, it was one of his own employees, not the company that originally installed the roof. He found out that the roofing company had gone out of business and he was wondering: If there is trouble, who is responsible?

Warranties and other documentation on appliances and warranted components of the house should have been left in the house by the builder, or delivered to you at settlement. You would not normally receive a copy of invoices or work orders from the subcontractors.

If some of the warranties have not been provided, you can get copies from the manufacturers. For the roofing warranty, you will need to know the brand and type of shingle to contact the manufacturer. The builder should be able to provide that information to you, since it would have been in the builder's contract with the roofer.

When the manufacturer's warranty has been obtained, you will have coverage on defects in the roofing materials but not on the installation - that is, the workmanship. Roofers will typically warranty workmanship on asphalt shingle installations for a period of one year. Although the roofer is no longer in business, there are implied warranties on new houses under Maryland law that give certain responsibilities to the builder. The implied warranties on the house probably include a one-year warranty of workmanship on the whole house, including the roof.

For assistance in resolving a dispute over new-house warranties, you can call the Consumer Protection Division of the Maryland Attorney General's Office. Also, the office's Web site at www.oag.state.md.us/home builder has lots of useful information. Click on the "Home Builder Information" link.

A note on the detached shingles that needed repair so soon after the house was built: It may not be as bad an omen as it seems. Asphalt shingles are relatively vulnerable to wind damage when they are newly installed and become less vulnerable once hot weather arrives and causes their adhesive strips to fully adhere.