Covering this conscious attempt at consumer exploitation is becoming burdensome and quite frankly just too much for any system to allow tax paying, consumers to be treated like this.
And that would be regardless of the price of the home but in a market where the average home price hovers around $1.5 Million, to have endured the insult of living in a construction zone with absolutely no effort on behalf of the builders to clean up their mess is simply unacceptable.
I’ve reported this to the Municipal Government of the Town of Oakville right up to the Mayor’s office and met personally with the Mayor to express my displeasure at the way buyers had been treated in this small community of just 18 homes.
There originally was a subdivision agreement between the Town of Oakville and a developer.
The Developer then sold the 18 lots to this builder, who proved incompetent to sell them (even at below market pre-construction prices) so they sold 8 of them to other builders (cousins I am told).
The significant thing to point out here, and I tell you this as a buyer of one of these homes, “the Subdivision Agreement” was intentionally withheld by this builder, despite their legal obligation to have it attach to and form a part of the Agreement of Purchase and Sale between this builder and its “consumer” purchasers.
This Builder, under the stewardship of its Chief Operating Officer, in my personal purchase made it appear as though I was buying into a pre-sale contract when in fact the condominium component of the POTL (“Parcel of Tied Lands“) or Common Element Condo was registered prior to my purchase date.
This meant that I should have been given a Status Certificate as sales of registered condominiums require a disclosure from the condo corporation’s signing authority (board member) disclosing the “health” of the condo corporation, whether someone was suing it or it suing anybody, and the like.
Well, had this builder complied with the law and disclosed that the condo corporation was registered thus making available a Status Certificate owners I would have seen that there were Liens being applied against the builder (“his Liens” are considered a “cloud on title” thus a red flag).
This is but the first of an ongoing continuum of lies and misrepresentations that I personally have experienced from this guy.
The first time I cornered him at the site when I returned from my winter in Florida (I bought what he told me on the phone was the last remaining lot off of the Internet site unseen) I made sure to go to considerable lengths to again walk him through my blog www.simplycharles.com.
I wanted to be sure to tell him to his face how fortunate he was that it was me that he lied to about my lot as if it was clients of mine, I would be obligated to be walking all over him. Anticipating a fight to come, I started preparing.
You’ll be able to read my upcoming Case Study of this purchase which is a chronicling of actual events from the onset of finding a home, to buying it, to having it built, to taking possession, to living in your new home and every step along the way has proven to be an absolute “scam“, a toxic pool of lies, deceit and exploitation delivering huge financial gains to the builders while “taking a pound of flesh off of every purchaser” (who are told that they are “protected” under Ontario law).
So, let’s get back to the specifics of today’s blog. I’d like to walk you through the Subdivision Agreement as it proves one of the most “consumer-friendly agreements that I’ve seen“.
Too bad that pretty well all of the “consumer protective clauses” were simply disregarded, imposing occupancy onto unsuspecting buyers that trusted in what was being represented (and misrepresented) to them.
A half dozen families were manipulated into accepting occupancy (literally forced) and others outright “manipulated and lied to” (according to an Affidavit relating to one lot owner’s law suit against this builder).
So extreme is the testimony in this Affidavit that must include it here and then I’ll go on to the terms set out in the Subdivision Agreement.
Clause 12. “Sunrise continuously pressured us to close despite the fact that they still had not corrected the deficiencies, by representing they would go bankrupt and be unable to correct the deficiencies if we refused to close and promised that they would correct the deficiencies shortly after closing if we agreed to close quickly“.
Clause 14. “We eventually agreed to close on April 19, 2016 although the deficiencies were still outstanding because Mr. Kodwavi assured us that once he had the funds he could finish all outstanding items on the house“.
Clause 16. On April 19, 2016, notwithstanding that we had agreed to closing, title could not be transferred to us because Sunrises contractors placed construction liens on the property due to Sunrise’ non-payment for work performed on the the Parcel of Tied Lands.
Clause 17 “Kodwavi apologised to me and undertook verbally again and subsequently in writing on behalf of Sunrise . . . . that they would correct the deficiencies if I assisted them by closing on the property that day by providing them funds to enable them to pay for remedying the deficiencies and pay off the liens“.
Clause 18 “Kodwavi provided me with a written agreement by email . . agreed to complete certain tasks”
Clause 19 “We relied on good faith on the undertaking and the reconfirmation of the continued effect of the agreement and paid sunrise the full balance . . . “
Clause 20 “To date, however the deficiencies have not been corrected” – the affidavit was signed : Sept 1, 2016 = almost 5 months later!
There are such a slew of questions popping up around this sworn testimony.
“Were other lots sold without Status Certificates and required disclosures that would have had to been included therein”?
My point here is not to simply expose a highly unethical builder (this example is but one of a half dozen people that he imposed “occupancy” (or “Closing“) onto in clearly defined BREACH of the Subdivision Agreement that he may not have been a direct party to but which he became when assuming the developer’s position in that Subdivision Agreement.
Now, let’s get back to the Subdivision Agreement.
I must note that these other families moved in during the late fall of 2015 and have lived here going on 2 years in the filth of a construction site with absolutely no regard to their quality of life and the constant imposition of the resulting dirt and grime that comes along with excavation.
This Builder was supposed to deliver my house in September 2015 and we moved in January 15, 2017 under a literal barrage of lies and misrepresentations from this builder, their site foreman right down to their office manageress (a neophyte to the business with the most dumbfounding approach to doing her job that I’ve seen in a very long while).
I’ve managed, after a personal meeting with the Mayor following a rather stinging couple of my blogs exposing how these consumers were being exploited under a breach in their own Subdivision Agreement (their lawyers wrote it!) specifically referring them to a number of clauses which I’ll set out for you here:
Clause 5(3) – “The grading and drainage of the lot when completed must be certified in writing . . . before the building is occupied“. The final grading certificate has not yet been requested according to the city inspector I talked with recently.
Clause 31(17) – “no building permit shall be granted for any lot until the Owner has installed curbs . . . . ”
SCHEDULE “M”(35) – Community Mail Box Site . People have been required to live without local mail service (had to drive a couple miles to pick up) and this was only installed in March 2017 despite people living here since Dec 2015.
SCHEDULE “M”(36) Builder agrees to provide Temporary Community Mailbox until curbs (installed in February) sidewalks (February) and final grading. Final grading is yet to be done while the site has lingered as an eye-sore for months with homes completed but still a construction site (with toilet on the front lawn and all) while people have been required to live here, pay for services they have not been getting – last week was first garbage pick up day).
SCHEDULE “M”(39) “That the owners construct a board on board wood fence around the perimeter of the lands . . . . . . . prior to occupancy of any dwelling on the lands“).
Now a breach of any clause is unacceptable by any standards especially when you are talking about a clause written by Municipal Government lawyers that affect their tax payers (one would think!).
But issuing Occupancy Permits contrary to SCHEDULE “M”(39) is just downright unacceptable!
The fence was just completed about two weeks ago by a rather rude and inexperienced fence builder (his truck said carpenter and I watch him unpack his brand new store bought fencing tools (didn’t have a scratch on anything) and plug into owner’s electrical outlets planning to use owners’ electricity (and resultantly pass on the costs) to build the fence.
My wife chose to question him on his doing so and he rather rudely threw it back in her face.
Now this guy is the guy that showed up at my door ringing my front door bell announcing to me that “he is intending to put liens on each house” because the builder “has not paid his bill“!
That’s lien # 3 or #4 in my count.
The Affidavit had appended to it the title on the land and it shows three different liens and this one so it’s 4 that we know of.
This is a very telling tale of this builder.
So owners (“Consumers”) are still living in this pit, while the builder has ridden off into the sunset with all his cash!
And now we’ve learned that the builder conspired with it’s “Ringer” property management company (I’ve taken down their name as they sent one of these ambulance-chasing litigators after me) that they exploited a couple years back to get him the paperwork he needed to be put into place, and then by their own account, “he dumped them without paying them and simply disappeared for over 18 months“!
We had our Turn Over Meeting five weeks ago and as a community and as a legal entity we have been left with zero money (just the allegation that it exists in a bank account that we don’t own or have access to) and discovered a highly unethical under-the-table 3 Year Renewing Contract that is virtually impossible to get out of signed just days before the meeting! Sound questionable or even unethical to you?
It sure does to me!
And then we discover that the COO while acting as the president of our condo board (before it turned over to us) apparently has authorized the builder and it’s “Ringer” property management company (I’ve taken down their name as they sent one of these ambulance chasing litigators after me) (his co-conspirator in this) to pay themselves for work that they have admitted to never having done and pay them out of our condo corporation!
We have still not had access to banking records (five weeks after the Turn Over) to see just how this money was disbured.
Under the builder as president of the condo corporation, the corporation kept no legal records, no Minute Book, No Contracts, banking records, Audits . . . . NOTHING! Says a whole lot about this builder wouldn’t you say?
So the COO for the builder, left open his Achilles Heel which I discovered reading through his incorporation documents for our condo corporation where I discovered Article 2.5 which gives the board of directors the authority to charge “Prime Plus 5% interest compounded MONTHLY . . . ” and am serving him and his company our board’s authorization to charge this full amount for the entire time which he failed to comply with the law and advance budgeted money to the corporation over which he held legal responsibility.
Two years of maintenance fees at $116/month x 18 lots plus interest based on Article 2.5 equates to roughly $220,000.00 for which it is my intention to proceed in court against the COO and his company on behalf of the 18 owners who have been so grievously exploited by them.
Nothing can adequately compensate these purchasers for what they have been forced to live through.
The bigger challenge is to stop this happening throughout the Province of Ontario and the only hope of that rests with this newly proposed “Regulator” introduced by the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services holds any potential of meaningful change.
It’s time for all of the consumer exploitation to stop.
I’m Charles
