Now, here the line that usually has me hear from unethical player’s (usually developers for my having published about their scandalous behaviour and practices) “ambulance chasing litigators“.
They don’t really threaten me as even up here in the north, we hold the legal position on libel that actually relies on a very simple principal . . . . . “the truth“. You see, “Defamation” (written is libel and stated is slander) required “untruthful statements“.
I’ve been required to defend myself in numerous (too many to even count) against frivolous threats of being sued for having “defamed” people and have managed to defend myself against these highly paid, highly educated “distorters of fact” by simply meeting them on their ground with the total defense of “agreeing to remove everything that they state with specificity that they are alleging to be libellous in my blog“.
If they could, I would then have 72 hours to decide whether to “retract” the blog, simply remove the offending material (my exposing them is actually the “offending material“) or take it down all together should I decide to address the issue at all.
A threat letter and/or a Notice of Intention to commence litigation, is not Notice of litigation and proves normally to be simply pounding drums to put us uneducated consumers into a state of panic and do what we are told which is always to “take the offending content down“.
I’ve actually found the challenge of dealing with these highly paid “distorters of fact” entertaining as my lack of education against their high level of education offers me a “chess match” that I’m always happy to play.
My education is fundamentally limited to be a self-taught practitioner of “Sun Tzu The Art of War“.
I stumbled onto this publication when I was young as a salesman, realizing that I had left myself in a very narrow career path of selling and back then, much like today, salesmen weren’t exactly held in the highest esteem.
So, here’s the Reader’s Digest version of what our new board of directors has come up with in our efforts to take control of our residential community of 18 luxury residences on Lake Ontario.
You can search “Oakville” here at simplycharles.com and read the entire time line of exploitation that shows buyers in this community were intentionally misled by the builder of their homes who intentionally withheld critical documents (“Subdivision Agreement“) from buyers, sold them a “Registered POTL” without Status Certificates, masquerading them as “pre-construction sales” under the delivery of conventional Disclosure “Package of Documents“.
This builder has proven totally corrupt in their abusive handling of buyers, some of whom were manipulated into “Occupancy” (actually Final Closing), despite protections set out in the withheld Subdivision Agreement that required there to be certain services (mail) and features (privacy fence), neither of which were completed for over a year of being manipulated into moving into a full fledge construction site.
For some inexplicable reason the municipal government (“Town of Oakville“) granted this builder “Occupancy Permits” despite the Subdivision Agreement that they themselves wrote, carrying legal “Conditions” (postal service, fence, etc.) “PRIOR to Occupancy“!
I’ve taken this issue right up to the Mayor’s office and really have been offered no legitimate explanation as to how their own contracts were circumvented at the expense of their new tax payers.
Buyers have been totally let down by their governments, who all generate huge amounts of cash income from the real estate industry (consumers buying real estate), they’ve been forced to live is outrageous filth, noise and debris (this site is still an “eye sore” after construction of the houses ceased months ago with builder’s working only “part time” to get the place liveable (there is still a portable toilet in a front yard that has not been removed despite my private face to face request to their the builder’s President on site!
There simply has not been one positive thing for these unfortunate consumers to say about the way they have been abused by this municipal government, who after having me blog about it and offered only a subtle legal bluff, actually set a meeting with the developer and the three builders.
Well, the physical delivery of the builder’s houses was overseen by an excellent sub-contractor who actually knew what he was doing but he ultimately walked off the job due to the conduct of this builder and resulting hostility thrown at him from buyers (tricked into living amidst the construction who were upset about this builder’s constant lies to them).
So these owners, including myself who just moved into my home, are all extremely gratified that Jason worked for the time that he did with these “grab the money and run” guys.
And the location simply cannot be beat!
And the people both owners in our new community and the surrounding community (who also have suffered at the hands of these builders, developer, and Municipal Government handling of this development – I blogged the other day show the amateurish “mess” of the property despite construction having ended months ago!) have proven fantastic!
I’ve never been a community type, but the brief time that I’ve been here (just weeks) my walks throughout the neighbourhood have introduced us to so many genuinely nice people, who actually say “hello” and talk as though we’ve known each other for years, is truly a hidden reward from moving here!
Everything is so right except the manner by which some owners, (the other builders built and then sold and the other company had just 2 and they sold to insiders/investors it appears) have been dealt with.
The Town has offered no apologies for having dropped the ball.
I can understand that because there may be liability washing in behind that wave.
But now we have this property management issue with the builder’s property manager, who have provenly collaborated, conspired and/or colluded with this builder to lock the 18 buyers into a ridiculously repressive, totally one-sided 3 year management contract with them that Houdini would have a tough time getting out of!
I will be posting many of these ridiculous clauses here and if you have anything to do with condos or Condoland, (buying, speculating, investing, owning, living in, renting, selling, leasing, whatever or know anyone who does), then you will want to read this material as every condo corporation out there has probably been caught up in this web!
A simply turn over of ownership that is accompanied by this kind of “backdated property management contract” slipped into the Turn Over Meeting so owners won’t even notice it, is unethical and in my option is borderline if not flagrantly (I’m not a criminal lawyer) illegal!
This company bragged at our meeting about managing “over 250 condo boards just like ours“!
My bet is that a subpoena would show that all or somewhere around all, would prove to having been slipped into the same type of controlling, one-side ridiculous contract that this builder and its “ringer” property management company have so obviously tried to slip into our new condo corporation!
And just so you know, the contract is one of those that “once you in it is very, very difficult to get out of”.
Yet just another clear example of how the entire system is broken.
How highly educated people in control of our Provinces, cities and town governments have screwed up this entire industry (hey . . . “it is what keeps our economy looking solid” according to the government who are observably buying down interest rates to continue to support the speculative nature of this industry).
Corrupt you say!
To the core!
And who gets hurt?
You got it . . . . the average, tax payer who works hard, pays their bills and taxes and in return gets “shafted” at every corner.
This builder’s “ringer” property management company (I’ve chosen to not name them any longer here as they’ve sent one of those “ambulance chasing litigators after me to cover their tracks”), outrageous conduct cannot go unexposed here as it is time for condo boards, government, consumers and everyone else even remotely tied into Condoland “get a hold of reality” and realize that consumers are being “shafted” by design and all parties are complicit!
Blessed with two very talented and down right smart volunteers from our community we rather instinctively formed a solid intellectual team and managed to tear own the smoke screen that was handed to us in a very short amount of time.
I’m a strategist and fighter. My Sun Tzu training has led me to be quite good at both as Sun Tzu is actually the “consciousness of strategic planning to win fights“.
This is how I’ve managed to achieve success in so many disciplines without any credentials or education (isn’t capitalism great?!
Well, until it turns its ugly side to you, apparently which comes part in parcel with buying real estate in Ontario or at least in Condoland (I don’t do other areas of real estate) as it has with this community of homes thanks to a highly unethical and untrustworthy (shown in first hand experience) builder coupled with what appears to be a highly polished “consumer exploitation of consumers” system put in place by our various levels of government and people willing to capitalize on such scenarios as apparently FirstService has here!
Our community, had we three “rebel rousers” not chosen to face up to the responsibilities that came with volunteering to sit as our community’s board of director and being willing to do the volumes of hard work accompanying the task, would be in a very bad situation today with its property management company LITERALLY CONTROLLING OUR COMMUNITY.
They control our bank accounts (although this is not clearly set out in their contract a close study exposed the “at termination they would return bank accounts“)!
Who ever heard of such a thing!
Yet this all forms a part of their agreement so if anyone reading this knows anyone living in a condo managed by this company, your board of directors should read closely their agreement and find out exactly what is going on.
The golden door knob for boards and condo corporations to protect themselves has a very narrow threshold which fundamentally is limited to the time the condo corporation turn over ownership from the previous builder/developer to the owners.
Clause 111 of the Condo Act is one of the few (and highly time sensitive, although the Act doesn’t specify a time which as a fighter I would tell you it may never be too late depending on who passed the rules and bylaws giving over control to them) true protection to consumers and condo boards, PROVIDING THEY EXERCISE THEIR RIGHTS TO TERMINATE ALL CONTRACTS AS SET OUT IN SECTION 111.
This story apparently “has legs” and I will continue to bring it to you suggesting that this Case Study be used as the foundational basis for the alleged updates allegedly coming to the Condo Act.
I’ve studied what they are taking about and its simply more of the same old same old!
These changes make the window dress look a little better which lulls consumers into a deeper (false) sense of comfort while the system continues to exploit them.
Stay tuned and please get your friends educating themselves to the information that you find here.
I’m going to be publishing here the actual strategy that we employed to shake our community free of these people!
I’m Charles
 “Backdated, ‘No-Bid’, 3 Three Year, difficult to get out of, Contract (not recorded in Minute Book or Minutes and entered Into Just Days Before Our Turn Over Meeting) Gave CONTROL Of Our Community Over To Them”){kind=link}