I’ve been blogging for some time about this unfolding Case Study surrounding the purchase of 18 million dollar plus residences in Oakville.
For those of you who haven’t read the earlier blogs I would suggest searching “Sunrise Homes” here at simplycharles.com and all of the background history will be available to you.
If you are owning or considering buying a new reconstruction condo here in Ontario, you will find this Case Study extremely valuable. If you are not, but know someone who is considering buying “pre-sale” anywhere in Ontario you will be doing them a favour by sending them a link to this material.
The punchline for today’s blog introduces a whole new phase to this ongoing saga.
I’ve pointed out how developer are allowed to lie to consumers by publishing professionally written and orchestrated web sites that bear absolutely no integrity or factual information.
Here’s Sunrise Homes’ home page and my blogs, which also include sworn testimony of one of the owners in this development in their law suite against what her Notice of Pending Litigation and Affidavit describes as “a totally unethical bordering criminal builder“.
You really would have to work hard to find a more diametrically opposed two realities as this builder’s web site content and the factual egregious conduct by this builder in a real life sale of a million dollar plus home.
Sunrise Homes has proven unethical and absolutely incompetent.
Their notable lack of experience surfaces when you realize that in this booming Ontario market they couldn’t sell 18 “underpriced” (by a heavy margin) houses!
It becomes more worrisome to realize that the builder is also allowed to hire an ad agency to produce totally fabricated (well articulated but fabricated) brochures with which the builder could sell to the dreams of consumers pursuing the most fundamental of aspirations, home ownership.
Now, realize that the consumer is required to enter into the most ridiculous, one side contract imaginable!
I’m not kidding!
The consumer is given a 10 Day Rescission Period within which to get out of the transaction after which they are shuffled off to the sidelines and fundamentally told to “shut up and we’ll give you what we want to when we want to“.
The developer/builder is by contract allowed to change anything and everything about the “unit“, the size dimensions, finishes while not having to disclose what it is initially that they are delivering.
This Case Study scenario, for example did not specify “counter top, sinks, door heights or construction, ceiling finishes, toilets, or many other minutia details relating to the home that they are purchasing.
Consumers are promised “stainless steel appliances” but no specifics are included which means the “base version” across the board (and all this in a million dollar plus house).
So, here’s today’s catch.
These homes are “Common Element Condominiums” and I don’t think that this mix of builders (Fernbrook Homes is the developer and they sold the building rights to Sunrise Homes, who proved incompetent in selling them and had to wholesale eight of the eighteen lots to other, I’m told family member builders, who tried to sell the homes to consumers) even understands what that means.
With this entire development getting so far out of whack, I’m starting to wonder if anyone involved in this entire process understands.
So, for the benefit of my 1.6 million readers and more specifically for my new and unknown (only 8 homes are being lived in) neighbours, and it is primarily for these consumers that I write today’s blog, not to mention to establish a “Record” and further educate through this Case Study.
So, despite having been repeatedly lied to by Sunrise Homes’ directors for over a year and having them hide the fact that the POTL was already “Registered” prior to us and most of the present owner/residents even purchasing, and having the COO of Sunrise (Mr. Muzammel Kodwani) put himself on the corporation’s Board of Directors (a flagrant “conflict of interest“) while withholding this information from the buyers, we have finally received Notice that they have reached the 50% +1 threshold of sales to move forward with “Registering” the POTL Corporation (oh ya . . . that was done 2 years ago).
I’ve asked for an explanation but as usual, we’ve seen no co-operation from the builder.
So, we have 8 out of 18 homes being lived in and another 2 sold by this builder (“Sunrise Homes“) not occupied yet, that leaves 8 other homes allegedly having been sold or presently listed for sale.
I say allegedly because I haven’t been able to get an honest answer from anyone on site, and as I’ve said, I’ve been told that these three builders are actually all relatives of some nature.
The question has arises is: “Has it been disclosed to the other 8 Purchasers that this development is a Common Element Condominium”?
My investigations led me back to the party named in the Disclosure Document Package given to me at the time of purchase.
I was informed that they had originally been contracted to serve as property manager three or four years prior and then not heard from this builder until last September again, about the time that I started explaining to them via this blog, that “there had to be a turn-over meeting and board of directors elected, etc.”
Now, there’s some math problems here as if there are only 8 of 10 Sunrise buyers living here and allegedly the other 8 homes have been or are being sold by two other builders without apparent co-ordination with Sunrise . . . . . where is or what comprises the 50% + 1 owner occupancy that triggered the recent announcement of a “Turn Over Meeting“.
More significantly, have these other purchasers been informed that they are buying into a Common Element Corporation and that monthly maintenance fees, not to mention rules and regulations, etc. may impact the way they enjoy their property?
I have been told that this builder contributed to the maintenance fund and resulting Reserve Fund from the time of Registration to September 2016, at which time he stopped as he had a couple people (he breached the Subdivision Agreement with this one) living in the houses.
Sunrise neglected to disclose that the Common Element Condo was Registered and resultantly failed to comply with Ontario Law and deliver punchers with a “Status Certificate” a document that must be signed by an active board member disclosing the financial health of the non-for-profit common element corporation and disclosing any liens or law suits (both of which were a reality on numerous occasions prior to and after September 2016).
Of course this all simply adds to the questions that must be answered.
Other than my demand for a status certificate before I would Close the purchase and sale transaction, no other owner/purchaser (Sunrise Homes’ or other) has requested a Status Certificate.
If any of these buyers knew that it was a common element condo either they or their buyers agent would have known to request a status certificate.
These other two builders may have no idea that this is a common element condo corporation (or they haven’t adhered to legal requirements to sell condos) and have been selling their homes in good faith, unaware of the legal status of them.
The un-nerving thing here is that no-one knows.
The Board of Directors is controlled by the builder who has proven dysfunctional, dishonest and at best unethical and untrustworthy.
The Turn Over Meeting is Scheduled for March and all these (and many more) questions have got to be answered.
So, here’s my Reader’s Digest version of the types of condo corporations:
The Condominium Act, 1998, identifies two types of condominiums :
- Leasehold – some institutions like hospitals, universities, etc. are unable to sell their land so this concept was developed to give them flexibility with respect to the use of land, etc., and
- Freehold – where the developer owns the land thus ownership of the condominium can be transferred collectively to potential purchasers
There are four subcategories of freehold condominiums:
- standard – is usually comprised of buildings that are subdivided into individual “units” (owned privately) and “common elements” (owned collectively). The grounds housing the buildings are also usually designated as common elements. Some common elements may be designated for the “exclusive use” of one of more of the owners. The common elements are generally for common usage of all owners.
- phased – is a standard condominium that is developed in phases as the project is completed
- common elements – with a common element condominium, there are “no units but only common elements“. Significantly, the “common interest” in the common elements is attached to an existing parcels of land known as “parcels of tied land” or “POTLs”. The owners of the POTLs have obligations to maintain the common elements, and do so through common expenses. However, the condominium corporation in a Common Elements Condominium has no authority to make rules with respect to the POTLs themselves.
- and vacant land – Vacant Land Condominiums consists only of bare land at the time it is registered. Portions of the land are then sold as “units of the Vacant Land Condominium” and can then be constructed upon.
I’m looking into the status of declarations made by the other 2 builders on the 8 units not sold by Sunrise Homes.
I’ll keep you posted.
I’m Charles
