Ages at an accelerated rate. I can’t. Can’t wait. Won’t make it.
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I’d rather be talking about Legacy Advantage, but since the glitch has pushed it a week away, I’ll tell you a personal story instead. It’s a true story, but it has a villain and it’s very scary.
I bought a new house last December. The woman I bought it from was a friend of my wife. The lady is engaged to be married to someone from the USA (we live in Canada.) To help her out, we wrote a lease agreement which let her live in the house at a VERY cheap rent and allows her to leave without notice. This was to allow her to leave as soon as her immigration papers came through. We had a clear end date of Sept 1, with an additional paragraph allowing her to move downstairs for an even cheaper rent on Sept 1, just in case.
When we went to move, she said no.
Tenancy laws in Ontario are nightmarish for the house’s owner. We weren’t allowed to move into our new house. We took her to a hearing (yesterday) and she said that she wouldn’t leave. Her immigration hadn’t come through and she preferred the whole house to just the basement.
The date is clear and she signed it, but she’s saying she wishes to say, and as it goes to each hearing, she gets to stay in our house. Even though will lose each appeal, since she has no reason to be allowed to stay, she can keep appealing and requesting to stay. Every time she does this, it gets a new hearing several months later and she continues to stay in our house.
She could easily ride this system, losing every time she requests something new, but still live in our house until April of next year, or even longer!! We mediated a settlement with her yesterday. She has agreed to leave the upstairs of the house on October 31 in return for 1.5 months free rent, and the option to move downstairs at a reduced rent thereafter. We signed it, or she would have stayed there for at least another 7 months.
So, long story short, my family is homeless for two months because of this selfish woman. We’re fortunate enough to have a trailer 30 minutes away from my work and the kids’ schools, so we’ve crammed ourselves into it and we’re living here. Unfortunately, the park closes on Oct 15, so we’re scrambling to find something for the last part of that month. Legal bills sucked, and guess what? Tenants in Ontario get free legal counsel. So, my taxes paid for her to learn how to do this nifty little trick.
Needless to say, my writing time has been reduced greatly for the time being. Difficult times, but at least there’s now an end in sight. Grrrrrr.
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Dude, that is so not cool for her to be screwing up your family’s life like that for the sake of a greedy loophole. Hope the situation gets resolved and you have a place to call yours at last.
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Wow some people are just shit holes
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Wow, that’s terrible. I’m so sorry!
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Damn. Sorry you’ve been dealt such a rotten deal. Anyway I wanted to let everyone know that Legacy has released early on Google play.
Wish you luck lucid.
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Does she actually have to move downstairs on October 31st, or can she appeal that?
Sorry to hear that. There’s no such thing as a good tenancy law, but man does it suck to be on the receiving end of one that protects this kind of nonsense.
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The settlement says that she must leave the upstairs, which allows us to move in. She “may” move downstairs at that time (had to allow that to get her to sign) but as long as we can get in, we’ll be happy.
We should have less trouble getting her out of the basement, once we’re living there. I suspect that she may not even use that part of the agreement. Either way, once we’re in, we’ll be happy.
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Bloody hell… Sounds like a horror story! But, I guess once you move in things will quickly change (the legality of the situation would be different?)
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I’m so sorry, @Lucid. Your whole story has a deeply scary villainess and honestly it gave me anxiety just imagining what that situation would be like! I’m sorry that your wife’s former friend betrayed your family so badly, but like you said, at least there’s an end in sight!
Ugh, she sounds terrible!
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That’s awful 
. I think it happens more than people think and it’s not just in Canada, I know of a few occasions where stuff like this has happened. I even know of a situation where someone bought a house, but then the old owner refused to move out which caused all sorts of dramas until an agreement was reached.
Although you need to protect the tenant from things that some less honest landlords can pull, it’s not good that if there’s a signed agreement in place for an end to the lease that it can kept being appealed in this way to string it out for months. It’s particularly crappy that she was a friend of the family and you were doing her a favour by allowing her to stay downstairs until she could move rather than just telling her to move out. I can’t believe she’d make your family live in a trailer/hotel rather than compromise, and then on top of it to demand free rent is shocking. Hope it all works out soon. (And wish her good luck at getting a rental somewhere else after she pulled that stunt on you that has now been recorded in the legal system.)
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Hey so, I have no idea, but I thought I’d link this anyway just in case it might help somehow:
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But seriously. Thats not fair.
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Yes, it’s much different. We can remove her easier once we are living in the house. I suspect that she won’t be there on Nov. 1, but if she is, we can get by until we can get her out.
Yes, BC laws are much more reasonable. In fact, Ontario has the worse tenancy laws (for the owner) in Canada.
She signed, had the proper wording, had the dates, had the correct form, had her paraphrase her understanding of the lease in email even… and still, she can drag her feet and request new hearings for any reason, which she would lose, but while waiting for each hearing, she gets to stay in the house.
Well, with this settlement, she can’t.
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Oops, wrong location! 
I haven’t read through most of this yet (see links below), but I’m guessing it’s not as simple as just terminating her lease and thus nullifying her renter’s rights? Also, not that you would sell the house to your wife for one dollar, but if you sold the house or transferred ownership, aren’t any contracts she made with you null and void because you’re no longer the owner? I am not a lawyer. This is not legal advice, lol.
- Tenant rights and Landlord rights in Ontario | tenantrights.ca
- http://www.mah.gov.on.ca/page137.aspx
http://www.mah.gov.on.ca/Page18704.aspx
Contact the Landlord and Tenant Board by calling 1-888-332-3234 to learn more about your rights and responsibilities under the RTA.
We own the house and the end of lease was clear, but in Ontario, this is not enforceable, it’s only an “offer” to end the tenancy, despite the fact that it’s clearly stated and signed.
We own the house, but we may not enter it until the court provides an eviction notice, but we can’t get one without following the process, which can take a year to follow, during which she can stay in the house.
The settlement assures that she will leave.
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Well, at least you don’t live in France. Their “winter truce” on evictions is one of the most bass-ackward ways to run a safety-net measure I’ve ever seen.
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Is the legacy advantage out ?
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yes
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It’s out for some systems, not for others. I’m still hoping it gets to iPhones soon.
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