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.
