PROMISES, PROMISES
When Susan Tomac-Brennan bought a condo at Fernbank Crossing in Stittsville in March 2017, she was promised it would be ready in July 2017. She’s still waiting.
An Ottawa retiree is furious a Stittsville condo she purchased and was supposed to have moved into last July is still not built and likely won’t be finished until September.
In the meantime, Susan TomacBrennan is renting a room in a friend’s basement and has been unable sign a lease for better accommodation. All the while, the cost of her storage locker keeps mounting.
But while the builder has made and then broken promises, Phoenix Homes hasn’t broken any rules. Despite 15 months of delays, there is little Tomac-Brennan can do. Her experience is a cautionary tale of the pitfalls that can occur when buying a new condo.
Tomac-Brennan’s house sold in March 2017 — on the day she listed it — after she received assurance from her realtor that the new condo was on target for completion on July 11, 2017.
Three weeks later, in a letter dated April 7, 2017, she got her first bit of bad news. Her new condo wouldn’t be ready until Nov. 8, 2017. “We find ourselves requiring the extra time to complete your home with the care and attention we have committed to providing by your previous closing date,” said the letter, signed by Rahul Kochar, director of sales and marketing for Phoenix.
“All of a sudden all these letters started coming in,” Tomac-Brennan said. “I’d ask them, ‘How much longer? You’re giving me three months’ notice. It’s hard to find a rental.’ No one wants to rent to you for less than a year. And I didn’t want to sign a lease and then end up having to sublet to someone.”
Tomac-Brennan paid $223,000 for the condo in a three-storey, 12-unit new build at Fernbank Crossing, between Abbott Street East and Fernbank Road. The price was right and Tomac-Brennan was looking to downsize to a simpler home that would allow her to travel frequently to care for her aging mother in northern Ontario.
On July 27, another letter arrived from Phoenix that said work had begun, but warned of another delay. This time, the letter promised a “firm occupancy date” of March 7, 2018.
On Dec. 1, 2017, another delay — until June 28, 2018 — and again with no reason provided. On her lawyer’s advice, Tomac-Brennan began regularly visiting the site to check on progress but was discouraged to see no work was done over the winter.
In an email to another buyer, Brad Mulvihill, who was the first person to purchase in Fernbank Crossing and has been waiting even longer than Tomac-Brennan to move in, the company said work couldn’t be done because there was no way to heat the units for workers during the winter. Phoenix blamed the delay on “lastminute changes from Hydro and Enbridge.” Mulvihill shared the email with Tomac-Brennan.
“I wrote them and said, ‘Why don’t you have electricians in? You don’t need heat to have someone put the wires in,’ ” Tomac-Brennan said.
Then, another delay. On March 20, another letter arrived, again pushing back the completion date until Sept. 21, 2018, 15 months after Tomac-Brennan was originally told the building would be ready.
“Because I trusted they were honest in their dates, I have had an incredibly difficult time securing short-term rentals within my budget,” she said. “Had they been honest and told me it would be a year, I could have rented an apartment for a year.”
Tomac-Brennan has been living in a friend’s basement apartment for months, embarrassed that her stay has extended long after she had promised to be gone. But she has to be out by the end of the summer when her landlord’s daughter is cominghome.Tomac-Brennan’sson has said she can come stay with him.
Mulvihill, the first buyer in the Fernbank Crossing building, is still living with his parents while he waits for Phoenix to finish the building.
“It’s just been a nightmare,” said Mulvihill’s mother, Donna. “It’s been negative. It’s certainly not a company that I’d recommend to anyone. I’d just run screaming from them.”
Kochar did not respond to calls and emails for comment. Phoenix referred inquires to Tarion, the agency that enforces Ontario’s New Home Warranties Plan Act.
Condo construction delays are not uncommon and are sometimes outside the builders’ control, said Tarion spokeswoman Melania Kearns.
“For this reason, a builder can extend an occupancy date multiple times as long as proper notice of the extension is provided to the purchaser. This is set out in the addendum attached to the purchase agreement.”
If a builder fails to give proper notice for delays, buyers may be eligible for compensation of $150 a day, up to a maximum of $7,500, Kearns said.
The Ontario Builder Registry shows Phoenix has built 1,277 homes and condos since 2008 and has had only three claims against it, paying a total of $7,640 in compensation. Phoenix has had no claims against it since 2009.
Tomac-Brennan’s costs keep mounting, including $200 a month for storage fees, but the worst is the more than a year she’s spent in temporary accommodation. She acknowledges Phoenix has followed the rules set out in the sales agreement, including giving its legally required notice of delays. She’s just frustrated by the experience.
“It is unjust, in this day and age, that builders can treat people this way without any accountability.”