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| What our building will eventually look like... |
Just to bring you up to speed - here is a brief timeline of events:
September 2011: Michelle puts initial deposit down on condo
July 2012: Completion date Michelle initially expects. They obviously miss this date, and push back to November, causing us to find a rental in Toronto, so we can at least start our lives together, knowing we might have to break the lease when we move in November.
November 2012: First delayed occupancy date (they're allowed a few extensions under TARION rules). They missed this one again, delaying our occupancy date until February, at this point we're upset that we won't be in by Christmas 2012.
February 2013: Yep - missed again - this time, we are moved to May 28th. We seriously begin to wonder if we'll even have to break our lease at ALL.
May 2013: You guessed! This one is moved to July 2nd - and soon after they give us a FINAL occupancy date of July 25th. This is it - we got our final date, and didn't even have to break our lease. We figure there's no way they're going beyond this, and paying people compensation.
June 2013: The elevator strike comes in and messes everything up (or so we thought). The strike (allowably under TARION rules) pushes back our final date - we eventually settle on August 28th.
August 2013: Given notice, packed up our stuff, and then on August 16th - 12 days before we were supposed to move, we get notice that this place is not going to be ready, and that they'll be paying for our storage, and begin the compensation delays. We are told to Anticipate a short delay into September.
September 2013: We wait patiently, expecting them to finish up a few things - when we get the bad news - the financier has come in and noticed too much inconsistency with the project and thought they needed to step in to help us - the buyers. They give us their REALISTIC expectation - which they now say is the first week of November, at the earliest.
November 2013: When we expect to move in now - but I might have to update this timeline later...
So - how did we get here? what happened?
It's really hard to say - the way our fanancier CEO put it last night, with all of his experience was that this project suffered from a builder with unrealistic optimism, which continuously put the project behind. They've missed every milestone date by 50%, and are still, to this day, not realistic with dates. Apparently the builder suggested people could move in, in two weeks, but instead of agreeing, our development group knew better, and told him to be ready for November move ins.
This now means that the builder will be paying an entire building of people (when all is said and done), full TARION compensation. Sucks to be them (that's close to a million dollars btw - after everything).
The hardest part about it all was the unrealistic expectations we were all given time after time (some people longer, like Michelle's sister, who's been on the same roller coaster, but for 2 years longer). Tonight was tough to hear, because we've been living out of suitcases for the last month, but it was nice to finally hear some real expectations.
Why don't you just back out? Can you?
Technically, we can - after October 31st - that is the outside date on the agreement of purchase. If we reach this date without moving in (which we will) - we can back out. We talked about it - but....we decided, to walk away, after waiting this long, and being so close at that point (we could be moving in a couple weeks later), just doesn't seem worth it to us. They'd have to give us our full 20% down payment back - plus finishes, plus interest - but keep in mind that the Canada interest rate has been close to zero for much of the time, so it wouldn't be much. We WANT to enjoy this place, this all just means we'll enjoy it for less time because we'll still need to move up into something more family-friendly as some point.
How can you avoid this, if YOU want to buy a condo?
It's tough to say, but I don't know that anyone could have ever predicted this happening. We will be a year and a half past the date originally projected, and I don't think that this is THAT uncommon actually. Check your OUTSIDE closing dates - and fully expect them to be reached. Condo developers have these rules at their disposal, and although they DO want to finish everything on time - they have every right to go to the end.
Now - there are some things that I think we'll be more weary of, if we ever buy new again: I'd only choose a developer with huge backing, and that means staff, and money, to influence how things get done. Having the developer put pressure on the builder, and knows when they're not being realistic about their deadlines is important - we haven't had that person, until now.
Don't give notice until you KNOW for sure that you'll be leaving. I know - we "knew for sure", but in the future, I'd probably leave myself another month, even if I had to pay for two places at the same time. We still would have had to leave, but it would have been a little easier on us.
Anyway - thanks for all our thoughts - we've gotten a lot of messages and comments, but now you can all know the full story of how this all happened to us. We're trying to move forward, and make these next 6 weeks as easy on us as they can be, our new life was supposed to be started, and it just feels like we've gone backwards. Just another test in life I suppose. Thanks again!
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