this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2023
69 points (98.6% liked)

Canada

7203 readers
158 users here now

What's going on Canada?



Communities


🍁 Meta


🗺️ Provinces / Territories


🏙️ Cities / Local Communities


🏒 SportsHockey

Football (NFL)

  • List of All Teams: unknown

Football (CFL)

  • List of All Teams: unknown

Baseball

Basketball

Soccer


💻 Universities


💵 Finance / Shopping


🗣️ Politics


🍁 Social and Culture


Rules

Reminder that the rules for lemmy.ca also apply here. See the sidebar on the homepage:

https://lemmy.ca/


founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
 

More Canadian developers are slowing their pace of building or nixing projects completely. Here's what you need to know about your rights if you bought a pre-sale home.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] cheery_coffee@lemmy.ca 34 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't know how long it's been the case, but in Canada if you're an individual consumer you don't have any rights against the construction industry.

Hire a contractor and they do a shit job? Sorry, you have to let them finish or pay them out, you don't have the right to fire them unless a person gets seriously injured by their work. They're allowed to fix their work indefinitely.

It doesn't matter what your contract says, doesn't matter that they fail to meet the minimum standards outlined in it. If you do try to fire them they just put a lien on your house without anything further than their word and $30. And careful posting a review online, you can get sued for defamation over that, even if it's the truth (look it up, it's a thing).

Got stiffed by a contractor after your prepayment? Too bad, they changed their name so now they don't exist. That was the old company and they're bankrupt, the new one was their creditor and acquired all their assets. Oh, and if they fail to pay their subcontractors you're personally liable.

Bought a prebuild? Sorry, the contractor can just walk away anytime and resell the unit if the value increases. Good luck on your deposit. I have no idea why they can just relist the properties a couple months later but I guess they can.

And don't get me started on the "cash discount" aka "we don't pay taxes and don't get audited".

The construction industry in this country get treated better than royalty. Can't speak ill of them, can't go after them legally, and it's all tax free!

[–] madcaesar@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Hm I don't much about the subject matter, but this can't possibly be right can it?

[–] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 year ago

Frequent enough to be well known; condo owners that bought prior to them being built were told they’d need to pay an extra $X because the builder could get more for them after they were built (housing prices were more)

It is also fairly common for a contractor to relist if there’s a complaint against their company

The rest I am unsure of but they sound plausible, there is too much need for skilled trades because boomers a lot of time refused to grant people working under them apprenticeships, instead just using them as labourers that way they could charge more and not be replaced.

[–] cheery_coffee@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago

You would think it can’t be right until you get burned and find out.