Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca December 28, 2002 Don’t let house insurance take a holiday Going away for the holidays? Under most insurance policies, if your house is unoccupied for more than four consecutive days during the winter season, your insurance will not cover water damage from the freezing of any part of a plumbing, heating, or […]
Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca December 21, 2002 Unfinished work causes nightmares on moving day Buyers usually must close even if work is unfinished Avoid nasty shocks by scrutinizing the fine print It happens all the time. It’s the day of closing and the house isn’t finished. The purchasers complete the Ontario New Home Warranty Program pre-delivery […]
Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca December 14, 2002 Getting to the root of property damage What happens when your neighbour’s tree and tree roots damage your property? That’s the question Trevor Johnson is facing in the backyard of his North York home. A large maple tree is growing on his neighbour’s property very close to the […]
Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca December 7 2002 Standard contracts offer builder leeway to make changes Substitutions, changes are allowed Buyers may be surprised by how much Decide what’s crucial for you It’s the day before closing of your new house or condominium. After months of waiting, it’s finally time to inspect the finished product, and […]
Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca November 30, 2002 Homebuyer beware of old fuel oil tanks Storage tanks require regular inspections Get insurance for environmental damage Just when I thought I had heard about all the problems that can occur in a real estate deal, a new one crops up out of the blue. When […]
Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca Information and Privacy Commissioner/Ontario Identity Theft: Who’s Using Your Name? Ann Cavoukian, Ph.D. Commissioner June 1997 The Information and Privacy Commissioner/Ontario gratefully acknowledges the work of Peony Gandolfi in preparing this report. Cette publication est également disponible en français Upon request, this publication will be made available on audio […]
Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca November 23, 2002 Insurance firms guard themselves from terrorism Policies no longer cover losses due to terror acts It came as quite a shock when I received the renewal of one of my insurance policies in the mail last week. After the events of Sept. 11, I suppose I should not have […]
Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca November 16, 2002 Changes to Act won’t protect buyers Ontario s consumer minister Tim Hudak is way off base if he thinks his proposed new consumer protection legislation will provide adequate – or indeed any – protection to thousands of Ontario consumers who buy new homes every year. The sad fact is […]
Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca November 9 2002 Common sense can help protect your identity When we talk about theft, we usually think in terms of money or possessions – as in theft of a wallet, a car, a television, or other personal property. But one thing that can be stolen much more easily than a car […]
Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca November 2 2002 Taxpayers on hook for leaky condo B.C. municipality held liable by appeal court The British Columbia Court of Appeal has written what may be the final chapter in the first of many "leaky condo" cases to reach that court. Following its decision, ratepayers in the Vancouver suburb of Delta […]
Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca October 19 2002 Mike Myers Dr. an evil idea I feel sorry for anybody who buys a new house and has to live on a street named Mike Myers Dr. The proposed street will be located in a new subdivision near Kennedy Rd. and Lawrence Ave. E. in Scarborough. The zany […]
Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca October 19 2002 The two-car garage that wasn’t ONHWP’s argument in complaint case defies common sense Today’s trick question is "How many cars fit into a two-door garage?" The answer, it seems, depends who you are asking the Ontario New Home Warranty Program, or everybody else. When I went to law school […]
Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca October 12 2002 Misery loves company in real estate lawsuits Unhappy buyers join forces with class actions Class actions in the real estate field are a growth area for litigation lawyers. Speaking to a meeting of the real estate section of the Ontario Bar Association in June, Toronto lawyer Colin Stevenson reviewed […]
Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca October 5 2002 Country dream washed away Couple’s home was built on top of underground river From a legal point of view, there are important differences between buying a home in the city and buying a place to live in the country. For the most part, buyers of city properties do […]
Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca September 28 2002 How homebuyer protection could be improved It would be an understatement to say that Greater Toronto Home Builders’ Association president Sheldon Libfeld didn’t like what I wrote about the Ontario New Home Warranty Program in my Sept. 7 column, Home warranty program behind the times (online at http://www.aaron.ca). In […]
Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca September 28 2002 Turns out strange smell was due to straw builder hadn’t cleaned up Last fall I wrote in this column about a smelly cellar flood we had in our house when the sewer backed up due to blockage from tree roots. That column produced an interesting response from a reader […]
Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca September 14 2002 eBay clicks with real estate Auction site’s foray into house market adds competition The face of the Canadian real estate market is poised for change with the launch of a new category on eBay, one of the world’s largest online marketplaces. With this move into cyberspace real estate, buyers […]
Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca September 7 2002 Home warranty program behind the times Alberta Plan and U.S. proposal boost buyer protection In his Bricks & Sticks column in this section two weeks ago, Sheldon Libfeld, president of the Greater Toronto Home Builders Association (GTHBA) strongly defended the warranty protection offered to new home and condominium buyers […]
Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca August 31, 2002 Residents heated up over transformer boxes Walk down the streets of any reasonably new residential subdivision and every block or so you will come upon a large green metal box, three or four feet square. These are the hydro transformer boxes, installed to step down the high voltage […]
Bob Aaron bob@aaron.ca August 24, 2002 In praise of caring builders Some go the extra mile to fix buyers’ problems Last week’s Title Page column told the story of Mark, the buyer of a $500,000 Thornhill home who received shoddy treatment at the hands of his builder. Among the faxes and e-mails I received in […]