So a couple of weeks went by and nothing happened, it was now late August and I happened to be on holidays for a week.  So the wife and I decided to take things into our own hands by initially starting a blog and a group on FaceBook.  We did this for about a week and then my wife suggested we contact the media as it would make a good story and perhaps we could get some traction from Mattamy and the city of Ottawa that way.  So on the Thursday we were on CJOH then on the Friday we were on CBC and also got a write up in the Citizen.  This resulted in Frank Cairo, vice president of Mattamy, calling me directly to set up a meeting.  He was impressed with the level of attention we had achieved in such a short period of time and wanted to come around and discuss working together.  So around came Frank Cairo along with his co-worker Susan Murphy.  A very quick back story on Susan Murphy.  She is a lawyer who used to work in the planning department of the City of Ottawa and was involved in the shutting up of a certain city water engineer who raised concerns about the planning in Kanata West.  She subsequently jumped ship from the City of Ottawa and went to work for Mattamy homes and Frank Cairo.  So along comes Frank and Sue into our backyard where we sit down and have a beer and Frank proceeds to explain the history of what has happened etc, etc, while Sue looks on.  During our discussion Frank goes on to say that it would be great to work with us, in essence we could be the public face of the issue as from his point of view the problem lies with the city of Ottawa. We of course are more than happy to oblige his concept on the proviso that he has to fill us in on what is going on at his end and we can blog about it. At the end of the backyard have a beer summit Frank and Sue shake our hands and I remind him to ‘participate’ with us and ‘use’ us to help push the city.  In other words email or phone would be required, but hell he’s a vice president and a smart guy so he did not need to be told that.  I realize now that the meeting was in essence bullshit and was just a scouting mission to see if we posed any real threat.  I think in hind sight they had a mistake in there impression.  I will say this however, I honestly did like Frank.  He was a nice down to earth guy, seemed genuine and was honestly enthusiastic about the community they where building out in Kanata. Remember, Frank was a fast riser at Mattamy.  Straight out of school he was in Mattamy where he drastically improved some of there business models, he even apparently, wrote some software to help them do it.  He was a fast mover and to be given V.P. in Ottawa was a very big step in his career, but I honestly felt he must have worked for it.

Anyways, so a week goes by and I call Frank a few times and leave a message of his cell phone but he does not return my calls.  Meanwhile, we have been contacted be a lot of home buyers and even some people ‘in the know’ from within the industry who are providing us a lot of information.  I will not say whom these individuals are as I said I wouldn’t.  By the end of week two we have arranged a meeting of homebuyers in our home on a lovely September Saturday morning.  During this meeting  we discuss what the next steps could be etc etc etc.  In the end we decide to ask Mattamy 3 options which we posted up on the blog.  These where:

1. Allow home buyers out of their contracts if they should choose.
2. Freeze Upgrade prices and present values
3. Allow home buyers to switch lots to the new Barhaven community

We also wanted to have a meeting with the city planners along with Mattamy and the Ministry of the environment.  In other words, all of the players in the same room, what a novel idea!  I met with Shad Qadri, city councilor for the area and he agreed and he and his staff would set it up.  By the way Shad was great as was his staff.  In the end the meeting was set for sometime around the end of September beginning of October if memory serves me correctly.

Meanwhile, my calls to Frank had gone unanswered after numerous attempts.  Finally one Friday afternoon after calling him numerous times on his cell phone I got a little frustrated.  So I left him a message that went along the lines of ‘Frank, if you do not call me back I will be forced to continue my conversation with W5”. 5 minutes later RING! Hey Frank, how are ya!  I cannot honestly remember the context of the conversation as I was too busy laughing inside my head at how fast my message had elicited a return call.  Perhaps it was only chance that he called back immediately after that message, who knows, but certainly by this time I was feeling a little jaded about Mattamy’s behavior. 

The following week we had another piece in the paper run as we wanted to keep the pressure up.  One Friday afternoon while at work I received a phone call from my lawyers secretary.  She informed me that my release form from the Mattamy contract was ready for me to sign.  It took me a few seconds before I said ‘what?’  The secretary then proceeded to tell me that Mattamy had decided to release me from the contract sighting a comment by my wife that we wanted out of the contract.  I guess she should have said we would have liked a bigger home for the same price as compensation.  Since when can you take 3^rd party edited comments as the wishes of the individual who has a signed contract!  I was a little incensed to say the least as I felt like they were trying to pull a fast one and get rid of us.  So I told the secretary that I would NOT be signing and promptly hung up and went for a smoke to think for a bit.  When I got back to the office I picked up the phone and called the sales office and I said ‘Hey this Joe from over at phase 3.  I was taking to Frank this morning about some issues we need to discuss but I don’t have his office number with me, can you give it to me?’  She promptly gives me Frank’s office number.  I say thanks and hang up.  I then call the number and get the secretary and I say.  ‘Afternoon, its Joe from over at phase 3, I was talking to Frank this morning about some issues he wanted to discuss this afternoon.  Is he in?”.  The secretary says “Yes he’s in Joe, I will put you through.”, thank you I say.  A few seconds later I hear, “Frank Cairo!”.  “Hi Frank its Keith Chadwick calling how ya doing!”.  This was followed by about 5 seconds of silence then finally a begrudging “hello Keith”.  The conversation went on where I explained to Frank that you cannot use  3^rd party reports in the media as a means to push me out of my contract.  Let’s not forget that this offer had NOT been made to any other home buyer.  I wish I had recorded the conversation as I had the ability to but did not think of it at the moment.  Two comments of Frank’s from that conversation have stuck in my brain every since and probably will until I die.  These where:

• I don’t think you are a Mattamy type person!
• Every time you write a blog post it’s like a stab to my heart!

After the conversation I sat a little dumbfounded for a minute then shook my head vigorously and turned to my coworkers and told them what had been said.  They were as stunned as I.  First off, when I signed the contract there was not a personality or aptitude test that could be used to help in defining me as a ‘Mattamy type person’.  Hell, i’m a bloody WASP, how much better to fit into tight suburbia or am I wrong.  I did not know that Mattamy looked for a ‘certain type of person’.  I will not even go into the tones of discrimination Franks statement can lead to.  The second statement is just plainly bizarre but I have had a fair amount of time to think on it.  Remember my comments about Frank earlier, that I thought he was a genuine person and honest.  I feel now that on that day I was talking to a person under an extreme amount of pressure to do things one way that went against his own personal views.  This type of work environment can really kill you so in retrospect I do feel sorry for Frank.  However, as a V.P., those comments are inexcusable to a customer regardless of how much stress you are under.  Enough said!

So the meeting I had requested to be set up went ahead at the local Sportsplex on Woodroffe avenue.  The city was there in full force.  In fact the city brought basically numbers’ 1 and 2 from every department including legal that had anything to do with the issue, good on them I thought. I cannot remember if the MOE was there so I will leave them out of it.  Of course Mattamy declined to show.  You would have thought this would have been a wonderful opportunity for Mattamy to discuss in front of several, about 12, of their CUSTOMERS!!!  But alas, in the world of building common sense does not seem to exist when it comes to customer service.  You know where J.D. Powers can stick its award for customer service as far as I am concerned.  So, back to the meeting.  It was a very interesting experience and certainly the head legal guy, I apologize for not remembering his name, was a real pleasure to listen to.  He was the definition of saying a lot without saying much but was one hell of a smart guy.  He had a lazy eye which left me with the effect of listening to some Greek Oracle. He was indeed one hell of a smart guy.  The meeting of course was completely the cities side of the equation since Mattamy was not there for any counterpoint.  Overall however, I felt it is was informative and constructive.

A short time later I heard through the other home buyers that Mattamy had decided to call a meeting at a local hotel of all the home buyers.  The meeting was invitation only and of course they did not send us an invitation.  This spoke volumes of how Mattamy viewed my wife and I, so much for working with us!  Luckily the invite to the meeting included a guest and I went with another home buyer along with my father.  Of course we all got in, they even had a name badge ready for me but I will be honest on the way there was not sure if there was going to be a few tough’s waiting for me to bar my way.  At this point I was starting to get a little paranoid about Mattamy to be honest.

During the meeting Frank went on about how approval was underway and was not a problem and was very upbeat.  In fact during this meeting I spoke on several occasions attempting to back what Frank was saying.  I was trying to be a conciliator as much as possible.  As part of the meeting Frank introduced several options to the home buyers.  Guess what they where, you guessed it the same ones we and the other home buyers came up with and put on the blog.  The condition to resign was time based and we had until the following Saturday to sign up under the new contract which included an extra 5K in upgrades and upgrade prices frozen.  After some discussion with my wife and parents I phoned Mattamy on the Monday to inform them that I would be resigning and would be around that week to do so.  A short time later I got a call back from the sales office asking if I could come in on the Saturday to meet with Frank directly to go over the new contract. I of course said yes would love to.  I figured after my backing of him at the hotel meeting it would be an opportunity for him to say thanks and bury the hatchet, boy was I wrong.

So on the following Saturday I, with my father in tow headed off to the main office of Mattamy in Kanata to meet with Frank.  We arrived at an old farm house they were using as mission control and where escorted into the board room at the back.  After a few minutes Frank came in with a large bundle of papers with one of his sales guys in tow.  He introduced the guy as I sales guy but I half suspect he was a lawyer.  He then proceeded to go through the enumerable schedules that make up a housing contract in Ontario. Schedule A, Schedule B, Schedule C then finally schedule X.  Hang on I thought, we missed a lot of letters there!  Frank then went on to explain that schedule X was a gag order preventing me from any further contact with the media or public in general in regards to Mattamy Fairwinds Phase 5.  It also stated that anything I had said in the past about Mattamy or wrote about Mattamy was incorrect!  My father argued this point at some length as he was a bit put off because he felt I had not said anything but the truth. In fact he was correct but I said screw it, I did not care, I wanted my bloody house and if this is what it took fine, the hell with it.  The gag order was to be in place until one year after taking possession of the home.  This is why I took the blog down.  Although I was not going to write anymore, my fear was they could use its existence as an excuse/evidence that I was breaking the order.  Now interestingly I was never made the offer to take the contract back and review it although I did have 5 days to pull out.  I was told in no uncertain terms sign the gag order or no deal.  Interestingly Frank said it was because they had trouble in the past with customers going to the media etc so this was there policy.  Really!!!  I wonder how many Mattamy home buyers out there have had their traps shut with a ‘sign the gag order or no home’ situation. Of course we will never know because they are not allowed to tell you.  Oh before I forget, during this meeting I pointed out that the options they had provided where the same ones we had recommended to them at our very first meeting then on the blog after we met with those home buyers on a Saturday morning.  He said that was not true and of course I was signing to that affect, funny isn’t it!

Fast forward one year and another letter arrives from Mattamy, the first we have had from them.  Apparently more delays have occurred and now they cannot give us any closing date.  This time the options are provided right in the letter, hey they learned!  We opt for option A, time to get the hell out of this thing and get the 25K back.  So again I call them and inform them of my decision and again I, with my father in tow, head up to the Mattamy sales office.  In we go where we are asked to sit and after a short time a gentleman approaches with some papers for me to sign.  He barely says a word, in fact in general he was distasteful in his demeanor. He hands me a lousy cheap bic pen to sign the papers, makes the necessary copies and hand them back to me.  Not so much as a ‘sorry for all the trouble’, ‘sorry for the inconvenience’, not so much as a f’ing simple have a nice day.  I cannot resist so I say to him on parting ‘As Joe Pesci said in Casino to the banker, You put my fucking money to sleep you asshole’ and I left.  Not one ounce of interest on 25k over 20 months.  I did however manage to keep that lovely Mattamy pen they gave me when I signed my original contract.  I think I will sharpen the tip, put some wings on the back and make it into a dart that I can throw at pictures of Mattamy homes in the news paper.

So if you are thinking of buying a new home and are considering purchasing from Mattamy go for it.  Just be prepared to bend over and get not so much as a please or a thank you as they shove there nice Mattamy pen where it should not be!  J.D Powers award for best customer service 3 years running, give me a break, Mr. Powers must be on drugs or on the take.

Sincerely
Keith Chadwick

I am restored this blog so that future buyers of homes, not just Mattamy homes can read and perhaps have a cautionary tale of buying a new home.  However, I do plan on writing on the blog when I feel that there is necessary information that pertains to Mattamy in particular and specifically on phase 5.

Of note there will be a news story in CJOH this coming Monday, March 29 2010 about us and phase 5 and the result of us NOT ever getting our home.  I will also post after this a summary story of the whole sordid affair that explains why we took the blog down.

To summarize I feel that the corporate culture within Mattamy and perhaps other builders is counter to both good business and customer service. In fact it is plainly wrong, arrogant and to some extent dishonest.  A corporate culture of do not say if not asked places the onus on the customer rather than the seller.  In todays world of corporate responsibility this is simply NOT GOOD ENOUGH.  Things need to change in Ontario with regards to home builders and it needs to change now before more people get screwed over.

So if you have a story email me, see the contact us page.  We the consumer need to stand up and start telling our stories in order for change to happen. It’s about time we are offered the protection we are duly owed as a consumer on the single largest and most important purchase of our life.

Regards
Keith and Danielle

This afternoon I signed our new purchase agreement and hope to move into our new home April 22, 2010.

I would like to thank all of the other home buyers who worked with us and helped gather information, make phone calls and attend meetings.  I look forward to each of you being our new neighbours.  I got a great big BBQ so we shall get together for a good steak and beer.

I will be shutting the blog down this Friday but you can always reach me at kchadwick@istudio.ca and keep an eye out for the site anhonestclosingdate.com when we try to work with developers and all parties on improving the planing process.

Thanks so very much to all of you for your support and efforts.  It has been a great experience.

Cheers
Keith, Danielle, Colyn and Ashton…

Till next time….

Before I dive into the meeting I want to repeat something and make it very clear.  I have never had any problem with Mattamy as a builder or Frank Cairo as a person. We created this blog and media attention to bring attention to what we believed was the very poor level of communication coming from Mattamy in general.  I cannot really blame Mattamy for doing a poor job as the situation was not something that was the norm for them or any other builder for that matter.  However, that does not excuse the way they went about providing accurate and frequent updates of information to the consumer.  Let me repeat this if it is not clear for some of you complainers out there.  Our problem was with the communication not with our homes or the planning process as a whole.  Perhaps Mattamy will learn from this experience and if in the same situation again will realize they should set up a web site or email distribution list or some means of communicating everything that is going on.  Even if the update is nothing more than ‘we met with the city today’ etc but at least something.  Public Relations 101 Mattamy, manage the message or be left with some ‘prick’ like me writing it for you and as you have probably learned that is not a good thing to happen.

So a little about the meeting.  Well first off congratulations for stepping up and calling it in the first place.  You went through the motions and did a fairly good job of explaining yourself. If there was any fault in the meeting it would be your consistent perception that we do not understand the situation or that it is to complex. A couple of 100K is an amazing incentive to learn the details of an issue.  Other than that you did a bang up job and fielded a lot of questions from home buyers that where difficult to answer.  You were also honest with regards to guaranteeing future closing dates by saying ‘no there is no guarantee’.

So some of the details of the meeting and the news.  First and foremost Mattamy has been informed by the 3^rd party EA review, the engineering firm I assume, that the miscalculations found in the original EA do NOT impact on phase 5.  This means that there is no EA or engineering reason for phase 5 not to go ahead with construction.  Given this result Mattamy is now pushing ahead with its own engineering assessment, yes including the interim storm overflow pond on the Hortichuck lands, ahead within the framework of the city and the city planning office.  Given that they are technically free of the EA from an engineering standpoint one can only hope that the city will fast track its acceptance of their proposal and that the Ministry of the Environment will to.  I have a feeling they will move it to the top of the heap before certain phase 5 buyers start calling, writing and emailing them with regards to any delay, just a thought!

Interestingly and I believe in the name of building up some trust, Mattamy has offered a 5K bonus if you sign the new contract by October 31^st.  The 5K is cash back on taking ownership of the house so amounts to a discount on the price of you house.  I would like to point out that unlike the other options offered by Mattamy which we and our ‘Neighborhood in a Kitchen’ group asked for this option was never asked for. This option was solely Mattamy and I think is a very nice gesture and personally very much appreciated. 

So if you missed the meeting and have not been contacted by Mattamy, get on the phone and call the sales office to get more details.  Of note the new contract is under the new Tarion rules I believe.

So a couple of thoughts to close with.  One, it may surprise you to learn that during the meeting I was not frothing at the mouth and asking hard hitting questions.  In fact the only time I raised my hand was to try and clarify what was already said in a positive way as I believe Mattamy had met all the requirements we set out to get and holding the meeting went beyond them.  So I went to the meeting thinking ‘give them a break and be constructive as they now deserve it’ and that is exactly what I did.

Secondly, where do we go from here with this blog?  Well that is an interesting question I have been asking myself for a week now.  Since we intend to sign the contract and Mattamy has met all the requirements we asked for plus more there is not much more to say or write.  We started this blog on behalf of all our future neighbors not ourselves.  Although there are some folks out there who thought we were doing the 15 minutes of fame gig that was honestly not our intent. In fact these past 8 weeks have been incredibly stressful on both me and my wife. It kept us up late many a night worrying if we were doing the right thing, what to say, how to say it, in what medium and when. Hell I hate getting up early in the morning yet I dragged my sorry butt down to CBC Radio for 7am then actually had to sound coherent. You would not believe me if I told you how nervous I was sitting in that chair for 10 minutes. I guess for us this has been a very difficult and time consuming experience we wish we never would have had to do in the first place.

So now we are moving past this and are going to try and move back to being just another consumer.  Don’t worry Mattamy if there is an issue with my house then that is between you and me not the rest of the world.

We do however plan on creating the web site AnHonestClosingDate.com.  The domain is registered and I have a provider.  But technically it is very difficult site to implement to ensure that people are being honest and are not just simply pissed at their builder for a delay. So from an engineering stand point there is a lot of work ahead for me to ensure that it is fair.  The idea for the site is NOT to penalize developers but rather to point out how the planning process is failing the consumer and the developer as well.  As Mr. Cairo said to me it can be years to get to even the draft approval stage.  I think that is ridiculous to say the least.  All that time amounts to cost that has to be transferred to the purchaser.  One of the commentators on this site has complained about us being upset over our ‘expensive’ homes when there is a huge lack of subsidized homes in Ontario. He/She/It is right, since they signed it anonymous with a bogus email address.  The state of subsidized homes in Ontario is disgusting and we as a society should be ashamed.  However let’s remember that even subsidized housing has to go through the exact same planning process and the costs associated with it.  So our hope is to gather the delays as evidence of how it fails the consumer, since it is the consumer who votes and also to create a working group of field experts.  We want a working group of developers, environmentalists, planners, engineers everybody who is part of that process to start putting their melons together and go to the province and say ‘hey enough, we have a better way and it represents everyone from the builder down to the consumer!’  We need smart people like Frank Cairo and Ted Cooper to start putting that wealth of information down into better and new ideas on how to make things better for everyone instead of spending energy wading through the existing system in frustration.

 So I guess that is about it for now.  I will have some short updates tomorrow and later in the week, in particular a couple who need to sell there Mattamy home in Barhaven and asked me to write it up.  I will get to it folks I promise.

Best wishes to everyone and see you at the BBQ in 2010.

Cheers
Keith, Danielle, Colyn and Ashton Chadwick

“Mr. Cario strikes me as an honest person who truly wishes to see things resolved.  He is the type of guy who would jump into the tractor to get things moving if he felt it would help.“

I think that your perception of taking things personally is further proof that you believe in what you are doing and a person of belief is the person who will work the hardest.  I know full well that Mattamy has been working very hard with the city to get things resolved but you have not relayed that to the press or this blog in any fashion.  When I sign off on blog posts with back to your Frank or similar lines they are invitations for you to respond but you never have.

Let me be clear Frank.  I hold absolutely no animosity towards you what so ever and it has never ever been personal.

With regards to lobying the province to change the planning rules I believe a balanced approach is required.  I think that it is incredulous the amount of investment and time that developers have to put in, to even get to draft approval.  Those costs are downloaded to the consumer so I think it is best that that process is dramatically streamlined.  If the end of the process is reduced in time and cost then the ability to go beyond draft approval before selling lots becomes a fiscal possibility.  This would also provide the developers the opportunity to provide an honest closing date.

The fact that the province has downloaded the responsibilities to the municipalities with no oversight to manage and interpret the planning act is a mistake.  Under the current political environment there is far to many hurdles and levels to overcome.  The costs that are incurred by these hurdles are passed directly to the consumer.  There is far to little accountability and oversight with regards to municipal governments, the OMB, MOE, Engineering Firms and developers as well.

It is time the process is changed to the benefit of not only the consumer but the developer as well.  I am not saying that the multiple levels of government are to blame for the current situation but they do play a role by simply following the planning act.

I urge you Frank to contact the media and get your side of the story out and what Mattamy is doing.  If you want to direct attacks at me or this blog then please feel free but by all means call Brendan at the Ottawa Citizen and get your message out.

Lastly Frank, my sincere apologies if you felt personally attacked that was certainly never my intention.  We love our Mattamy Home and dearly look forward to moving in one day but communicate better my friend.

Sincerely
Keith Chadwick

Isn’t it amazing how things transpire over the course of a mere 7 weeks?  In particular today’s letter from Mattamy disclosing that they will hold a meeting for Phase 5 home buyers in the coming weeks.  In particular there is one paragraph that makes me laugh and I absolutely cherish, so here it goes…

“We are well aware of the significant amount of inaccurate information that has been presented in various forms over the last few months related to the Fairwinds Community and the associated delays.  An information session is being planned for our Mattamy homeowners in Neighbourhood 5 to discuss the community, the available options presented to you in the letter dated September 16, 2008, and any questions you may have related to your new home.  A personal invitation will be mailed to you in the coming week for this session.”

I absolutely adore the first sentence “significant amount of inaccurate information that has been presented in various forms“.  I assume they are talking about this blog, the media reports and the meeting with the city on September 29th.  Let’s talk about each of these various forms of information shall we.  First off this blog.  When I met with Mr. Cario and Mrs. Murphy on August 28th I strongly encouraged them to submit posts to this blog or to create their own web site that could relay information to the home buyers and answer questions.  They were very clear to me that they wanted to participate and work with us.  Yet, despite these words Mattamy has never contacted us with information to provide via this web site.  Never a single email, phone call or letter.  So much for working with us I guess. With regards to the media, other than the very first story by CJOH every single story in the past 7 weeks, I believe there have been 6; the one consistent factor has been “Mattamy was unavailable for comment“. Lastly, but not least, we recently had a meeting with the City and the MOE where every single player involved in the planning process was available to answer questions.  Yet Mattamy, who was invited by councilor Qadri’s office on numerous occasions never showed up.  They never said “we will not attend” they simply ignored the city’s request to meet with home owners and the city.  I would like to point out that at this meeting were the representatives for the Ministry of the Environment, City Legal, Planning, and Environment and just about everyone else.  The officials who came to the meeting where the people who make the decisions, yet Mattamy did not show. So, back to Mattamy’s comment about inaccurate information.  Guess what Mattamy, if it is inaccurate, no blasted wonder it is since you have not in any way or form participated in the conversation.  In essence you placed everyone in a position of speculation because of your stubborn refusal to participate.

Continuing on the theme of the meeting let’s talk about that for a moment.  First and foremost and yet again I extend my appreciation to Mr. Qadri’s office, in particular Kiel, on arranging the meeting for the home buyers who came.  The meeting was enlightening, informational and productive in my view.  I also think it is worth mentioning the officials who took time out from the very busy schedules to attend the meeting, they were amongst others:

• Steve Burns
  Ottawa District Manager, Ministry of the Environment
• John Moser
  Director, Planning Branch, City of Ottawa
• Rob Mackay
  Director, Economic and Environmental Sustainability, City of Ottawa
• Mike Wildman
  Director, Infrastructure Approvals, City of Ottawa
• Tim Marc
  Senior Legal Counsel, City of Ottawa

I would like to give special recognition to Tim Marc, Legal Counsel, who despite my continued questioning managed to very deftly provide answers.  You are very much the lawyer sir but one I respect for your eloquent answers. I would be remiss in also not sending special thanks to Mike Wildman and Steve Burns.  You both bore the brunt of the questions for the group yet never did you speak down only to and that was very much appreciated.  Over all I was very impressed with the level of knowledge and professionalism provided to us. Finally a special tip of the hat to Rob Mackay, your strategic positioning behind us was not missed and your comments were very interesting.  You seem to have a very good understanding of the pulse of the situation!

Okay enough of the love fest let’s talk about substance.  I could most likely write 8 pages from memory on the meeting but I think it pertinent that we boil it down to a couple of points.  First and foremost, Mattamy has done nothing illegal.  They worked within the laws of the planning act as it stands now.  However as the city pointed out the decision to build on draft approval is a business decision.  On this point can someone please point out another developer who owns lands in Kanata West that started selling lots before the freeze and on draft approval?  Bet you cannot find one!!  Ask yourself why?

I like to save the best for last so here it goes.  According to the city Mattamy Phase 5 is not frozen.  Let me repeat that in case you thought I had a sudden lack of clarity. Mattamy Phase 5 is not frozen! How can that be you ask?  It makes no sense you say.  Well it turns out that the lands added to phase 5, known as the Hortichuck lands, for the purpose of the interim storm pond are frozen.  So in essence by adding these lands to Mattamy to Phase 5 for the purpose of the interim storm pond phase 5 by default came under the freeze.  I am not making this up this is direct from the city and if I am wrong I am sure I will get a call from them tomorrow. Now before you start waving your arms about in anger at Mattamy let’s take a minute to think.  It is not clear if Mattamy’s original design for Phase 5 included an interim storm water pond but if it did it was by working in conjunction with Richcraft.  Considering the fact that Richcraft has not set up shop yet Mattamy may have had no choice but to purchase the land and roll the dice on being frozen.  Perhaps this is a question to ask Mattamy during the meeting. Enough said on this…

This morning I was pleased to have the opportunity to talk for a short period of time on the CBC Radio on the issues of Phase 5 and the Planning act.  It was an interesting experience and one I hope to get to repeat some day.  Thanks to CBC for having me.  During the interview we covered the basic history of what is going on but I also had the opportunity to discuss changing the Ontario Provincial Planning Act. As I stated this morning it is incredible the lack of protection that consumers have when buying a home.  I recently read a post on a face book group where a user stated that they had been delayed 6 months but as the poster said it’s the construction industry it is to be expected.  How did we become some complacent? How is it we have gotten to the point where we expect delays when buying a home.  Why do we not allow this type of attitude on any other purchase?  Find me someone who buys a new car and is told it will be delivered in 4 week.  Then 2 days before delivery the salesman calls and says it’s going to be another 6 weeks and can’t say why!  What would your reaction be?  Would you demand and answer?  Would you be one the phone to his manager to find out what the hell was going on?  You bet you would!  Yet why is it ok for developers to do the same thing like in Kanata, 2 year delays under Mattamy, Phase 1 and 4 lots released this summer again under Mattamy 9 month delays only a few weeks in some cases after the initial purchase.

I would also like to announce that I will be setting up a web site in the coming weeks to track closing dates and delays by developers, city, development and phase.  The site will also provide the ability to visitors to sign an online petition to change the Ontario Planning Act.  We will clearly outline the changes we seek in the planning act as part of the petition. The site name is www.AnHonestClosingDate.com.

Finally I have one last point I would like to make because I cannot resist.  Remember those offers we all got from Mattamy two weeks ago.  To jog your memory they where freezing upgrade prices, switch lot to Barrhaven or get your money back now.  Guess who made those suggestions to Frank Cairo?  With regards to the latest development by Mattamy to hold an information meeting with home buyers of phase 5, guess who also made that suggestion way back on August 28th.  If you guessed me then your right! Amazing how the guy who writes inaccurate information was right about what Mattamy should be doing to help its customers.

Until Next time…

Cheers
Keith Chadwick

Mattamy were probably well aware of the potential dealys and were not honest with their home buyers. Don’t tell me that Mattamy didn’t know that purchasing another piece of land at a later date would create further delays. They are supposed to be professionals, they know the laws, they know how it works.

What do we expect?
Honesty for start, we are not buying an ice cream cone at the corner store here, we are buying a House.

The only reason that that Mattamy decided to come up with concessions was because we had to put our life on hold and raise our voice. Why did they wait untill everyone opened their eyes to do something? That is what i would like to know? They knew all this was happening, they chose to ignore us, they know how the process works. Some of these home builders have ex city employers on their payroll . They knew, they had too! The can not be that incompetent can they?

So why lie to us about a realistic closing. There was no way that these closing dates were going to be met.

We all deserve an honest closing date.

Danielle Chadwick

I originally had in mind to keep this post fairly short but as I think on I have an awfull lot to tell you so lets dive in shall we.

First and foremost, regarding Mattamy’s recent letter to Phase 5 developers there where several options put on the table.  We where happy to see a clear statement that home buyers have the option of cancelling their contract.  The whole point of our endeavour was to get some sort of options from Mattamy for home buyers and for people who wish to exit from the contract at least they have this option in writing.  From this point of view we have been successful.  However the other options provided, such as lots in Barrhaven amount to nothing more than simply trying to placate a community that to the dismay of Mattamy is talking to one another.

So lets get down to brass tacs on the offer to freeze upgrade costs contingent on signing an amendment to the contract.  First, an amendment was going to be required given the length of delays so that is a no brainer and amounts to a zero benefit.  Secondly Mattamy’s offer to freeze upgrade prices is based on the idea that home buyers were actually interested in buying their well over priced upgrades in the first place.

So lets talk about the meeting with the city for a moment to put this request to sign an amendment into context.  First and foremost it appears at the surface that Mattamy followed the rules of the planning act and is working to resolve these issues with the city.  I will talk about the current Ontario planning law however a little later on.  From our talks with the city it is a fair assumption that the outstanding EA issues and the passing of will not be completed until August/September 2009.  Given that the EA review will not be completed until roughly January and then there are processes to take place including public consultation the signing of any amendment to our existing contract at this stage would be in essence signing an open ended contract.  Basically any providing closing date on the amended contract can not be guaranteed in any fashion.  However, as I do not wish to rock the boat for that sake of creating waves, the chances of the EA being significantly delayed due to further bump up requests by third parties is slight but does exist.  As the city told us “if this where to happen and the EA and further approvals where to fail we would be in uncharted territory”.  So what does this mean!  Well basically the odds are things will proceed but there is a chance it may not and you need to consider this when looking at your options from Mattamy in their recent letter.  But, to put this into context my wife and I are going to sign the amendment but only after the EA report has been submitted to the city and approved.  Once that has taken place we will feel more comfortable in signing an amendment and at that point we feel that Mattamy should be able to provide an honest closing date. Bottom line Mattamy, provide us a realistic closing date not one you think we want to here.

So where to do we go from here you may ask.  Well that is complex question and I will endeavour to answer it in a reasonable short point form.

1. We intend to continue to create a web site to track closing dates and subsequent delays.  Not just for Mattamy Phase 5 but for all of Ontario to see how developers measure up on the honesty scale.
2. We intend to continue working with the press and expand our reach to larger audiences including W-Five, The Fifth Estate and other national investigative media outlets with regards to the rules that developers sell homes under.
3. We intend to lobby the provincial government to make drastic changes to the laws under which developers build and sell homes in the province of Ontario.

With regards to our final point we intend to begin to lobby the province to change the laws in the following fashion.

1. To prohibit the sale of lots or homes based on draft approvals.  All homes and or lots should only be sold based on final approval.
2. To require accurate closing dates which when not met penalties are placed directly against the develop in the reduction of the cost of the house.  For example every week past the closing date saves the home buyer $500 of the cost of their house.
3. To create a provincial oversight body that ensures that Developers, Regional Governments, Engineering Firms, Conservation Authorities and other parties adhere to strict guidelines with regards to conflict of interest and the movement of employees from one group to another.
4. To remove Tarion as an ineffectual organization that acts to protect the developer rather than the consumer.

Basically it comes down to the following point which I stated clearly at the meeting with the city yesterday.  As a consumer I have greater protection when buying a thirty thousand dollar car than I do when buying a three hundered thousand dollar home. It is time home buyers where afforded reasonable protection within the province of Ontario.

This morning Councilor Qadri contacted me to discuss the upcoming meeting on the 27thof September of which we had asked him chair.  He expressed his concerns that this issues that we have raised have now led to larger issues with regards to Mattamy in Ottawa.  Specifically delays in other phases and developments.  His concern was that at the public meeting the focus of the Phase 5 delay due to the Environmental Assessment would be lost.  As a result of this loss of focus members of the city and Mattamymay choose not to attend.

As a result Mr. Qadri has asked for a private meeting at City hall consisting of himself, the MOE, members of the City of Ottawa Planning Department amongst other departments and of course Mattamy and members of the Phase 5 Buyers group such as ourselves.  He believes that a private meeting with a focus on the specific issues of Phase 5 could provide for better results at this stage.  He has asked that we not cancel the public meeting but rather delay it until a later date.  After consulting with other home buyers we are all in general agreement that any opportunity to have everyone at the table would be beneficial to us home buyers at this stage and is indeed a step forward.

We will be contacting Mr. Qadri’s office tomorrow to request that the meeting take place on the 29th or 30th of September. We shall still work on a list of questions to be provided to the attendees by Monday the 22nd for discussion at the meeting.

For those of your who have signed up for the public meeting please do not be disheartened.  There will be a large number of us going to the meeting at city hall and you can count on the entire meeting being written up on this site immediately afterward.  If you are interested in attending the private meeting and are a home owner from Phase 5 then by all means contact us, see our contact us page.  We wish to keep the number of people attending from Phase 5 to no more than 10 people with a few people elected to lead our questions with officials.

For those of you who have delays in Mattamy I strongly encourage you to start your own blog and reference back to this one.  You can go to wordpress.com an sign up, it is free an easy to do.  I encourage you to call your local councilor, MP, MPP, contact the media, blog everything an above all don’t be afraid to state your issues out there.  You will be surprised at how much traction you will get if you raise enough questions.

One last thing. Again thanks to Councilor Shad Qadri for his excellent work by his staff and himself on our behalf.

That’s it for now folks… when the private meeting at City Hall has been finalized I will of course blog it here.  We will also post up the question that we will be sending of to the city in the next couple of days.

Until then…
Keith and Danielle Chadwick

How does inferring problems at Mattamy further our cause?  Well plain and simple it takes an extreme position in the hope of getting people to start thinking, to start asking questions not just of us but of the builder, the city and the province.  This is akin to the apathetic voter who refused to vote because they cannot make a difference.  Well that is the exact way home buyers do feel hence they do not ask questions.  I don’t care if the answer is ‘Keith is nuts’ but at least they are starting to think and ask questions.  We have all heard the tail of the apathetic oh so nice Canadians.  We don’t agree with that statement and I am sure as hell not going to sit on my couch and not ask for answers.  I hope that posts like Saturdays will also make other people get off the couch and call the city, call the MOE and call your developer.  For heaven’s sake, these groups, including the developer, work for you! 

Keep calling, keep asking, it is your right to do so.

On talking about calling, Jessica called me from Mattamy this evening.  She informs me the letter will most likely be going out tomorrow it is just waiting on Mr. Cairo’s signature.  I have no details on the content of the letter but we should have it in our hands by early next week.  Let’s all wait and see what it says.

One last thing on the topic of letters.  We got one from the MOE today but we are going to talk about that one tomorrow because I am still trying to understand if they actually told us anything…. sigh

Until next time, keep stirring the pot, watch for the low hanging fruit and above all get the people who work for you doing their job!

Cheers
Keith and Danielle