Renovation gone wrong — last-minute cancellation leaves Waterloo family searching for answers

WATERLOO - Planning on a renovation or addition for your home? Read carefully through your contract, a Waterloo family warns, because there could be a clause that allows them to walk away right before construction.

I just never thought, after getting this far into it, that they would just walk away," said Sourov De, who had been working with a contractor for nearly two years for a $375,000 addition to his Waterloo house before they cancelled less than a month before the original start date

This has been years that we've put into this. We've planned our whole lives around getting this done and making more space for our family. It's honestly been a nightmare."

After a last-minute price increase of $54,000 from the contractor and a series of questions about where the increase came from, the project was cancelled less than a month before the original start date.

The reason? Scheduling conflicts.

When the company revealed it intended to keep De's original $18,000 deposit after cancelling the project, he was able to negotiate to get the money back after discussing his options with multiple lawyers.

If I hadn't pursued this, I would have just lost my money and had to start all over again," said De. I know there are people that probably just accept it, and hopefully our example can save them from getting in that situation in the first place."

Since June 2020, Consumer Protection Ontario has received 384 consumer complaints against home renovation contractors. Of those, 264 have been resolved. The remaining 120 complaints are still in progress.

For De and his partner Steph Davis, it's back to the drawing board as they try to find a new construction company to take on the project. With building permits set for September and a six-month period to begin initial construction, the family could be in for another lengthy - and costly - wait to begin renovations.

As per the contract they signed, the company was well within their rights to cancel the project within the 30-day limit. He knew that when he signed the contract, he said, he just didn't think it would every come into play.

I really just want people to know that this type of thing can happen," said De. I had nights where I just wasn't sleeping as we dealt with this. We made plans and we were putting our lives on hold to get this done. And now the thought of going through all of this again, it's just been a lot."

Cancellations can happen for several different reasons, said Mike Seiling, Kitchener's chief building official. The homeowners could run out of money, he said, timelines get pushed back, or maybe they decided the project was too big and they would rather move.

But disputes between homeowners and builders do happen, he said, and it's important to try and protect yourself.

Homeowners should treat renovations like buying a car, said Seiling.

Interview three different builders, meet with them and get some references," he said. House additions are a huge investment that will likely make you money in the long run. Unfortunately, there are bad characters in any industry, and you weed them out by doing your homework before you sign on the dotted line."

And doing homework will often mean bringing people into your corner who understand what you're about to embark on, said Julian Binavince, a Toronto-based attorney with Levy Zavet who specializes in construction and real estate disputes.

Whether that means bringing in legal council to look over the contract, or a third-party to review all of the designs and funding rationales, Binavince stressed that most homeowners do not have any expertise in these areas and have no way of ensuring they're not making a mistake.

It might mean spending an extra $5,000 on a project, he said, but it's a far cry from what they could be on the hook for.

In the context of home renovations, consumers need to understand they don't know anything, and make sure there's someone who knows on your side of the table," he said. And the contractor is not on your side, they're on the other side of the table."

This goes back to a general philosophy Binavince has developed: I don't believe anything anyone else tells me. And if you can't help me understand why I shouldn't believe what you're telling me, there's probably a good reason, and it's probably not true."

Robert Williams is a Waterloo Region-based reporter for The Record. Reach him via email: robertwilliams@torstar.ca

Not common, but cancelled building permits do happen

• When residents get as far as obtaining building permits from the city, it's not often that building doesn't commence within the six-month threshold, a necessity outlined by the Ontario Building Code.

• In Kitchener, for example, two of 85 housing additions have been cancelled in 2021. In 2020, it was two out of 115.

• For home renovation projects in Kitchener, the city has had 15 cancelled permits, or about two per cent of the total building permits issued. In 2020, there were 26 cancellation.

• In Waterloo, the most cancelled residential building permits the city had in the last five years was in 2018 when there were nine. They also had three permits revoked in that year.

• In 2020, Waterloo had one cancelled application and four permits revoked