Why this Canadian couple walked away from $140K after dispute with home developer

it is a modern-day housing horror story a couple realizing the dream of homeownership only to watch it slip away along with a lot of money the couple says they have lost nearly $150,000 and say it could have been much worse ctv's Jeff pickle is following that story for us tonight and joins us live and Jeff this really seems like a nightmare situation well Alex it really is and the couple says they hope they can prevent something similar happening to someone else they describe it as an emotional roller coaster and the ultimate ironic twist they actually consider themselves lucky to be out only $142,000 this is the gual home Joe Jennison and Alicia Morel thought they were moving into it's it is very depressing this is where they live instead renting a room off a friend in Hamilton their housing Journey started in the spring of 2022 and we're like okay let's get a new build the market was pretty decent at the time I believe both 32 years old and engaged Joe and Alicia were looking to buy their first home after losing on several bids they were eventually successful money was actually put down so we went that's it we made it we got our house we were super excited but not long after the deal closed the relationship with Fusion homes started to sour so initially um Fusion released an email with a few incentives just to kind of entice some buyers they say there were around $100,000 in incentives and 100,000 and free upgrades available for new buyers it's not the fact that we aren't getting anything at all and we're stomping our feet and upset saying we want this too it's the fact that they've devalued our house before we've even literally looked at it our house has been devalued by Fusion by over $200,000 then another bombshell occupancy fees occupancy fees are basically rent to the Builder until the condo Corp is formed all of that money doesn't go towards the house at all it it goes straight into the Builder's pocket they were initially told maintenance fees would be $39 and occupancy fees would be $3,250 but two days before closing the couple was informed both fees had nearly doubled I was at work that day when I got the email from the lawyer saying hey I need six post-id checks for basically $6,600 we calculated out the six months of checks was about $40,000 that that's literally just going down the drain without a determined end date for occupancy fees Joe and Alicia decided to try and terminate the deal Joe and Alicia were let out of the deal with Fusion homes by agreeing to Forfeit their down payment and fusion agreed not to sue yeah and that's sad that we were relieved to lose $140,000 like I was happy when we got that email I'm like okay we're out they're keeping our down payment I was static the couple isn't accusing Fusion of doing anything illegal but they say they expected better it just showed that they really don't care and that they honestly you're just money hungry a costly learning experience if your lawyer is not on the phone with you a day or two later once you've submitted the paperwork to them you should be calling them or firing that lawyer and getting a brand new one their advice buy or beware and find yourself a good lawyer and we did speak with a real estate lawyer who says there's not much Joe and Alicia could do about the situation and agrees they are somewhat lucky to have gotten out of the deal only sacrificing their down payment he also told me this type of situation is very rare but does come up typically with new build homes and we did reach out to Fusion homes on multiple occasions over the last several weeks they did not respond to our requests Alex all right cdv's jff pickle joining us live with this story tonight thank you

Channel: CTV News

Views: 628,340

Keywords: CTV, News, CTV News, CTV National News, Housing dispute, Homeownership, Housing market, Canada's housing market, Housing deposit, Buying a new home?, What you need to know about homeownership, Buying a brand new home, Housing developers, Housing developer woes, Did you hear?, Losing deposit

Id: L68y5ws6jRU

Length: 3min 48sec (228 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 23 2023