In almost the same amount of time it takes to have a baby,
based on the average of 9 months, my life changed.
Way back in September last year, I decided to sell my house,
which I had purchased about 5 years before.
My house, brand new when I bought it, (although used as a builder’s
model for a couple of years) is situated in a land lease community, just north
of Toronto. Described as a retirement community, it was where I planned to live
until I died. And then I moved.
I still remember my move-in day vividly, a flawless spring day in
2012. The movers arrived at my new home
well
before me and, when I finally got there, they said, “No wonder you wanted
to move here. Look at that blue, blue
sky and smell that fresh air. We’ve been
listening to the birds singing and squirrels are playing everywhere.” Sofie, The Wonder Dog, was
equally impressed and nose to ground, checked out her new territory.
I really loved it there, but, regretfully, that feeling only lasted about a year, until we were sold by the original developers and owners,
I’ll call MomAndPop Co. They owned and
ran 'The Park' for over 40 years and treated the owner-tenants like they were
part of their Family.
About a year after I moved in, ‘The Park’ was sold to a BIG land lease company, I’ll call LL Biggie Co. Land
lease communities are not all they’re cracked up to be. This is especially true when ‘The Park’, which sprawls out over 300 or so acres, was now
owned by a very large company, based here in Canada, whose only concern seems
to be making its deep pockets even deeper.
And never mind some of the other people who inhabit ''The Park’ who fight
hard to control owner-residents and the local politics, masquerading as a
homeowners association. This particular ‘Park’
is larger than some villages. Population-wise, there's about 1,200 homes, in which some 2,000 tenants are contained.
And, not too long after LL Biggie Co. bought ‘The Park’ and
which they used to advertise as ‘One of Ontario’s most beautiful retirement communities’, it's now being
marketed and targeted to ‘mid-age couples and singles looking for
an exceptional adult lifestyle community’.
Its location so close to Toronto, and lower purchase prices, makes it
attractive for unenlightened commuters.
One day, not too long ago, surfing the net, I came across an
article where one of the company’s regional directors made a comment, that, to
this day I’m still shaking my head over.
Apparently he thinks that owing your own home, and because it has a
yard, this will protect you against the politics. Apparently, this protection is lacking if you’re
a tenant in an apartment or you own a condo.
Huh?
You ARE a TENANT in
a land lease community. At least in a
condo
you have input as to what happens in your complex. In a land lease community, YOU NEVER have a say, ever! The land owners can do whatever the hell they
want, doesn’t matter the cost, and then hike up the rent by asking for an ABOVE
GUIDELINE INCREASE, which may happen every year, to pay for the work. AND, they are usually awarded at least a big
chunk of what they want, if not all of what they're asking for). So, boy, in my opinion, is this LL Biggie
Co. regional director ever wrong.
And I can tell you, that if anything, the politics are THE
WORST I have ever experienced in any community I’ve lived in as an adult, with
power-hungry megalomaniacal cliques ruling
the ‘Park’ through their roles in a homeowners association, tentacles spreading
wide to encompass the zombie sheep, the naïve and the unwary. The
LL Biggie Co. director who said, “Unlike renting
an apartment or even buying a condo, with all of the politics that can come
with that, a land lease program gets them their own home with their own yard.”, (McLean, 2016) has
obviously never lived in one of
LL Biggie’s communities. And, I would like to know, just how does
owning your own home and having a yard protect you against the politics? Does that make sense? It doesn’t make sense to me.
(mĕg′ə-lō-mā′nē-ə,
-mān′yə)
n.
1. A psychopathological condition characterized by delusional fantasies of wealth, power, or omnipotence.
2. An obsession with grandiose or extravagant things or actions.
The Free Dictonary by Farlex
What is a land lease
community you ask? Hmmmm, good
question. I describe a land lease
community as a place where you buy and own your house but the land underneath
it and all around it, is owned by someone else, in my case, a company called LL Biggie Co.. Said company is supposed to maintain the
grounds and common areas, including storage sheds and provide the necessities
of living, like snow clearance, road maintenance and functioning
infrastructure, such as water and sewers and garbage collection. You pay a monthly rent for the land, on which
your house is situated. You also pay
your house taxes to LL Biggie, which then remits to the town, so you never
see or get a tax bill from anyone.
Getting a value from MPAC (Municipal Property Assessment Corporation)
may be problematic. You also pay for
your other utilities, such as heat and hydro, internet and telephone. Even getting decent TV service is a problem,
because the service provider for The Park has a monopoly on cable TV and you
have no choice as to which company to use.
I was told by the president/owner of the cable company that “We don’t
have time for customer service.” My
response was, “Well, then I hope my cable TV service is perfect.” It wasn’t.
Essentially, you don’t own the
rocks and dirt under your house, which may make it, oddly enough, pricier
for insurance. Sometimes A LOT pricier.
One company I contacted, quoted me $4,000.00 a YEAR for my not-quite 1,100 square foot house, rocks and dirt not included.
Obviously, they did not want my business. For some reason, insurance companies seem to
place greater value on the strata under your house, rather than on the structure
itself. I am still gob smacked over that
one but don’t really care anymore, because I have moved and most definitely not to a
land lease community.
The biggest advantage, I believe, buying a house in a place
where you don’t own the land, is that the price of the house may be lower than
a conventional, comparable home, BUT, remember you have to pay
monthly rent. I can say that since LL
Biggie bought out MomAndPop Co., the rent has been going up by leaps and bounds.
The Landlord & Tenant Act limits
annual rent increases in some communities, depending on when ‘The Park’ was
built, until the tenant moves. Then it’s open season on how high the Park owner can
jack up the rent. Doing a little
simple math – say monthly rent is $500.00, multiply that by 12 months, then
multiply that by 5 years, that equals (Ta Da) $30,000.00 on top of what you
originally paid for your house and which doesn’t include your taxes. And believe me, that’s just a basic figure –
calculate in a rent increase of about 1.8% (average) for each of the 5 years
and add an Above Guideline Increase (AGI) of say, 1%. Still think your bargain is still such a
bargain?
With a starting rent of $6,000.00 per year, over the course of a few short years, using
an average annual increase of 1.8% per year (which landlords can raise the rent
by rote, without having to get approval
from the Landlord & Tenant Board and now you’re paying about $6,650.00 over
those years. But wait, there’s more …
NOW, for example, add an average 1% annual award for ABOVE GUIDELINE INCREASES on top of the ‘usual’,
and that equals an additional $255.00 (or approximately 56%) after just 4 years.
|
|
|
SUB- |
|
|
|
|
| ANNUAL |
TOTAL | ABOVE |
|
|
|
|
RENT |
NEW |
GUIDELINE |
SUB- |
NEW |
| END OF |
RENT/ |
INCREASE |
ANNUAL |
INCREASE |
TOTAL |
ANNUAL |
| YEAR |
YEAR |
1.8% |
RENT |
1.0% |
INCREASES |
RENT |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 1 |
6,000.00 |
108.00 |
6,108.00 |
61.08 |
169.08 |
6,169.08 |
| 2 |
6,169.08 |
111.04 |
6,280.12 |
62.80 |
173.84 |
6,342.92 |
| 3 |
6,342.92 |
114.17 |
6,457.10 |
64.57 |
178.74 |
6,521.67 |
| 4 |
6,521.67 |
117.39 |
6,639.06 |
66.39 |
183.78 |
6,705.45 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
450.61 |
|
254.84 |
705.45 |
|
|
|
| | | | |
| | | | | | |
So, now you’re up to $6,705.00,
or $705.00 MORE than when you moved in 5 years ago. And if you keep doing the calculation over 10
years and 15, your skin should be starting to crawl right about now with the
implication. I can tell you that the
annual increases for CPP and Old Age Pension DO NOT even come close to covering
the average, annual rent increase. Now, ADD
an ABOVE
GUIDELINE INCREASE, which LL Biggie will apply for every year and most
likely will be awarded, on top of it. I
ask you again, is your bargain house such a bargain?
The number of listings for my former little village, which I
see on the local real estate site and LL Biggie’s website, seems to be at an
all-time high. Some of the places have
been languishing on the market for 6 months or more, including my old place,
which ironically had been purchased by LL Biggie Co.. I don’t really wonder why. Methinks that LL Biggie’s bad rep (greed) is
starting to catch up with them.
Also, keep in mind, that because you don’t own the rocks and
dirt, equity will usually take longer to accrue and may be lower than a
conventional house, especially in an older place which needs updating.
And then, add the 30% or so increase in my house tax, which
the town imposed. When I called, I was
told that ‘they’ changed the business model as to how the taxes were calculated
and, man, my bargain house was not such a bargain anymore.
All-in-all, my 5 +
years of living in LL Biggie land, was an eye-opener and the drama still
continues to this day. Between yesterday
and today, I got 3 robo calls from LL Biggie Co., because of what turned out to
be a water main break and a subsequent boil water advisory. Uh, oh.
Not good. I am very glad that I’m
not living there anymore. That happened
a few times over the short time I lived there and now again. Obviously they’re not maintaining their robo
call list either, since I haven’t lived there in 6 months.
Do your homework, people, before you buy anything and
especially when the $$$$$$ are in the hundreds of thousands. The impact of the stress living in a place
where the owners worship money and the homeowners group worships power, may be
very detrimental to your health. I doubt
very much I would have bought where I did, had the new (current) owners been in
power when I was looking.
CAVEAT
EMPTOR.
Swimming anyone? Many ‘pools’ like this throughout the ‘Park’.
Storage
sheds are
not being maintained.
What
do you think this does for your property (house) value?
\
This is the way they clear the roads, clear the roads, clear the roads …
The bitterness of low quality lingers longer than sweetness of low price.
© 2018 UNDERCOVER CONFIDENTIAL aka PHYLLIS MAHON … IT’S UNLAWFUL TO REPOST, COPY OR PUBLISH CONTENT FROM THIS WEBSITE WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION.
You know the kind I’m talking about – big, old black and
white TV in the lower middle of the unit, sometimes concealed behind swanky
sliding doors. The record player would
be in the top centre and sometimes, there would also be a built-in am/fm radio,
usually on the right-hand side. On the
left side, there may be a handy bar area, with built-in compartments for a
fancy, crystal decanter and matching highball glasses.
Nowadays, if anyone has a question, the resounding response
is, “Google It!”, and I do, for any number of topics. Over the weekend for instance, I was able to
fix my toilet seat and feel very proud of myself for being able to do so, after
I 'Googled It' to figure out how. 
\
My favourite part watching
this whole megillah (my mother’s favourite Yiddish word to describe an event), is
delighting in the moment that something as mundane as cold tap water in the
battered old aluminium pot starts to boil enough to drive the now
transmogrified dark brew up the slender, hollow stem, which spears through the
centre of the grounds basket and stops just short of the flat, round glass knob on the top. 
