Six months after Simon Huo bought his newly built attached house in July 2017, the news of water problems began to drip. In a short time, it turned out to be more a stream that affected him and dozens of his neighbors.
The house complex is in Sarnia Road, just east of Hyde Park Road. Huo’s is one of the 161 attached units in the complex built by Rand’s developments.
“Tribeca” of brand, the attached nosy houses are full in narrow streets with names inspired by New York such as Battery Park and Manhattan Way. The design is modern, with a mixture of multiple tones of exterior metal and brick finishes.
“It was new, so problems is not expected,” said Huo from his townhouse, which is located on a street called West Village Square.
Like many of the buyers in the complex, Huo rented his house after buying it, although now he lives in him.
In January 2018, his tenant sent him water photos that leaked behind the socket under the front window of the second floor room.
Huo said Rand responded and made repairs to the roof. The Zocalo was replaced and the tenant’s reports on water problems stopped.
In the fall of 2021, his tenant left and Huo moved. He soon noticed water damage to the new plaque in the same place. He paid for a roof to solve the problem, but said that water infiltration problems continued to increase during the months and years. They included a leak in the bathroom in suite.
Huo cuts the wall table under the front window of your second floor room to expose the fugo source. There was extensive water damage and Marcos members of 2 by 6 blackened and crumbled. A video that Huo shared with CBC News shows that water accumulates inside the wall.
Huo also hired Neil Travis by Keystone Properties to investigate the ceiling and solve the problem.
CBC News interviewed Travis, who said the problems included:
- The use of short metal pieces flashing in the parapet of the ceiling instead of full pieces, which Travis said it turned out that they became escape points.
- The lack of cement for roofs to seal spots where nail heads are exposed on tiles.
- Missing metal drip borders.
- There is not enough base under the tiles on the edge of the roof.
When CBC News asked him to evaluate the installation of the ceiling in general, Travis was blunt and said: “It’s quite shit.”
CBC News made multiple requests for comments from RAND and the founder and owner of the company, Randy Mackay, but did not receive an answer.
Other units have water problems
While continued to deal with problems at home this spring, Huo began communicating with the neighbors in the complex. He said he took this step because he began to notice that others were hiring roofs to fix leaks.
Huo sent a survey in a Google document to the owners of the 161 units, asking them to fill and describe any water problem and their efforts to fix them. CBC News has reviewed the answers. In total, 53 report some type of water infiltration problem, including water filtration through ceilings, plaster panels stained with water and ampoule, including electrical circuits floppy drivers stumbling after water on the walls contacted living outlets.
Some of the respondents said Rand made efforts to solve problems. Others, however, said that the company has been difficult to achieve and did not respond to its complaints.
Many owners said that their walls, carpets and roofs get wet regularly during heavy rains.
The heavy snows of the past winter and the subsequent ice dam were also frequently mentioned as times when the water leaked or leaked in the living spaces.
‘As a new owner, that was scary’
Arsalan Salem, 35, was among the dozens of neighbors who responded to the Huo survey.
A professional busy with two young children, Saleem expected to avoid large maintenance invoices when he became a housing buyer for the first time. He paid $ 430,000 for the house in Tribeca Lane in September 2020.
At that time, the house was only three years old, so he did not expect to see any roof problem, but soon noticed that his neighbors were having problems.
“Just after moving, we saw contractors working on the roofs just at the head of my house,” he said. “Then I began to notice what more people did work. Then my turn came.”
A year after moving, said Salem, he noticed that the water leaked in his daughter’s room during a storm. The water filled the ceiling light like a fish cannon, finally dripped and soaked the carpet, he said.
Having an electrical accessory full of water in her daughter’s room was particularly disconcerting.
“As a new owner, that was scary.”
He looked at his daughter in the room and hired a roof, who pointed to the heads of the nails exposed as probable escape points.
“He said it was a bad roof work,” said Salem.
Between the roof and another water penetration problem in a front window, Salem said it is out of $ 2,000.
CBC News visited the complex this week and spoke with more than a dozen tenants and housing owners.
A man, who refused to be interviewed, told CBC News that he paid $ 12,000 to replace his complete roof. Four others said they have experienced leaks, but they were renting the unit and reported the problems to their owners.
Tarion guarantees have expired
The Ontario Tarion Guarantee Program is intended to protect buyers from new cases in case of several defects. Its coverage includes great water penetration, however, the coverage expires after seven years.
CBC News contacted Tarion to comment on the attached houses of Sarnia Road built by Rand.
In a statement, Tarion described him as “a complex situation,” but said he did not receive complaints about the houses in the Tribeca complex during the seven -year coverage period.
Despite this, Tarion said he has been working to help owners and encourage the builder to address the problems.
“At this time, we understand that the builder is actively working with the owners to try to solve the problems,” said the statement. “We understand that the owners are in a difficult situation, but are encouraged by the builder’s response and shows that this builder is willing to try to address issues even beyond their legal obligation.”
Huo, who estimates that it is out of $ 4,000 in repairs, argues that the problems in its complex are so extensive that Tarion has the obligation to intervene and extend the coverage period. He said he was not aware of the Tarion program until it was too late.
“This problem is from the construction, from the beginning of the house, it must be covered,” he said.
