McGuinty Government Mercilessly Targets Home Owners
Anyone who's listened to the news recently knows that we are in the middle of the worst recession since the Great Depression.
Except Dalton McGuinty that is.
He and his band of merry men and women think that now might be the right time to erase thousands of dollars in equity from just about every household in Ontario. They think that now might be the best time to force home owners to pay MORE to sell their houses. They think that this just might be the perfect time to 'stick it' to the little guy!
I say, enough is enough! The perception of doing something good for the environment just isn't enough reason to unleash this kind of boneheaded manoeuvre on the Ontario taxpayer. And this is on top of the government's plan to harmonize the sales taxes! (This will be my next post)
Let's go through an example, shall we? You want to sell your 1970's construction home and you live in a nice part of Peterborough, Ontario. You have a couple of REALTOR®s drop by to give you an idea of the market value for the property and to give you their sales pitch for the services that they would be prepared to offer you and the commission that they each will charge you. So far so good. You and your spouse talk it over and you decide to go with the REALTOR® who gave you the best marketing plan and has the best track record even though their commission is slightly more than their competitor. What, you didn't think I'd advocate the lower rate, did you? ;)
You agree to put your house on the market for $278,000 and also agree to a listing term of 120 days. After just 28 days, your REALTOR® calls you, she's very excited as an offer has been registered and the other broker would like to present the offer to you tonight right after dinner.
Sounds great! Until you get a chance to read the offer over with your broker. The buyer has inserted a clause requiring you, under newly enacted legislation, to have a home energy audit performed - at your cost. How much will this cost? No one knows for sure, but probably somewhere in the neighbourhood of $450. Ouch! You bite the bullet though, because you have to sell because you've been laid off and need to downsize (remember, this is the worst recession since the '30s!) The audit comes back with results that are less than splendid. The buyer looks at the report and says, "Wow...this place is a real energy hog! Guess you better drop your price by $15,000 so that I can afford to make the improvements necessary to get this place up to spec! What's that, you can't afford that? Guess I'll just buy the house down the street then..."
Now you do have choices, you could:
1. Drop your price to save the deal - equity erased courtesy of Dalton McGuinty.
2. Allow the buyer out of the deal and 'hope' that the next buyer to come along has a bigger bag of money.
3. Don't sell. Everyone does the same and the real estate market freezes. Prices plummet and the economy goes into an even deeper nose-dive - again, equity erased courtesy of Dalton McGuinty!
None of this even takes into account licensing the energy auditors, ensuring quality of inspections, administering the bureacracy created by this new layer of insanity and the huge tax burden placed on the tax payer to cover the cost of administration!
Write to your MPP and demand that this bill be repealed. Call them, fax them, email them, show up at the constituency office! Let's do everything we can to stop this!
CNW Group Article on this story is here.
Except Dalton McGuinty that is.
He and his band of merry men and women think that now might be the right time to erase thousands of dollars in equity from just about every household in Ontario. They think that now might be the best time to force home owners to pay MORE to sell their houses. They think that this just might be the perfect time to 'stick it' to the little guy!
I say, enough is enough! The perception of doing something good for the environment just isn't enough reason to unleash this kind of boneheaded manoeuvre on the Ontario taxpayer. And this is on top of the government's plan to harmonize the sales taxes! (This will be my next post)
Let's go through an example, shall we? You want to sell your 1970's construction home and you live in a nice part of Peterborough, Ontario. You have a couple of REALTOR®s drop by to give you an idea of the market value for the property and to give you their sales pitch for the services that they would be prepared to offer you and the commission that they each will charge you. So far so good. You and your spouse talk it over and you decide to go with the REALTOR® who gave you the best marketing plan and has the best track record even though their commission is slightly more than their competitor. What, you didn't think I'd advocate the lower rate, did you? ;)
You agree to put your house on the market for $278,000 and also agree to a listing term of 120 days. After just 28 days, your REALTOR® calls you, she's very excited as an offer has been registered and the other broker would like to present the offer to you tonight right after dinner.
Sounds great! Until you get a chance to read the offer over with your broker. The buyer has inserted a clause requiring you, under newly enacted legislation, to have a home energy audit performed - at your cost. How much will this cost? No one knows for sure, but probably somewhere in the neighbourhood of $450. Ouch! You bite the bullet though, because you have to sell because you've been laid off and need to downsize (remember, this is the worst recession since the '30s!) The audit comes back with results that are less than splendid. The buyer looks at the report and says, "Wow...this place is a real energy hog! Guess you better drop your price by $15,000 so that I can afford to make the improvements necessary to get this place up to spec! What's that, you can't afford that? Guess I'll just buy the house down the street then..."
Now you do have choices, you could:
1. Drop your price to save the deal - equity erased courtesy of Dalton McGuinty.
2. Allow the buyer out of the deal and 'hope' that the next buyer to come along has a bigger bag of money.
3. Don't sell. Everyone does the same and the real estate market freezes. Prices plummet and the economy goes into an even deeper nose-dive - again, equity erased courtesy of Dalton McGuinty!
None of this even takes into account licensing the energy auditors, ensuring quality of inspections, administering the bureacracy created by this new layer of insanity and the huge tax burden placed on the tax payer to cover the cost of administration!
Write to your MPP and demand that this bill be repealed. Call them, fax them, email them, show up at the constituency office! Let's do everything we can to stop this!
CNW Group Article on this story is here.
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