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We have to move. We are heartsick over it. Our landlord is selling the house we live in. We're not letting ourselves get kicked out (see below), but chances are very good we'll have to move, so we're taking steps to find a place sooner rather than later. With the shock of our landlord's announcement faded - at least a bit! - we've been able to evaluate our options. And sadly, very sadly, we realize that we should stop renting houses and go back to apartment life. Comfort is easy. Less comfort is not. It's incredibly easy to grow accustomed to certain comforts and conveniences...and famously difficult to give them up. Entire miniseries and movies are premised on spoiled rich people learning how the other 99% lives. But you need not be Johnny Rose to experience this. Even a little comfort, once savoured, is difficult to part with. The house we have been renting for the past two years is the nicest place either of us have ever lived in. We'll probably end up l...

Just about one year ago today - July 8, 2013, to be exact - our area was hit with a massive flood that swamped homes, cars, highways, trains, and . . . our basement . The basement had been Allan's office. The office in which he was working to meet a publishing deadline. Stressful? You could say that. It could have been much worse. We got an insurance settlement, and we moved - not without some hassles , but we did it, moving in to our current rental home in September. Now, one year later, we mentioned to our current landlord that it's time to renew our lease. He said he'd come over for a visual inspection. That's his right, as he has only been on the property once since we moved in, when the dryer broke. (Interestingly, he questioned whether we had caused the breakdown through carelessness.) He also said there would be a "nominal" increase in rent. We made a date, and he and his wife came to do a walk-through. Everything was fine, of course. A pot-light fixtu...

After a week of looking at houses for rent, we found something we love and put down a deposit. My dread of moving has been mostly replaced with a mixture of resignation and excitement, as this will be a definite upgrade in our standard of living. Life is full of the unexpected. We're very fortunate in many ways - it could be way worse - and I don't want to lose that perspective. This experience continues to be educational! In addition to the rental scams I saw on Craigslist , the basement disaster and our impending move have provided a refresher course (as if I needed one!) in knowing your rights and asserting them. Know what you're entitled to Last week, I emailed our insurance agent with a question, and was told that our claim would be disallowed - none of our losses covered - because we are not covered for flood. I was horrified. Sick to my stomach. What about our sewer backup rider? Our damage was from sewer backup, and we bought an extra rider expressly for that. The ...

I'm posting this for Googleability. If you've received an excessive water bill, there may be an error in your reading, even if the water meter is working correctly . My partner and I recently filed a small claims lawsuit against the Region of Peel to recover excessive water charges we were forced to pay. The judge awarded us a full refund, plus court fees, plus money for our time and effort, plus interest. If you have received a water bill that is 10 times (or more) your normal rate, and there are no leaks or plumbing issues in your home, and your subsequent bills show normal usage, this may apply to you. To read details of our experience, go here: advice needed: we really did not use all this water water bill woes continue. help needed. really really needed. in which we kick peel's butt lesson: fight your excessive water bill (My partner's blog) I haven't written about our preparation for the case or our evidence at trial. If you would like more details, please em...

Win? That doesn't even begin to describe it. This was a rout. When the smoke cleared, we were celebrating and they were gasping for air. $429 and change that we should never have been charged? Check. $175 in court costs? Check. But wait, there's more... $100 for our preparation time, plus $400 for our inconvenience, for a grand total of $1104.47 plus interest. Not credits on our account, either. Cold cash, baby! The judge said, "Frankly, I'm surprised that Peel's legal department would have let this go this far. You could have offered a settlement just to expedite this." You know, the settlement that Allan would have been happy to take, the one he regrets not bargaining for?! It was a little hairy to start. We were very well prepared, but we weren't aware of certain requirements, thinking, for example, that the exhibits in our initial pleading would be the exhibits at trial. So there was some scurrying about, photocopying and highlighting. The judge was a...

Remember our crazy water bill ? And how tried to fight it ? In the end, we had no choice. We had to pay the bill or Peel would have disconnected our water. After that, our only recourse was to file in small claims court to try to recover the excess payment. We did so, and we had a mandatory (and useless) settlement conference. The trial is tomorrow. Allan has been working on our case for a long time and is beyond sick of it. Being a classic pessimist, he is convinced we will lose and just wants to get it over with. I have no idea what will happen and I'm not predicting anything. But whatever happens, I'll know I tried everything. I couldn't live with paying that bill and walking away. We both felt we had to try, no stone unturned. So this is the last stone.

There's been a lot of activity in our battle over the bizarre water bill (background here and here ), but unfortunately it all amounted to spinning our wheels in mud. Allan made another round of phone calls and followed yet more trails: the City Manager's office, our MPP's office, the Commissioner of Public Works, the Ministry of Consumer Services, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs. We got legal advice from lawyer friends, a lawyer where Allan works, and someone at the Mississagua legal aid clinic who was very generous with her time. We fielded more calls from Peel, asking to know "our decision," meaning, "Are you going to pay or do we shut off your water?" People were variously shocked, sympathetic or buck-passing, but no one could actually help. It comes down to this: we say you used this water, so you owe us this money. We had only one option left. We paid the bill and are now going to Small Claims Court to try to recover our money. It's a gamb...

Back in October, I posted about a very strange water bill we received from the Region of Peel. Our three-month bill usually runs around $60, representing 4Ms or a maximum of 5Ms of water. This bill was almost $500, representing 38Ms of water. In other words, Peel is saying that we used almost two years' worth of water in a three-month period. We have been fighting this for months, without success, and Peel is now threatening to shut off our water. Here's what we've done so far: 1. Paid a portion of the bill equivalent to the high end of a normal bill 2. Spoken to our landlord, who was shocked. He's never seen anything like this. 3. Spoken endlessly to a manager at Region of Peel. 4. Had Peel Water inspectors come to the house - twice. Once they obsessed over one toilet, the second time they obsessed over the second one. First they said the toilet chain was 1/8-inch too long. Then they said it was 1/8-inch too short. However, the toilet is not running and has never been...

In light of the new scathing report on G20 police abuse , and continued calls for an independent inquiry, this seems like a good time to post an update on my own relatively minor police complaint. I've just written the final chapter in the saga. For those just tuning in: Part I: What happened . Part II: My complaint is "withdrawn". Part III: The OIPRD calls me . Part IV: I feel I have no choice; the complaint becomes an investigation . * * * * A few weeks ago I received the finding of the investigation, the gist of which is summarized in this paragraph. Taking into consideration all the information we have received to date, I am of the view that based on reasonable grounds the allegations cannot be substantiated. There is insufficient reason to conclude misconduct was committed by the officer. There is an opportunity to request a review by the OIPRD. I did not do so, but I did write this letter. * * * * I am writing in response to the findings in the above-referenced com...

I met with the police again yesterday, and was so dissatisfied that I chose the third option for the complaint: I escalated it to an investigation. I don't think what happened to me warrants an investigation, but no other option was acceptable to me. Background: Part I: What happened . Part II: My complaint is "withdrawn". Part III: The OIPRD calls me . The day after I received the call from the OIPRD, the complaint coordinator - the female detective who misinformed me - called. She was shocked - shocked! - to hear that I was withdrawing my withdrawal. In all her years in her position, this was the first time such a thing had ever happened. I told her if that's true, perhaps it's because most complainants don't discover the truth. I related to her what I was told: that a "withdrawn" complaint is indeed withdrawn, and never intersects with the officer's performance evaluations or personnel file in any way. I told her I believe she intentionally...

You remember I had a brief but unpleasant run-in with a Toronto cop: here . I filed a complaint, and when I went in for the interview , I was told I had three options: informal resolution, withdrawal and formal complaint. The detective took great pains to explain to me - several times - that "withdrawal" didn't actually mean withdrawal, that it's an incorrect term for that option. She specifically told me - several times - that a withdrawn complaint is an "accountability mechanism", because the complaint will stay on the officer's record for two years. The department can thus see if this was an isolated incident or if there is a pattern of similar behaviour. The detective was clearly steering me in the direction of withdrawal. She said the first option, informal resolution, required a face-to-face meeting with the officer and was a route seldom taken. The third option, formal complaint, was a long, involved process involving an investigation and usually ...

You may recall that I had a minor incident with a Toronto police officer in late September. Along with many other people, I was prevented from crossing the street by a photo shoot, and was in danger of missing my GO bus - which would mean an additional hour of commute in between my two 12-hour weekend shifts. While I was wrangling with the condescending production assistant, a police officer completely over-reacted, charging at me, grabbing my arms and shoving me against the barricade. I filed a complaint, and today was my interview about that complaint. (As an aside, I'd like to note that I always intended to file the complaint. Hoping to stave off some anticipated cynicism, I noted that the complaint would probably do nothing - which perhaps gave an impression that I might not follow through. That was not in doubt.) Going to the interview, I was quite nervous. I've been more nervous dealing with police as I get older, maybe because I've seen more of the reality of what ...

Yesterday I received a water bill from the Region of Peel. These bills cover a three-month period and usually run around around $60. My current bill is $494.43. Our average daily water usage is usually 4M or 5M. On this bill, it's 38M. [ Correction: our past average daily consumption has been 330 litres, 538 litres, 337 litres, 404 litres, and so on. On this bill, our average daily consumption is 3,918 litres. The 4M or 5M figure represents our consumption for the entire three-month period. On this bill, it is 38M.] I don't know what unit of measurement an "M" is, but I know we didn't use an 38 of them - nine times our normal water usage. I immediately called Peel, expecting to hear that they had a computer problem and were issuing everyone new bills. Instead, the rep suggested I check the meter to see if it coincided with their reading. It did. It was only very slightly higher from the end of the billing cycle until the day of my phone call. Thus, they said, we ...

This evening I was slightly roughed up by a Toronto cop. And the first thing I thought of - unlike anything I've ever experienced before - was, "Don't talk back, don't move, don't look at her. Don't escalate." I thought of the G20, and I thought, I don't want to get hurt, I don't want to get arrested. That's how terrorism works. I got out of work early tonight, 7:00 instead of the usual 10. King Street in front of Scotia Plaza was barricaded off for a film shoot. I ignored it and stepped past some traffic cones. I could hear someone with a megaphone on the other side of the street directing people to move me. One of the production assistants asked me to leave. I said, "Sorry, I'm not missing my bus for your movie." I managed to get to the corner of King & Bay, where people were being held on all four corners, and I tried to cross the street. A production assistant told me I couldn't go. I told her my bus runs once per hour...

Last week I parked at what I thought was a Toronto Parking Authority "Green P" lot, but apparently is a lot operated by a private company called Imperial Parking , or Impark. The machine appeared to take my money (credit card payment) but did not print out a receipt. This had happened to me once before at the same lot, and I learned that I was supposed to call the phone number on the machine. I tried to do so, but couldn't get through. I left a note on my dashboard saying that the machine wasn't printing receipts. When I came back, I had a ticket. I called Impark the next day, and was told that, since I was already on record as having had a ticket cancelled, and at that time had been informed to call from the parking lot, they would not cancel the ticket. However, since I paid by credit card, when the payment showed up on my statement, I could fax the statement to them and they would accept it as proof of payment. I found this very annoying. Their machines don't w...