Heat-pump scheme banned in Ontario snares Miramichi homeowner
CBC
Theresa Marcotte now regrets her decision four years ago to have two heat pumps installed in her Miramichi home.
The equipment's not the problem. It's the contract she signed in December 2020.
It said for $160 a month, Simply Green Home Services would install two mini-splits and provide ongoing service and maintenance for the next 10 years.
"Why would you buy one when you can rent it from them, and they take care of it?" Marcotte said to explain her decision.
"That's a good sales pitch, and I fell for it."
Marcotte's understanding was that at the end of the 10-year contract, Simply Green would take the heat pumps back. Or if she decided within that time that she no longer wanted to rent them, the company would take them back earlier, and her monthly payments would end.
She admits she didn't read the fine print, but said there was also more to the deal that the salesperson didn't explain to her.
Earlier this year, Marcotte applied for a home equity loan to help her daughter with college expenses.
"And in the final stages, it came up, these two liens against my house — one for each mini-split — that I didn't know about," she said in an interview after working a full day as a personal support worker.
It turns out they weren't exactly liens. According to the land registry office, the encumbrance on Marcotte's property title is a notice of security interest. People call them NOSIs, pronounced no-sees.
Two were registered on the title to her home by Crown Crest Capital, part of the Simply Green group of companies.
A notice of security interest tells a potential homebuyer that a lender has an interest in a specific fixture on the property — often a piece of equipment such as a heat pump or a furnace.
That's different from a lien, which gives the lender a claim against a property and a right to be paid from the proceeds of a sale.
Marcotte had never heard of a NOSI and immediately put the home equity loan on pause as she tried to figure out what it was and what it meant for her personal finances.
An underpass revitalization project that was meant to pay tribute to the people of Parkdale has instead deteriorated into “a garbage dump,” according to nearby residents.
A young man has been charged with criminal negligence causing bodily harm after a fire at a frat party near Western University that injured five sorority sisters, including two seriously, late Tuesday night.
The massive deal to combine one of Hollywood's oldest studios with a streaming giant hasn't even been approved yet, but it's already riling multiple related industries and politicians concerned about monopolies and media concentration.
Mi'kmaq chiefs and a former Nova Scotia justice minister are criticizing the provincial government for directing police to crack down on illegal cannabis, saying the order undermines relations with Indigenous Peoples.
For years, there has been “glaring inequity” in the way the province has allocated the millions of dollars in its county roads budget, according to Department of Transportation Minister Chuck Chiasson.
Six months after passing a law aimed at making it easier for new grocery stores to open, Manitoba's premier says lower grocery bills could be on the horizon.
Timothy Smith was acting in self-defence when he punched Landon Waddell, and shouldn't be found guilty of manslaughter, his lawyer says.
Thoroughbred horse racing at Vancouver’s Hastings Racecourse is ending after more than a century, with the operator announcing Friday it will no longer run a racing season at the historic facility.
A memorial to remember lives lost to gender-based violence was held in Charlottetown Friday, ahead of the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, which is marked annually on Dec. 6.
A Calgary dentist who defrauded five insurance companies over a decade should spend up to three years in prison, the prosecution argued Friday.
B.C. Conservation Officer Service says it has called off its search for a bear responsible for an attack on a group of school children in Bella Coola, B.C. on Nov. 20.
The union president called it a rally for solidarity as Iqaluit Housing Authority employees gathered Friday while negotiations are ongoing between the Nunavut Employees Union and the employer.
The federal government is stoking Quebec separatism by walking back its climate commitments — including in its recent deal with Alberta — Liberal MP and former cabinet minister Steven Guilbeault says.