We made the offer on the house in late May 2020 aware that the owner had an open building permit from the renovation they were still in progress on. We knew she would need to complete all work listed on the permit to close it before the sale would go through. We had a few conditions listed on our offer also, most which were accepted by the owner. The next couple months as we waited for closing would be interesting to say the least.
Prior to an offer we did have a home inspection done which was fairly useless only because the person called out less things than our realtor Tara Neal McNally and a close friend of ours had during a pre-offer walk through with us. The conditions agreed to were financing and to sell George’s condo, which we were able to do within a few weeks of the offer. While we were signing off on the sale we were contacted by the seller of our new home to ask for a later closing date. As it aligned close to the date our buyers wanted to close on, we accepted the change. The other conditions that were agreed to by the seller:
◦ Close any open building permit and Electrical Safety Authority permit
◦ Connect the air conditioner to the electrical panel
◦ Install flashing and caulking on the dormers and chimney
◦ Install the two basement support posts
◦ Fix a leak in the main floor bathroom
◦ Complete the installation of the laundry sink and remedy the plumbing flowing into the same drainage pipe that currently results in back-flow of water onto the basement floor, including installation of the p-trap and venting
◦ All exterior windows will be properly finished, including flashing and caulking
Provide missing cover plates for the fridge
Five days before closing it was starting to be apparent that it would be difficult to close on time as most of the things on this list were not complete, including the permits still being open. I did some research and found out that inspections by the city and ESA had failed and there were remediations that had been ordered to get sign off.
We did close, albeit a few days late, with everything pretty much completed except the electrical. (Future posts will provide more insight into the reality of the workmanship that was lacking in the completed items). We had come to an agreement of a holdback and hired our own electrician recommended by our realtor to finish the work. Thankfully our realtor Tara was having a house built at the time and had a good relationship with them so was able to help us get him on no notice.
On the list of things that were completed by Rezi Electric:
I can’t say enough great things about Brian and Vickie Andrade and Rezi Electric. They were professional, thorough, and without them, we would not have been able to close. This was during 2020 when it was very difficult to get pros as so many people were doing upgrades to their homes and everyone was booked solid but they worked with us and 14 months later we’re still very happy with the results.
We’re also ever so grateful for our agent, Tara. She navigated us through a difficult closing like the pro she is and was relentless in ensuring everything was completed. Please reach out if you need either a stellar realtor or electrician in the GTA.
Chateau D’Avignon 