Whats Your Neighbour from Hell Story?

In my column on April 2, I wrote about a study by Halifax Home Insurance in the U.K. which reported that more than 360,000 Britons, or one in 10 people, moved home because of irritating neighbours.
I expressed my doubts that that statistic would apply in Canada and I invited readers to contact me if they moved because of a “neighbour from hell.” To say that I was inundated by emails would be an understatement. I stopped counting after three dozen.
After reading far more emails than I expected, I’m now prepared to reconsider: it seems that many more people than I thought move to get away from their neighbours.
Many readers wrote to complain about junk in the neighbour’s backyard, noisy “boom box” speakers, rowdy friends, drifting smoke from cigarettes and marijuana, weekly parties, loud music, and even conversations across the backyard between adjacent neighbours on each side.
Don wrote in to say, “Were ‘bad neighbour’ insurance available, we would certainly have bought it.”
Several readers described musical jam sessions in the basement or garage of the home next door or across the road. Typically the sessions involved electric guitars, amplifiers, and drum sets which were in use all day, or all night, or both. Arno found an effective way to end the nightmares. When the musicians were evicted for rent arrears, he convinced his daughter to buy the house. Problem solved.
Sandra complained that there is no Toronto bylaw prohibiting this kind of noise between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. She is ready to move.
Diane emailed from the 905 area. She has called the police 40 times complaining of harassment, but tells me that they have not been helpful.
Lisa lasted eight years with the neighbour from hell next door. This neighbour delighted in repeatedly complaining about non-existent noise coming from Lisa’s house. Every time the police arrived, they would find the house in darkness and everyone sleeping. The neighbours damaged her pool equipment, threw eggs onto the pool deck, dumped soap powder into the pool and put a loudspeaker in their window tuned to static at full volume.
“The police wouldn’t do anything and neither would the courts,” she wrote.
Back in 1985, Marcia moved into a townhouse only to discover that the neighbours kept a noisy goat in the backyard. Marcia discovered that a single goat is regarded as a pet under city bylaws.
At the hottest time of the following summer, Billy was slaughtered in the garage. The stench survived Billy by several days, and eventually Marcia’s family put their house up for sale.
Diana moved after discovering an illegal rooming house next door. She once found a neighbour who was either drunk or dead lying in her driveway. Another time, the neighbours were changing tires and working on their cars in her driveway. After living with loud music, rabbit droppings and cat urine on her doorstep, she reports she is pleased to be out of the house now.
After living in her house for three years, another reader had a neighbour from hell move into the house behind her. Two large Dobermans were kept in the backyard permanently. There was a heavy rain the following spring and the neighbour was on higher ground. It was only after waves of liquid dog poop started flowing under the fence that the reader moved out. Her two next door neighbours moved shortly afterward.
For anyone considering buying a house or condo, the lesson from my torrent of emails seems to be: Check out the neighbours before you buy.

Bob Aaron is a Toronto real estate lawyer. He can be reached by email at bob@aaron.ca, phone 416-364-9366 or fax 416-364-3818.
Visit the Toronto Star column archives at http://www.aaron.ca/columns for articles on this and other topics or his main webpage at www.aaron.ca.

Do you have a neighbour from Hell story? Why not add yours here now...

Trouble Making your Mortgage Payments?

CMHC Launches Campaign to Help Homeowners

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) launched a consumer outreach campaign to help borrowers understand the importance of working with lenders to find manageable solutions if they are facing financial difficulties in repaying their mortgage loans.

“CMHC has a long tradition of offering mortgage default management tools to lenders to help them assist homeowners whose financial circumstances have changed. We want to remind people that the best course of action is to speak to their lenders at the first sign of financial difficulty. With early intervention, cooperation and a well executed plan, you can work together with your lender to find a solution.” stated Mark McInnis, CMHC Vice-President of Insurance Underwriting, Servicing and Policy.

The campaign includes consumer information on the options available to homeowners who may be having difficulty meeting their mortgage payments. This information is also being provided to government partners and credit counseling organizations.

CMHC advises homeowners to:

1. Talk to your lender at the first sign of financial difficulty
2. Clarify your financial picture, both for yourself and your lender
3. Stay informed about what options and resources might be available to you

For Approved Lenders with CMHC-insured mortgages, we provide tools and the flexibility to make timely decisions when working with homeowners to find a solution to an individual’s unique financial situation. These tools include:

• Offering a temporary short-term payment deferral. Lenders may be prepared to offer greater payment flexibilities especially if previous lump sum prepayments have been made, or if an accelerated payment schedule has been previously chosen.
• Extending the original repayment period (amortization) in order to lower the monthly mortgage payments.
• Adding any missed payments (arrears) to the mortgage balance and spreading them over the remaining mortgage repayment period.
• Offering a special payment arrangement unique to an individual’s particular financial situation.

More information and resources are available at CMHC’s website at www.cmhc.ca search keywords “mortgage payment difficulties”, or at 1-800-668-2642.

David Pylyp; There is help available to you from professional people that can be consulted regarding potential refinancing options, deferral of payments.  Do not let more mortgage slip past due hoping things will improve.