Richard in Richmond Hill

Dear Richard and Cirho,

Thank you for taking the time to write a review.

All of us at Moose are extremely disappointed that we were not able to come to agreeable terms and resolve our differences.

You are correct in writing that your contract is old, signed in December of 2019.

At the onset of your project, you did indeed warn us that your property management was difficult to deal with the and Board of Director’s rules regarding renovation work were stringent. We wholeheartedly agree as they did pose a number of extraordinary restrictions and challenges.

When we began the formal evaluation and planning phase of your project after the contract had been signed, you had informed us of failures within your units unique ceiling radiant heating system which we all were under the impression was the homeowners responsibility to maintain and not the buildings.

To this end, we sourced the most experienced firm in Canada, a national firm with branches across the country, to come and assess and hopefully repair it for you.

The 3rd party firm had scheduling issues to which we were all at the mercy of, and then as with the rest of the world, the first Covid-19 wave hit and locked down society. During this time the tracing contractor could not attend your site per regulations.

Once the first wave restrictions were lifted we did have them attend as quickly as possible, and they attempted to find the faults and were unsuccessful in doing so. Your building management did eventually dispatch their own electrical engineering team, who were far more familiar with the very unique system in your building and they were able to repair it, which for all parties involved, is best.

While all this was occurring, our layout team worked with you, along with our interior design team, to try and pre-plan as many components as possible.

This also included a Structural Engineering consult and mechanical engineering consult and preparation of drawings.

As we worked together to finalize on components and design, we prepared the first application package for your Board’s approval which was rejected.

We then worked with our engineers to redesign the proposal, to satisfy the requirements and challenges your board presented.

We then proceeded with a revised proposal which was accepted.

Not wanting to launch a project in a rushed manner, and to allow you time to find alternative housing, we planned a launch for January 2021 after the holiday shutdown, which was in alignment with the notice you provided us that you had secured new housing.

We then completed a pre-launch walk through with our demolition leads to be ready to move forward.

During the pre-launch phase, our management team identified, that due to changes in scope and dramatic market changes in both material availability, cost, and labour costs, prior to the launch we identified that there would be a financial shortfall if we attempted to proceed with your project as planned.

We did notify you of this, though, understandably this was not to your satisfaction. All of us at Moose felt it was more appropriate to inform you of this as soon we realized it, rather than proceed, pause partway through and then attempt to revise costs or scope of work.

We appreciate that you had already moved out by this time as you had secured housing more than a month prior, and we also admit that it would have been more beneficial to all parties had we noticed this in December. For this, we are truly and genuinely sorry.

After correspondence between our office and you, you rejected our new proposal which was wholly within your rights, and elected to cancel the contract altogether and seek another contractor.

We provided you with summary accounting showing the cost changes between operating in December 2019 and January 2021, which we understand was not to your satisfaction.

As you had chosen to cancel, we performed a summary accounting of costs incurred to date, which included the 3rd party electrical contract, Structural and Mechanical engineers, design work, layout work, site visits, and administrative costs therewith. At this time, the total expenditure by Moose is actually in excess of the deposit paid on your project.

We appreciate your feelings that this situation is unfair and also that you wish to resolve this matter through legal channels.

We do wish that we would have been able to come to mutually agreeable terms and could have executed the project, which would have provided you with a stunning new home.

At this time we remain open to attempting to resolve this matter amicably and encourage you to reopen dialogue with our office/legal team.

Please rest assured it was never our intention to inconvenience you or anything of the sort.

We wish you and your partner the best in your upcoming renovation and sincerely hope that we can resolve this matter to a mutually agreeable level.

-Moose Condo Reno