lera-92-07 diary

četvrtak, 27.08.2009.

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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20061002.HOUSE02/TPStory/RealEstateCity pair pay more than money for houseToronto couple given cold shoulder by town over soured real-estate dealPETER CHENEY DEEP RIVER, ONT. -- The road to war can be a strange one, filled with sinister coincidence and tragic complication. And so it was four years ago that the nastiest real-estate battle in the history of Deep River began with a tax increase and a traffic jam.Lynn Hardy, a 61-year-old birdwatcher and piano teacher, looked at her latest assessment -- the taxes on her house were approaching $7,000, even though the appraised value had dropped sharply. Ms. Hardy wondered whether the numbers were right, and whether she could make the payments on her limited income."I was a little worried about it," she says.In the meantime, 45-year-old banking executive Fraser Ball found himself stuck in a massive traffic jam as he headed back to Toronto after a visit with his wife's relatives, who lived in Deep River, a few streets away from Ms. Hardy. Mr. Ball did a quick personal inventory: His daily commute from Mississauga to Bay Street took up to an hour and a half each way. He had a $300,000 mortgage. Now he was stalled on Highway 400 in a smoking sea of vehicles."Why am I doing this?" Mr. Ball asked himself. He and his wife, Lorraine Shanahan, had been thinking about moving to Deep River, located about 200 kilometres northwest of Ottawa. Now, as the winter of 2002 loomed, they decided to act. "We wanted less traffic and less mortgage," Mr. Ball says.In that respect, they got what they wanted -- and they also got Ms. Hardy's house, set on what may be the most beautiful property in Deep River, with a view of the Laurentians and a treed yard that ends at a sandy beach equipped with canoes and a pair of Muskoka chairs.But for Mr. Ball and his wife, the property has come at a price they never imagined. Although the deal for Ms. Hardy's home was done more than 3 years ago, they have yet to take possession. Instead, they've been caught up in an epic legal battle, living in a house across town and forking out about $80,000 to lawyers."It hasn't been an easy time," Mr. Ball says.The purchase of Ms. Hardy's house has become a local cause clbre, driven by a unique mix of small-town social dynamics, senior-citizen psychology and contract law. Ms. Hardy says she never wanted to sell her home, but was hornswoggled into a deal by Mr. Ball and Ms. Shanahan. "I was tricked," she says. "That's the only way I can explain it."Mr. Ball, who runs an investment office in nearby Petawawa after leaving Bay Street in 2003, has found himself cast by Ms. Hardy's supporters as the villain. There have been nasty telephone calls, physical threats and a bid to have him thrown out of the Rotary Club for being morally unfit. (This summer, Mr. Ball had to appear in front of the club and argue his case, which he won: "I felt like I was living in Salem," he says.) Barring divine intervention -- or a change of heart by Mr. Ball and his wife -- Ms. Hardy will soon be vacating the home she has owned for the past 18 years to make way for the couple, who are scheduled to take possession in mid-November.There is no love lost over the impending move -- one of Ms. Hardy's supporters asked her neighbours to replace their hedges with bramble bushes. "The whole thing is disgusting," says Ms. Hardy's daughter Alana. "My mother was overpowered by Mr. Ball."The transaction goes back to January of 2003, when Ms. Hardy received an out-of-the-blue phone call from Ms. Shanahan, who said she'd heard that Ms. Hardy might be interested in selling her home. Ms. Hardy said the house wasn't for sale. Ms. Shanahan said she'd be coming to Deep River that weekend to visit her aunt and uncle, and asked Ms. Hardy to call to see whether she'd changed her mind.Ms. Hardy called that Saturday, as promised. "I didn't want to be rude," she says. Again, she told Ms. Shanahan she wasn't selling. Ms. Shanahan asked whether she and Mr. Ball could see the house anyway, so that if it came on the market, they'd know what it was like.The events of that Saturday and Sunday are described in court records that offer two radically different accounts. Mr. Ball and his wife contend that Ms. Hardy wanted to sell her house, and that they agreed to buy it, fair and square. Ms. Hardy says she was pressed into a deal that she didn't want or understand by people who used her social graces as a form of jiu-jitsu.Mr. Ball and his family visited Ms. Hardy twice that weekend, accompanied by children and relatives. Tea and snacks were served. As to the business that transpired, there is a single point of agreement: On the evening of Sunday, Jan. 19, Mr. Ball drafted two copies of a contract on plain paper, stating that he and his wife would buy Ms. Hardy's house for $350,000 (a fair price at the time, although the house is now worth far more). The couple gave Ms. Hardy a $10,000 deposit cheque (which has never been cashed) and told her they would meet with a lawyer the next morning.After the couple left, Ms. Hardy felt dazed, she says, and called her daughter in Toronto to tell her what had happened. The daughter was horrified. At 8 a.m. Monday, Ms. Hardy called Ms. Shanahan to say that she didn't want to go through with the deal, and wouldn't be going to the lawyer's office. Ms. Shanahan said they were going, whether Ms. Hardy attended or not.Mr. Ball and his wife filed suit against Ms. Hardy, claiming she had reneged on a valid contract. Ms. Hardy's lawyer argued she had been hustled by someone who vastly outmatched her when it came to matters of business. Ms. Hardy, a divorcee, had never bought or sold a home (all transactions had been handled by her ex-husband), and her business experience was limited to billing her piano students and tracking her expenses.Mr. Ball held an MBA, had purchased three homes and had spent decades working for major banks. Before meeting with Ms. Hardy that Sunday evening, he had consulted with a real-estate agent who told him the essential elements of a binding real-estate contract, which he had copied onto a Post-It note that he brought to Ms. Hardy's home.In April of 2005, Ms. Hardy won the case. Mr. Justice Albert Roy of the Ontario Superior Court ruled the deal was invalid because of unequal bargaining power, a legal principle known In his judgment, he painted a picture of a befuddled senior who had been rushed into a deal by a savvy opponent: ". . . It would have been wise for the plaintiffs to allow the defendant, when she called that Monday morning, to allow her some time to get some legal advice and independent advice and to fully appreciate what she was doing. . . . I don't think it was wise for the plaintiffs, when the defendant called saying that she was not going to the lawyers and that she didn't want to go through with the transaction, to play hardball."Mr. Ball and Ms. Shanahan filed an appeal, which was heard this June at Osgoode Hall in Toronto. Ms. Hardy's lawyer told the court her client didn't know that the paper she signed constituted a legal contract, and that Mr. Ball and his wife had masked a ruthless business deal as a small-town social occasion.Brian Bellmore, representing Mr. Ball and Ms. Shanahan, offered a countering view, arguing that Ms. Hardy was fully capable of representing herself in a business transaction: ". . . Lynn Hardy is an educated and literate woman . . . the vendor has taken university courses, teaches English as a second language at the local school . . . and is an occasional columnist for the local newspaper."The appeals court ruled against Ms. Hardy: ". . . It appears that she simply changed her mind after the execution of a valid and enforceable agreement of purchase and sale," the judges wrote. "Although this is most unfortunate for the vendor, the purchasers are entitled to enforce the agreement."After the legal defeat, Ms. Hardy's supporters tried to take her case to the court of public opinion. Some called Edward Jones, the investment company Mr. Ball now works for, and made it clear that they would encourage a boycott of the firm. Ms. Hardy's daughter wrote a letter to the local paper, which refused to publish it."A lot of people were shocked when the decision went against Lynn," says North Renfrew Times editor-in-chief Terry Myers. "But we have limited resources, and we didn't think we could take this on."With their move to the disputed house just weeks away, Mr. Ball and his wife say they've been "battered" by their long fight, and wish Ms. Hardy had simply respected the agreement they signed in 2003."We didn't bully her," Ms. Shanahan says. "Instead of fighting this, she should have taken the money and run." Asked why she had refused to let Ms. Hardy off the hook when she called the next morning to cancel the deal, Ms. Shanahan replied: "We have a valid contract. . . . Why would we back down?"Ms. Hardy seems resigned. Sitting on the beach outside her home, she points out the winterberry bushes that attract a steady stream of cedar waxwings, providing grist for Birds About Town, the column she occasionally writes in the Times. Sailboats tack back and forth on the river, the slopes of the Laurentians painted with the reds and golds of fall."It's a beautiful place," she says. "This is a small town. It's like family. You lose your wariness. I guess I should have had more."

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