'People didn't matter': Tenant details relationship with failed Saskatoon real estate firm

Chandra McMillan-Behrenz knew she wasn’t coping with a typical actual property firm the day Epic Alliance took over her property in 2019.

After residing in her home for greater than 12 years with few points, the tenant in Saskatoon’s north finish was handed a discover from Epic saying her hire was growing by $400.

“They stated, ‘When you don’t prefer it, you'll be able to transfer,’” McMillan-Behrenz stated.

Epic Alliance additionally demanded McMillan-Behrenz pay a $200 pet deposit for her 13-year-old cat that had lived in the home since delivery, she stated. When her dishwasher broke down, Epic Alliance provided to drag it out from beneath the countertop and canopy the dishwasher-sized gap with a bit of plywood. The dishwasher hasn’t run since.

After a month of not listening to from Epic Alliance about her defective oven, she was pressured to purchase an electrical roaster to host household for Thanksgiving dinner. The inconveniences began to pile up.

“It did not take me lengthy and I knew that they had been out for cash and that individuals did not matter,” she stated.

Rochelle Laflamme and Alisa Thompson had been the founders of Epic Alliance Actual Property Inc. (YouTube/Epic Alliance Inc.)

McMillan-Behrenz repeatedly notified Epic Alliance a couple of smoke detector that wasn’t working correctly and consistently making noise, she stated. After months of no response from Epic Alliance, she referred to as the hearth division and the smoke detector was changed the very subsequent day.

“The way in which they behaved wasn't skilled in any respect,” she stated.

Epic Alliance was based in 2013 by Rochelle Laflamme and Alisa Thompson. It developed into varied different corporations and had 118 staff earlier than it collapsed in January. A court-ordered investigation has discovered that $211.9 million raised from traders by the Saskatoon-based actual property agency is generally gone.

Renters of Saskatoon and Space (ROSA), a neighborhood advocacy group for tenants, says the tales from individuals who lived in houses managed by Epic Alliance are wide-ranging.

“A Renters of Saskatoon and Space (ROSA) tenant shared a priority of incapacity obstacles with the paperwork fee transitions of the Epic Alliance change of possession. As a substitute of training cheap subsequent steps of bettering invoice assortment help communications with the tenant, the brand new property supervisor dangerously skipped to utilizing the free public justice assets to drive housing insecurity, with supply of an pressing discover to evict,” a press release learn.

Nevertheless, ROSA is much more involved concerning the longer-term results on the realm with a whole bunch of former Epic Alliance houses in Saskatoon core neighbourhoods being handed over to different house owners and property managers, probably making a squeeze on reasonably priced housing.

ROSA encourages different tenants at former Epic Alliance houses to come back ahead and share their data of “this technique failure.”

“Let’s deal with housing as a social good as a substitute of a profit-making commodity,” the assertion learn.

McMillan-Behrenz has accepted she’ll seemingly by no means get again the a whole bunch of dollars she says Epic Alliance owes her, however by talking out and detailing her remedy, McMillan-Behrenz hopes it encourages different tenants to talk up and defend themselves so different corporations don’t proceed to benefit from tenants.

“It is type of a human rights abuse while you've received a dishonest monopoly,” she stated. “Persons are being handled like that, particularly long-term tenants that take care of a spot solely to have their hire severely raised.”

Different houses on her block purchased by Epic Alliance sat vacant for over a yr, in accordance with McMillan-Behrenz. She figured the corporate was in bother when she received a name from Epic Alliance demanding she pay her overdue hire when her hire was paid solely days earlier.

With a number of grandchildren, her church and different household within the space, McMillan-Behrenz wasn’t deterred by the fixed points, however she has deep sympathy for different tenants who didn’t stand their floor and combat, and as a substitute had been evicted or handed unreasonable payments from Epic.

“We do not wish to uproot, so loads of the repairs we did right here got here out of our personal pockets,” she stated.

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