June 2003

RRSP SOS

Erin Culhane
OP Contributor

Okay, am I mistaken, or has tax time
come and gone? It’s not seriously June,
is it? Shouldn't I have gotten some sort
of notice about the RRSP deadline,
seen a commercial, something?

Who knew that being forced into the
house-hunting market would result in a
complete failure to notice anything
happening,around me (like time slip-
ping by) and an inability to perform
law-requiring tasks (like filing taxes)?

Let me back this tale of woe up. It all
began on a chilly day in mid-January, a
few days after I'd placed an ad to rent
out our one-bedroom suite. A nice-
sounding woman from the Maple
Ridge Bylaw Department called me.
She identified herself and said she had
seen the ad in the Maple Ridge Times.
From that ad she took my phone num-
ber and found out that I wasn’t the
owner of the house. She found out who
was. She found out that the owner did-
n't live in the house. She found out that
we have another phone number.
Whether she’s training for CSIS or she’s
just a clever lady with a penchant for
finding information, she knew a lot. I,
the ignorant fool who placed the frick-
en ad, knew nothing. I certainly wasn’t
aware of Bylaw Number 3510-1985.
You see, it’s against that bylaw to rent
two suites in one home without the
owner occupying one of them. And for
the past two-and-a-half years we have

rented a large home and subletted the
basement suite, unaware that we were
breaking any bylaws.

Don’t panic I told myself. We'll just
move. Then I panicked. Where were we
going to find a new home with three
bedrooms, an office, a family room,
double garage and built-in vacuum for
three figures a month? We weren't. We'd
have to buy a house.

Whoa—we're not ready to buy a
house. We're not ready to dump every
penny we have into a downpayment.
Then there are closing costs; property
taxes...what about my car? It’s old and
unhappy and ready to die any moment.
What about the minivan we're saving
for? We just can’t do it. We are absolute-
ly not in the position to buy a house.
So it was decided—we would buy a
house.

And so the hunting began—over
three months ago. Ah yes, I can still
remember that first townhouse we saw.
It was a keeper. Imagine our luck, |
thought, at finding exactly what we
wanted at a price we could afford, so
soon! As we walked through it a second
time my partner tried to quash my
enthusiasm. “Don’t get so excited or
they'll think we really want it,” he said.
“But I do really want it,” I said.
Hardwood, a den, a family room, and a
big kitchen—it had everything!

And then the other shoe dropped.

Everything included a height restriction |

Opinions

on dogs. At 95 pounds, even crawling
on his stomach Charlie doesn’t measure
12 inches at the shoulder. I suppose
Strata Councils have a right to discrim-
inate, but why height? As my daughter
put it, “Why would they want those
small, yappy dogs instead of Charlie?”
It was time to realtor up. Time to
enlist a poor, unsuspecting victim to
find a perfect dwelling for our family.
Problem is, just when he thinks he’s
found what we're looking for, we
change what it is we thought we want-
ed. It doesn’t help that my partner and
I are not only not on the same page, but
are reading out of different books (I
want shiny and new, he wants a bargain
that we can fix up into a dream home,

the thought of which gives me night-

e the other press ©

SALE

     

mares).

For his part, realtor Rob is ultra-
understanding. “Don’t worry, we'll find
something,” he says in his calm, realtor
tone. “For some it just takes longer.”
And yet time is something we really
don't have. The house we are living in is
for sale, and although it hasn't sold yet,
our eviction notice was served long ago,
thanks to Bylaw Number 3510-1985.
So we have to be “move ready.”

Apparently Canada Customs and
Revenue Agency may waive late-filing
penalties if a person misses the deadline
because of circumstances beyond their
control. But after reviewing section
1C92-2 of the Income Tax Act, I dis-
covered that house hunting doesn’t
qualify. Hard to believe—it certainly
feels beyond my control!

 

Kerry Evans
Opinions Editor

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