On a hot summer day in July, some of the city’s best-known residents were among those who stood outside the front door of their home in the Calgary suburb of South Calgary, waiting to get in.
The front door was locked.
The only way into the home was by stepping inside through the front gate, said James Rochford, a longtime Calgary real estate agent.
The couple, who live in the neighbouring suburb of Calgary Hills, had just bought a home a few months earlier, with the property assessed at $2.1 million.
It was a $1 million property with four bedrooms and five bathrooms, Rochfords’ broker, Daniel O’Brien, said.
“It was a nice house.
I had a good time with it.
It looked pretty good,” Rochfather said.
The two homeowners had just spent $150,000 on renovations to the home, which had previously been purchased for $1.2 million by a group of investors.
They hoped the renovations would bring the house back into the market, Rachfords said.
But it took four months for the project to be completed and then it went to foreclosure.
“They never gave us an estimate on when they would get their money back,” he said.
So the couple, including their two young children, moved into their new home, but Rochbankers was still waiting for the CRA to come forward with the money they were owed.
The CRA was the federal agency that collects the money owed by homeowners.
It collects on the behalf of the government by collecting the mortgage debt of a homeowner when the homeowner moves out of the home and no longer has the ability to pay.
But the CRA said it only collects money owed to individuals who have had a mortgage issued by the CRA.
“CRA does not collect from individuals on their own property,” said CRA spokesperson Scott Brindley in an email.
“In order to collect from a homeowner, CRA requires that the person has an outstanding mortgage and has an ability to repay the mortgage.”
The CRA has not provided us with the full amount of money owed or an estimate of how much will be owed.
We will continue to work with the CRA on these cases as they are reported to us,” Brindleys wrote.
He said CRA has a website where individuals can upload their information to the agency.
“However, the CRA does not take a role in deciding who receives money from the CRA, who gets a loan or who is able to move into a new home. “
The CRA’s role in dealing with the mortgage market is to collect money owed on a borrower’s property and then issue a mortgage that the borrower can repay,” said Carolyn Wiebe, a spokesperson for the association.
“However, the CRA does not take a role in deciding who receives money from the CRA, who gets a loan or who is able to move into a new home.
It’s up to the CRA and individual borrowers to do the research and decide if they need help.”
Rochbanks home is on the market for $2,200,000.
“We’re not in any financial distress at all, and we’re still living within our means,” he added.
He added that they had paid off their mortgage within two months.
“At least we got some of that money,” Ruchford said.
He is also waiting to see how the CRA handles the other cases they are working on.
“I’m a little bit scared,” he joked.
“There are a lot of things I want to say to them, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to.”
The CRA said in a statement that, for the time being, CRA will continue collecting on mortgages issued by other CRA-assisted organizations.
CRA also said it will continue working with other lenders to ensure they follow the rules of the CRA’s mortgage-related assistance programs, including by reporting any discrepancies between their reporting requirements and the CRA reporting requirements.