Never talk To Us Again!

Okay, that's not what was truly said to me. What the president of Calbridge Homes actually wrote in her e-mail to me was:

"At this point, we will be closing this discussion with you respectively, through email, phone or in person and moving forward any correspondence between us (Calbridge Homes/LaVita Land) and yourself should you feel obliged to do so, can be directed by yourself through to your legal counsel.

"I ask that you do not contact Calbridge Homes Ltd. nor LaVita Land Inc. in any capacity in the future and we will end our communications on the note of this email."

Oh, My Goodness!! Whatever did I do to compel the president of Calbridge Homes to send such a message with overtones of legal conflict? Believe it or not, I asked three times for a piece of paper I was told I should have received. This is the (long-winded) story:

Background

In April, 2019 we were the second family to move in to our new house. Our neighbours two doors down beat us by two weeks.

This is how our house looked for the spring and summer the first year we moved in. Calbridge fenced off part of our property to build the house next to us. They used our property to store their building products. Garbage was just thrown on our yard. The framers parked their trailer so that it was half on our property (no picture ... sorry!) Never once asking. Never once seeing if it was alright with us. Never once apologizing for the inconvenience.

Contractors parked in front of our driveway preventing me from being able to get into my garage. The Calbridge representative held a meeting with one of the contractors in our backyard while I was trying to sleep. In short, it seemed Calbridge got more use out of our yard than we did. It seemed as though they thought it was their project site and could do as they pleased.

But did I complain to Calbridge? No. Did my wife complain? Only to me because she wanted a garden. The yard was "dirty" and she wanted clean. But we were good neighbours and we did not complain to Calbridge. After all, we want to always do the right thing.

Spring and summer passed. More people moved into our neighbourhood and winter came along. We were eager for spring to come again so we could start on our landscaping.

Spring 2020 arrived and everyone along our block got together to discuss landscaping and decided to try to hire one landscaper to do all our yards.

It wasn't so easy. One landscaper promised to do the job and, after listening to what we wanted, promised to send us a quote. But he found he was too busy to do the job and got another landscaper to take over for him.

That landscaper promised to give quotes too but just never got around to it. My neighbour got yet another landscaper working in the area to come take a look and he promised to get back to us. But that never happened again. We started getting desperate. My wife even tried to act as an interpreter for a young man from China working as a landscaper but admitted she couldn't properly tell him what the neighbours wanted.

Finally, my wife found a landscaping company who would take the job but would not be able to start until September at the earliest. The owner of that landscaping company came out, listened to our wants and sent us quotes. Everybody was relieved. Things were finally getting done!

On a sad note, on July 1, 2020, my neighbour suddenly passed away leaving only his wife in the house. Everyone was saddened because we had got to know this fine man well in such the short time we knew him and we all loved him.

The Notice

On July 15th my wife and I, together with our immediate neighbours, each received a notice delivered to our doors from La Vita Land which is part of Calbridge Homes.

"It has come to our attention that the front yard landscaping on your premises has not been completed in the time frame stated in the Architectural Guidelines. This was to be completed within one growing season from the completion of the exterior of your home and that time frame has passed ...

"Please take notice that we are requesting you proceed with front yard landscaping prior to August 1st, 2020."

It was dated June 15th (so it took a month for them just to get it to us!) and was signed by the Senior Land Development Manager of La Vita Land Inc. (LB for future reference)

After Calbridge used our yard for almost the entire growing season of 2019 their business partner, La Vita Land, was giving us two weeks to start our landscaping in the front yard.

Furthermore, none of us had never been made aware of nor given a copy of the "Archtictectural Guidelines" to which LB referred in the notice given to us.

Each of us wrote a letter of complaint.

The E-mail Exchange

When I'm trying to make a point I know I tend to get long-winded in my writing. Just look what I'm doing on this webpage! Call it a quirk. Call it a character flaw if you will. I am what I am and that's all that I am. After reading LB's letter a few times, I had a few points to make with how unreasonable I found her notice to be.

I told LB all the troubles we had getting a landscaper to do the work. I told her how insulting I found her notice to be giving us only two weeks to complete the landscaping when it took her over a month just to get the notice to us. I told her she could have handled this so much better by sending us a reminder that we had this obligation months before any deadline instead of only two weeks. She should have told us what our obligations are according to the "Architectural Guidelines" she referenced and included suggestions on how we could meet this

deadline. I suggested that her notice was not in keeping with La Vita's motto, "Guided by honesty, fairness and excellence, we started our legacy, and created a reputation that we’re proud of.”

I insisted on an apology before August 1st, the same deadline she had given us to complete our front yard landscaping.

I got an answer the very next day. LB wrote back and said,

"I apologize for the specific letter that you received. There are different letters that we deliver in certain circumstances and that is why the August 1st date in the letter didn’t make sense. Like you mentioned below, the appropriate letter would have been one explaining the landscaping with suggestions on contractors that we find reputable should you be looking for suggestions."

So this really is a good thing. They sent the wrong letter in error and I should have received a different one explaining the landscaping with suggestions on contractors. I can't fault a company that makes a mistake. She apologized and now it's time to move on.

That letter that LB claimed I should have received seemed to me to be very valuable. It apparently explains the landscaping that, according to La Vita, I am required to do and has suggestions for reputable contractors. Since neither I nor my neighbours had received a copy of the Architectural Guidelines this explanation of the landscaping would be most useful. And what if the landscaper we had hired decides not to do the work after all? It happened before; it could happen again. So I wrote another e-mail which said:

"We are all now getting ready to make a decision on our landscaper but I would appreciate having a copy of the letter that was meant for us to receive. We have to very quickly make solid decisions on our landscaping needs to have any hope of getting our the work done at all this year and would appreciate reviewing the suggestions contained within the letter we were meant to receive. It would be most appreciated if we could receive this letter by e-mail today so that we can modify our landscaping contract if needed. Since you most likely have this letter on file already, I cannot see that this would be a problem."

I also asked under what circumstances someone would receive the original notice I had received. I explained I didn't want to do something to warrant receiving one myself.

LB replied the same day and said:

"The letter that you should have received does not contain recommendations on how to landscape so it won’t impact the decisions you are currently making. There is such a wide range of product and type of landscaping along with personal preference so we wish to be as flexible as possible.

"The letter you received is delivered in certain situations when more time has passed, attempts to remind of the landscaping requirements have gone unacknowledged and often when neighbour complaints are involved."

So now it seems that the letter I should have received has gone from, "explaining the landscaping," to not containing, "recommendations on how to landscape," and not having any impact on our landscaping decisions.

Okay, maybe I'm reading this wrong or maybe she misspoke. Either way, the recommended landscaping contractors would be useful still. So I asked for the letter I should have received again.

"I think that the original letter containing suggestions on reputable contractors would be of incredible use. I think it would be in my best interest to contact these landscapers you find reputable so, again, I would like to receive this letter as quickly as possible. The sooner I contact them then the better I would feel. As I mentioned in my e-mail to you yesterday, this should not be too much of a hardship since the letter is apparently on file and it would take you mere seconds to reply to this e-mail and attach the file."

Now I'm just an old truck drivin' baby boomer that didn't know nothin' 'bout no compooters before he turned 33 but it seems to me that the easiest thing (and the right thing) to do would be send me an e-mail saying, "Here you go, sir," and attach the letter she said I should have received. Maybe even attach a copy of the Architectural Guidelines to make things perfectly clear just in case we hadn't received a copy (and we hadn't). Instead LB wrote out a few landscaping companies La Vita uses and even mentioned one her supervisor recommends.

Something ain't right here. Is someone being less than truthful?

So I sent another e-mail once again asking for the letter LB said I should have received:

"I have shared our mutual e-mails and discussed this situation with my family, my friends and some co-workers and more than a few have pointed out your seeming reluctance to send to me what you state to be, “the appropriate letter would have been one explaining the landscaping with suggestions on contractors that we find reputable should you be looking for suggestions.” So far, I have received nothing explaining the landscaping other than a deadline in which to get it done and a statement in which you say that you “wish to be as flexible as possible.” I have asked for a copy of this letter three times now but each time you have declined to send it. Why is that? Could you please send me a copy of this “appropriate letter” immediately? Again, there should be very little trouble sending this letter to me as it should be on file and would take less than a minute of your time to send it to me."

Her reply:

"I would be happy to answer any further questions you have regarding your landscaping however I will not be sending along the other letter. I will be making adjustments to future letters based on this experience with you.

The condescending tone of your messages Is not appreciated or helpful in resolving this matter."

Condescending tone? I'm just trying to get the bloody letter she told me I should have received and telling her why I want it. What's condescending about that? It seems pretty obvious this so-called other letter I was to have received never actually existed. It appeared to be all a lie. And for what reason? If the letter never existed she should never have mentioned it. A simple apology at the beginning saying I had received the original notice in error would have done the trick. Mistake made, apology made, apology accepted, problem solved. But, no, she apparently had to lie to save face.

Benjamin Franklin once said, "Never ruin an apology with an excuse."

It is worse to ruin an apology with a lie.

It is worse still to try to cover up for the lie by accusing me of being the cause of the lack of resolution in the matter by calling me "condescending."

I told you I get long winded! Condescending too, I guess. But I think it's important to be detailed so the whole story is told rather than leave you guessing at what is missing.

The President of Calbridge Gets Involved

I have to admit that I was a little peeved at apparently being lied to. There's no excuse for a company, especially one as big as Calbridge, to resort to lies or even the appearance of lies when communicating with a client. So I wrote to LB's supervisor (BH) about how I perceived LB to be lying to me or, if not lying, her lack of cooperation in sending me the letter she herself had told me I was to receive. I summarized the correspondence we had shared. I urged her to review the entire e-mail chain and to discuss this with LB and "and the people immediately above you in the company management hierarchy."

BH answered me very quickly with an e-mail dated Wednesday, July 29, 2020 that said:

"While I have been included in all the emails from (LB) to yourself, I find this email frustrating and taking a path that is just not necessary or needed.

"I will review everything once again with (LB) from the start on your file, as well as discuss things with (DC).

"Once I have done this, both (LB) and myself will have a phone conversation regarding these issues next week with you to put this item to rest.

"If you can kindly provide the best number to reach you at, we will schedule a call with you for Tuesday at everyone’s convenience.

"In the meantime, I would ask kindly and respectfully that the emails stop and we will certainly get back to you in due time again once the file has been re-reviewed internally, thank you."

What really amazed me is that BH (the supervisor of LB) was the president of Calbridge!

What was more amazing to me was that before I could supply my telephone number, the very next day she wrote the following e-mail:

‘Without Prejudice”

"Good Afternoon Edward, I hope you are enjoying the beautiful summer weather we are having.

"Edward, I have reviewed your entire job file on the building side (sic) of your home along with the emails between yourself and (LB) in detail as I mentioned I would.

Edward, I personally feel, that this item has gone way to [sic] far and certainly in a direction that isn’t necessary. I am going to make my email back to you very simple, short and giving you our perspective. Of course your perspective is different as per your emails, and respectfully we are all entitled to our own opinions and thoughts.

"We have enclosed the letter of reference by both (LB) and yourself and again we kindly ask, that some sort of landscaping be done on your property one growing season after your possession date, as per the Architectural Guidelines laid out by LaVita Land Inc, in the community of Fireside of Cochrane.

"I ask that you do not contact Calbridge Homes Ltd. nor LaVita Land Inc. in any capacity in the future and we will end our communications on the note of this email.

"Wishing you a great day."

So much for our telephone call she promised. Not to mention the dark overtone of future legal action with the "Without Prejudice" title and the instruction to correspond with Calbridge only through legal counsel.

For a lousy piece of paper. A piece of paper I was told I should have received.

As for the letter of reference by both (LB) and myself (huh? I never wrote a letter of reference for Calbridge) it was just another tersely worded, somewhat threatening generic letter addressed to "owner / occupant" citing Town of Cochrane’s Nuisance and Unsightly Premises Bylaw with a mention of three landscaping companies they recommend. Nothing at all like the friendly reminder letter I suggested be sent out to new residents long before any deadlines for landscaping arrive.

I sent a last e-mail offering to meet with them in person to resolve this situation. I promised not to be rude or intentionally condescending.

Their answer?.

Summary

"We are a company built on a foundation of quality and trust. Founded 42 years ago by the Ferraro family, our commitment to craft, quality and building lasting relationships continues to be at the forefront of what we do. We lead every day with a passion for crafting beautiful and unforgettable family homes and are proud to be a generational homebuilder. Our homeowners are what drive our business and providing an exceptional experience is our duty to them. Whether it’s our staff, partners, trades, or customers, we align ourselves with those who share a common goal – to always do the right thing."

"Our homeowners are what drive our business and providing an exceptional experience is our duty to them."

"... to always do the right thing."

Powerful words. Wonderful promises.

So what would have been the "right thing" to do? You might say that not sending the original notice woud have been the right thing but mistakes happen to everyone and we have to accept that.

Maybe I should have just let it drop but I really wanted that landscaping information. Late in this e-mail exchange I had gone to my Cablbridge sales person (the DC mentioned in the president's letter) and she gave me an electronic copy of the architectural guidelines. It turned out that there were some landscaping requirements we had to comply with.

To me, the right thing would have been for LB to just admit the she should not have sent the original letter demanding we landscape our front yard, apologize and be done with the matter. But it seemed she had to try to excuse her mistake by telling me I had received that letter in error and I should have received another, less demanding letter. If that other letter did indeed exist, I feel that it should have been attached to the apology. But she didn't do that. Even when called on what appeared to be a lie it seemed as though she persisted in continuing the tall tale.

To me, the right thing for BH to do would have been to follow through with her promise to talk to me on the telephone and not threaten me with legal action. I feel it was dead wrong to tell me to never contact them again, in any manner, ever again. Hire a lawyer to get a lousy piece of paper I was told I should have received? A complete lack of professionalism especially for the president of a company.

What do you think? Did Calbridge live up to its promise to "always do the right thing?" Go to Reader's Comments above and let us know!