Court

So we got our gas heater working again. I got the gas heater guy to drop by again, and a nightmare scenario occurred. After several days of the gas heater not working, this guy stops by and we step into the living room. On entry, I just think "Whoo, this room is toasty".

The guy walks up to the heater and it is radiating heat for the first time since he left. He's like "It's working". I'm like "Seriously man, it was working after you fixed it, but the next morning it wasn't, and it hasn't until you just showed up just now". He takes me seriously and takes it apart. He says the controller is bad, which was a knob on the top of the heater. He installs a thermostat which shows the temperature of the heat omitted and has buttons to increase or decrease heat output. Much better than the knob that you would have to crank to change the heat to a mysterious universal temperature, which would turn off randomly.

So our main heat source is better than it ever was before. Gas heater guy also said he would propose changing the electric heaters to gas, since it's more cost efficient.

Unfortunately, a hand rail popped out of place recently and the lights in the kitchen stopped working and it's not the bulbs.

Guess where I was today? If you guessed "In court", congratulations!

My landlord invited me to court awhile back. He claimed I had some money due and I disagreed. Since then we came to an agreement and he said it would be a waste of both our our time and that he'd cancel the meeting, but I checked a few days ago and the hearing was active. I messaged him and he was like "Oops, see you on Thursday".

So I felt I had to show up to the hearing, even though I knew I was on the up-and-up, because if I didn't show, I was worried he could be like "Yo, this guy's a jerk" and get me kicked out because I wasn't around to give a sound counter-argument.

So he has a lawyer in in and represent for him. I've done a lot or preparation. I've got bank statements for the entire duration of my living in the unit with printout images of every paid rent cheque. I've got copies of confirmation of details on my gas and hydro ownership. I've got my notice of rent increase and everything to do with the trial.

I'm confident, but I choose to take free legal advice when they offer, and when they ask, I choose to take up their offer of having a mediator, doing things in front of a judge and crowd.

During the cool-off period, I approach the lawyer representing my landlord. He does some math and says I owe $81.

I'm like, "That's not much" and he's like "I know".

Who goes to court and tries to evict someone on $81?

So he reads me the details and I'm like "That's incorrect. I moved in two months after that and my rent was a different amount. It changed just last month".

So the charges against me went from $81, to $44, to $25, to nothing.

The lawyer is flipping. "F*** my life. He is trying to evict on pennies. I've got better things to do than charge on $50 F***ing dollars. I don't give a sh**, I really don't give a sh**"

So in the end I didn't owe anything. Sucks because I had a full work day I had to cancel, which would have earned more than $81, so it's like he prevented me from having that money regardless.