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The owners of about three-dozen homes in Mississauga’s Dixie and Rathburn Road area remain displaced from their homes due to damage sustained in the Mississauga house explosion over the summer.
Many of those properties aren’t expected to be habitable until next summer.
Among those displaced owners is Barbara Castleberry, who lives in a townhouse right behind the destroyed home, located at 4201 Hickory Dr.
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Her insurance won’t cover all of the tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage to her home, so she’s choosing her expenses carefully these days.
All the more reason why the latest big bill to show up in the mail at her temporary home is so distressing.
“Terminated contract charge, drain disconnect fee, taxes,” she reads aloud from a bill sent to her by Reliance Home Comfort. “Totalling $2,164.87.”
Due to safety concerns after the June explosion, Mississauga fire officials ordered Castleberry to have the hot water heater removed from her home.
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It was Reliance staff that drained and removed the tank for her, and she said they assured her there would be no charge.
But when Castelberry called to confirm that information, she was shocked by the reply.
“And because they removed it I was told that’s equivalent to breaking the contract … That’s basically charging you for something that you really are no part of. It’s almost like double victimization.”
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Castleberry says many of her neighbours were able to strike deals with their respective providers to put their water heater contracts on hold and continue under the same terms once they were able to move back into their homes.
She says all she was looking for from Reliance was a similar arrangement.
Reliance has been accused of aggressive tactics in the past.
In 2014, the company reached a consent agreement with the federal Compeititon Bureau on allegations of “anti-competitive water heater return policies.”
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While a statement at the time pointed out that “Reliance does not admit or accept the allegations, facts, liability or wrongdoing put forth,” the company was fined $5 million by the Bureau and agreed to change its practices.
In an interview Wednesday afternoon, the company’s Greater Toronto Area General Manager Paul Gyamarti told Global News he was investigating the matter.
“It doesn’t sound like it was the customer experience we strive to provide,” he said. “So we’re going to make it right.”
Gyamarti wouldn’t elaborate as to exactly what they would do for Castleberry, though.
WATCH: A walkthrough of the site of the Mississauga house explosion
“I can’t speculate on what the actual outcome of the investigation is going to be,” he said. “But … I feel really comfortable that we’re going to come to a resolution with the customer that they are satisfied with.”
While Gyamarti wouldn’t confirm it, Castleberry told Global News in a text message Wednesday afternoon that Gyamarti had assured her “he will look into it and call me later this week and see what the company can do. In the meantime, I won’t be charged for rental.”
While some uncertainty still lingers, Castleberry feels the situation is finally moving in the right direction.
“I’m not out of the woods yet,” she said. “But going somewhere.”
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