CFHA Residential Housing Unit (RHU)-old PMQ [MERGED]

[smale436]

    I started off in April 2008 in Cold Lake paying $695 (+water) for a 11/2 storey duplex with garage. April 09,10,11 increases have been +100, +40, +50 respectively. This is the first year water has gone up in three years. Up a whopping $1.10 per month. So April 2011 will put me at $930.94 (but the roommate pays half of that). Even without the roommate though I never had a problem as a Private paying the bills. Granted I don't have kids, don't drink away my pay at Legends every weekend and drive a ten year old car. I think we have it good compared to the many civvies in Edmonton paying $1200 for one bedroom apartments on a gross yearly income of $25-35000. Plus I back onto the woods, albeit a noisy quad trail as well, and have only one next-door neighbour. Plus the 5 minute drive to work is nice. I could buy but choose not to right now. But I'm saving in the meantime unlike the people in Q's here who say "we don't make enough" and "the rent is too high" yet all have a new truck in the driveway along with an RV, motorbike, boat, quad, and/or ski-doo. My current neighbour actually has all of those things.
    CFHA up here is very reasonable. I've had prompt service. No it isn't Mike Holmes quality work that's for sure but you get what you pay for and I'm not paying for it. The people I know up here who have nothing good to say about CFHA are the ones with absurd requests. Such as my co-worker who thought there was too much noise (in a duplex) from the neighbour's tv so the two of them wanted CFHA to tear down the common wall and re-insulate it. There seems to be a correlation to the service you receive depending on how you treat the ladies at the office. And rightly so.

 

[Pusser]

Years ago, the most common request from the PMQs in Halifax was not for more bedrooms or square footage, but for more parking spaces (one each for the car, second car, RV, boat, ATV,etc.)

 

[sta1wart]

    I started off in April 2008 in Cold Lake paying $695 (+water) for a 11/2 storey duplex with garage. April 09,10,11 increases have been +100, +40, +50 respectively. This is the first year water has gone up in three years. Up a whopping $1.10 per month. So April 2011 will put me at $930"

That's over a 30% increase in rent over 3 years! That's what everyone in the q's in Cold Lake is upset with. I appreciate that any maintenance stuff gets handled pretty quickly... usually, but 30%..... come on.  And as for your neighbour with all the toys, maybe he works a second job, believe me when I say I know tons of guys out there doing that.

 

[smale436]

Your numbers make sense. Unfortunately the rates, as high as they are, are still a lot better than the alternative prices of renting anything OFF base in Cold Lake. Apartments are minimum $1000, condos and basement suites often averaging $1200. Our PLD is 320 for the full rate which I think deserves an adjustment. Maybe not as high as Edmonton, but an adjustment nonetheless.

  He may very well have a second job to pay for those toys. Never talked too him so I don't know. 90% of the time you get a pizza delivered here it's by a CF member. Unfortunately for all the ones financing their toys with part-time jobs, there are just as many that get into the "trap" when they first get here as brand new privates. Off they go to buy a Hemi Ram and a 9 grand quad that ends up on kijiji a year later. Then those same privates (and some Cpls who have been drawing spec pay for years and should know better) sheepishly admit when being invited to wings at North 54 2 days before payday that they "can't go due to lack of dough." I hate to say that I have had to help friends out of jams more than a few times. One got "advised" to consolidate everything at Citi Financial. I found out the hard way how that place works when it used to be called Avco. Not good.

 

[Pusser]

One of the things that many people, both inside and out of the CF, don't seem to realize, is that PMQs are not supposed to be cheap.  Access to PMQs is not part of our pay and benefits package and so government policy is that people living in them must pay market rate.  PLD is the benefit which is supposed to offset this.

The reason we have seen huge increases at times is because either the market rate has increased substantially in the same time period or, as has happened in several cases, PMQ rates were kept artificially low for a period of time.  This was often for good reasons, but it still skirted government policy.  Eventually, all honeymoons must come to an end and so PMQ rates in some cases will have to be raised significantly.

 

[SupersonicMax]

I'd agree if they had been well maintainted over the years and if they were on par with the local market quality.  Having to pay 300$ a month on Heating Costs on a 800 sq ft house is simply not normal.

 

[smale436]

Really? That's nuts. I have been on the budget plan and have been paying 75-90 per month all year for the last two years.

 

[SupersonicMax]

CDNAIRFORCE: That's when I was in Cold Lake.  I was paying 20-30$ a month in the summer, 300$ in Dec-Jan-Feb.  Somewhere in the middle during the other months.  It's not normal for such a small house.  They are very, very poorly insulated.  I did not keep my heat very high.  15-16 when I was out of the house, 20 when in the house.

 

[George Wallace]

Really? That's nuts. I have been on the budget plan and have been paying 75-90 per month all year for the last two years.

You are paying over twelve months, where Max may only be paying for three or four months.  Now compare.

 

[George Wallace]

It is a valid point though that these costs are outrageous.  I lived in the ESQs in Gagetown when they removed the siding under our bathroom window to repair the roof over the kitchen door.  No wonder it was cold in the winter time - there was absolutenly NO insulation in the wall.  Drywall and 2X4 was all that was showing when the siding was removed.

 

[smale436]

Seen. I did the "pay whatever the bill was" for awhile and then it became unmanageable, hence the benefits f the budget plan. I think Alberta gets you over the barrel with their utility bills for sure. When I lived in Manitoba (where the rates are some of the lowest in NA) I was paying just for the usage. Here they stick you with a tonne of fixed charges such as administrative fees, distribution and transmission charges, etc as the company (Direct Energy) that sells the gas and electricity is different from Atco who owns the power lines/pipelines.

  For example, in November my total power bill (if I wasn't on the budget) would have been $65.00. $6.00 of that was actual "power". The rest was all fees. The following month I used 3x as much kilowatts of power and the fixed fees more than doubled yet the "power usage" was up by only $5.00, resulting in a total bill of nearly $110.00

 

[GAP]

Seen. I did the "pay whatever the bill was" for awhile and then it became unmanageable, hence the benefits f the budget plan. I think Alberta gets you over the barrel with their utility bills for sure. When I lived in Manitoba (where the rates are some of the lowest in NA) I was paying just for the usage. Here they stick you with a tonne of fixed charges such as administrative fees, distribution and transmission charges, etc as the company (Direct Energy) that sells the gas and electricity is different from Atco who owns the power lines/pipelines.

Manitoba finally grew up and is now charging all those things, and probably sometimes more.....mind, just got the hydro/gas bill today. With company over, lights on all over, computers galore, heat at 20....gas was 124/hydro 152...about half of the house I last lived in....

 

[kratz]

CFHA here is cutting back on service, noticeably. We called them when the ceiling paint boiled and peeled due to water damage. They sent a plumber to ensure the damage was not imminent and that is it. Housing informed us, they will not send anyone to fix the damage until the new FY to ensure they can pay their contracts until the end of the FY.

This is the first time we have ever heard housing say this. Since this time last year, I have been stating that we are back to another "decade of darkness". This is another chink confirming that impression.

 

[Sparkplugs]

Same issues here -- we have black mold growing in the bathroom ceiling -- I only found it because the fan fell off the ceiling.  :  The bathrub is also rusted through, and I found that when they came in to re-caulk it after all the caulking cracked off, and they foudn this spot that had been painted over, but it was just a giant rust hole-in-training.  None of this stuff bothered me that much, but now we've got a baby on the way, and I wish there was more I could do.

They came to do our 'annual' inspection, and we brought all this stuff up, and it got shrugged off.  "You don't like it, move out." We do like the cost of the Q, except the winter heating, but the rest of it, is allowing us to save up for a house on the next posting.  I don't want to buy a home and then get posted a year later.

 

[PuckChaser]

They came to do our 'annual' inspection, and we brought all this stuff up, and it got shrugged off. 

You get an annual inspection? Must be nice. No one's looked at my Q since I moved in, or only specific things we call to get repaired.

 

[Sparkplugs]

You get an annual inspection? Must be nice. No one's looked at my Q since I moved in, or only specific things we call to get repaired.

It was in quotation marks because it's been almost three years, and this is the first I've heard about an inspection.  It was mostly to see if the roof was caving in, because we're one of a few Q's that hasn't gotten a new roof or windows this year.  It was rather underwhelming, and they didn't really look at anything, to be honest with you.

 

[Franko]

Same issues here -- we have black mold growing in the bathroom ceiling....

They came to do our 'annual' inspection, and we brought all this stuff up, and it got shrugged off.  "You don't like it, move out."

Report all of this through your CoC and, if you can afford it, get the mold tested. If it's toxic, go and make a formal complaint.

I know of a few past issues with CFHA and if you go the legal route, you can get results and possibly make some positive changes.

A serving member shouldn't have to fight for basic services.

 

[PMedMoe]

Report all of this through your CoC and, if you can afford it, get the mold tested. If it's toxic, go and make a formal complaint.

And keep in mind that not all mold is toxic.  Mold appears pretty much everywhere and there are ways to prevent it.

 

[Sparkplugs]

And keep in mind that not all mold is toxic.  Mold appears pretty much everywhere and there are ways to prevent it.

I'm aware of not all mold being toxic, I just mentioned the colour.  I know there are many ventilation issues in the pmq's, and I'm sure that the fan in the bathroom not being vented properly is the cause of this.  It's not on the ceiling, it's up inside the ceiling, so it's not a lack of cleanliness or anything.

I'll definitely have a closer look and make another phone call. 

Thanks for the advice, guys.  Much appreciated.

 

[Franko]

And keep in mind that not all mold is toxic.  Mold appears pretty much everywhere and there are ways to prevent it.

True enough, but if they have yougins, reactions could be severe to small amounts.