Capitalists - I hate em

We had a very interesting offer on the house this week. I thought I'd share it.

A well known Edmonton company approached me to purchase-lease the house. They agreed to pay almost full asking price for my house. And would commit to this contractually through my laywer. Then, they lease the house for a monthly sum for one year (to give them time to find a buyer). I still hold the deeds until they settle in full. No danger there.

Seems ideal. I get all the money I want with none of the hassle. If they can get more from a buyer than my asking price, they can keep the difference. Good luck to em. If no buyer is found, I keep the lease payments - sweet.

- however -

I got the contract and read it in detail.

(I'll do this bit in sterling) Say my house is worth 200,000. The lease payment would be 500 a month. BUT, at the end of 12 months the lease can simply be extended for a further year! This can be done INDEFINITELY. The company can also SUB-LEASE the house.

Sooooooooooo, they can basically rent my big shiny house from me for 500 a month - forever! No annual increase. While they rent it out at whatever is the market rate (currently about 2000).

So in 33 years they'd own the house because the 500 comes OFF the capital. I'd never see a lump sum of any kind.

Nice scam. And these guys are actively doing this, they have plenty of houses for "sale". This is not some back street company, this is an established firm.

I hate Canadians. You should feel lucky to live in a psuedo-communist society where the NHS is free and everyone isn't trying to rip you off.