Ontario couple feels 'ripped off' after $42K added to their prefab home's price

A Jarvis, Ont., couple who tore down their home to make way for a prefabricated one wants to warn aspiring homebuyers about builders who raise the price even after contracts with agreed-to prices are signed.

Eric, 63, and Cathy Hilton, 61, said they felt the sting of house prices growing unexpectedly because of developers charging new-home owners more than they originally anticipated.

According to the couple, in March 2021, they made an initial deposit of $5,000 and signed a purchase agreement with Comfort Homes in Woodstock, Ont., to secure their "retirement home" at a cost of $209,728.

They say mere weeks before the date they were promised their prefabricated house would be delivered, the company told them they had to pay $42,000 more.

"We were very shocked and disappointed by what we heard," Cathy told CBC News.

"We just thought, 'This can't be happening. Why are they doing this?'"

Comfort Homes has not responded to multiple CBC requests for comment. The purchase agreement with the Hiltons says "any changes or modifications" to the price are at the discretion of the company.

But the Hiltons' case comes at a time when other potential homeowners have complained about preconstruction contracts that face being changed, due to what developers say are problematic delays and rising costs.

In the wake of the consumer complaints, the province is vowing to stop developers from cancelling or jacking up the price of preconstruction sales agreements.

The proposed changes, which have a target date of July 1, would require developers to disclose to the Home Construction Regulatory Authority when sales contracts are cancelled without fault to the buyer. The information would be made available to the public.

As for the Hiltons, they want to warn people of the possibility of what Cathy describes as "a very emotional roller-coaster." 

Eric said he was "stunned" when the company told them they had to pay more money.

"If this was an estimate, that would be different … but this thing that they gave us was down to the penny. This was not an estimate. This was our price."

The couple said Comfort Homes started asking for more money three months after they paid the initial deposit. They said they were told by the company that they needed to raise the price by $7,627.50 because of increasing costs brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Hiltons say they "reluctantly" agreed to the payment.