We inherited the house with an old furnace and an even older water tank. Not sure if you know much about furnaces and water tanks, but they're pretty mandatory (and not inexpensive) if you're a homeowner. We knew we would be buying a new furnace - part of us erasing all of the sinfulness of the house. It was gross. The water tank was also old, and small for this size of house. So we knew we would get rid of that.
First step: call Enbridge. Goal: get them to come and get their stuff back!! It's a rental anyways.
Enbridge says: Hey! Thanks for calling - let's set up your account before we can do anything! So we do. And yes, we have 3 gas meters in the house. Which kinda baffles us. I mean, as a landlord I'd love to have everyone on their own meters so that they can cover their own usage. This would make even more sense if every unit had their own heat/hot water source. They don't - in this case. So why do we need 3 meters? The one meter is being used for the future furnace and hot water tank. What's the point in having the other 2 meters? The account fees alone will be about $30 for each meter (passed on to each tenant). The actual gas usage will come in around $3-4/month. This is silly, we say. Let's just scrap this whole thing, we'll absorb the gas bill for now and sort out the payment of that between the tenants later. Let's save everyone some money here, right?
Next, Enbridge says the water tank rental has been shifted to a new company - Enercare. So I have to call them, set up an account, in order to get them to take it away. WTF? Ok. So I do that. Now, I'm researching to see what this should be like. Luckily the unit is so old, we don't have to pay a lease-breaking fee (I wasn't as lucky with this on another project I'm working on, they want $770 to take away their own rental tank - from a contract with a prior owner - don't get me started).
Long and short of it, it's now gone. And we're planning for the next step along those lines. I'm jaded with the rental side of this market. I need time to cool off.
Oh - the windows are in! We got new windows!! Lovely, lovely windows. Ones that will keep the house in good temperature. And will give us excellent curb appeal. These guys came in at a great price and were so quick! All organized by our guy Rob again.
