Angela Keizer lost the only home she's ever owned a year ago to fire. Now she's worried she won't have a home again to call her own.
Last November, Keizer and her family were asleep in their Dartmouth house when an electrical fire broke out in the garage, quickly spreading to the roof and chasing them from their beds.
"We barely got out of the house with just the clothes on our backs," she said.
Seemed like a good offer
After a few weeks, Keizer, her teenage twin boys, daughter and grandson were able to find a house nearby to rent. Not long after, the house's owner, Gaius Carmichael, suggested his construction company could take on the job of rebuilding Keizer's house.
"He just said that work was a little slow for him at that point and he was ready, willing and able to take the job on and it wasn't an issue for him."
Keizer thought it was an offer worth accepting, given the quality of the house she was staying in and other work by Carmichael she'd seen.
She's come to regret that decision.
The unfinished inside of Angela Keizer's house. Her kitchen and living room are supposed to be here. (CBC)
Construction on the house started in the summer and was supposed to be complete by the end of September. But Keizer hasn't heard from Carmichael since last month and today her house has no heat, lights, flooring, water, paint, bathrooms or kitchen.
"It's basically a shell of a house."
The house has all the hallmarks of an active job site: materials scattered about the yard and unfinished siding, exposed wires and lots of dust. Water jugs and Tim Hortons cups sit inside amongst boxes. Poking out from some of those boxes are Christmas decorations as the family tries to determine where they might spend the holidays.
Angela Keizer says she is out of money and perhaps out of options as she's been left with an unfinished home that can't be lived in. (CBC)
It seemed like the work was going slow, but Keizer relied on the information she was getting from Carmichael. Delays were attributed to waiting for materials or money from the insurance company. But by last August she really started to worry.
"There was nobody there working at the house. I would call him and I'd get no answer, no response from him."
But at the start of October it looked like things were turning around. Carmichael told her to start packing, that she'd be in her new house by the end of the month.
That didn't happen.
Boxes sit in the house where Angela Keizer and her family are staying. She's worried the house could be seized at any time and, with her, her belongings inside. (CBC)
Toward the end of the month, Carmichael came to return the keys, not because the house was finished but because it wasn't.
"He said that he had gotten into a mess. A house had sold down the street from here. That couple sued him, therefore his assets were frozen, his bank accounts were frozen . . . and he could no longer work on the house."
Keizer was shocked and worried. Through insurance she's given Carmichael $235,000.
'I'm scared I'm going to lose everything again'
Her mortgage company told her to start looking for new contractors to get quotes, but she has no more money. Working a few hours each week at a nearby school and caring for kids after school, Keizer doesn't have much flexibility.
She's pursued legal action, through which she learned there are liens against the house she's staying in and the one she's supposed to move into.
Carmichael declined an interview when contacted, but said he was trying to find a solution for Keizer.
House could be seized
One lawyer told Keizer to move as much of her stuff as possible into the unfinished home because there's a risk the place she's staying could be seized. And while she still has homeowner's insurance, if work doesn't resume by Dec. 7 she expects to lose that.
"I have no options, I don't know where I'm going next," she said.
"I'm scared I'm going to lose everything again."
An online fundraiser has been started to help Keizer's family recover.
