Saturday, August 12, 2017

Saturday, August 12, 2017

I was driving home from work tonight and I was thinking about promises Nick had made to me about paying me back for my providing the down payment on the farm etc. A family member or friend must think I am very stupid for agreeing to this financial arrangement ie me paying for everything. But Nick had told me that he would be able to match my down payment after he sold his house and that he would be working at his job for another 4, 5 or 6 years, or 'whatever it took' for him to pay down the mortgage on the farm so that his contribution was equal to mine. He said he would take over the mortgage and I could put all my earnings toward my retirement. As I now know, this was never his intention. he had other financial obligations which prevented him from having any disposable income, and when he sold his house, he received only $1,638 to compare to my $214,000 and as well he fell way short of matching my down payment of $90,000. And then he retired suddenly without paying down any of the mortgage. In fact, he walked into the bank one day and withdrew every penny we had paid on the mortgage and put this $31,000 on his VISA. Not exactly what was planned. Not honouring his verbal agreement. As I understand it, verbal agreements are supposed to be as binding as any other sort of agreement. Or not.

Nick also promised over and over that he would be 'working his ass off' to make improvements and clear the land etc etc and this would have increased the value of the property but instead he has done absolutely nothing and the property is in a sad state of disrepair. He won't let me get anyone out here to do anything as he says he will not permit anyone on the property, even to cut firewood or fix the fences. So what am I to do? Wait I guess, and fix up what I can. And hope that Nick decides to start a life with this Ukrainian woman and leaves me alone to pick up the pieces of mine. I wouldn't care so much if I were younger. It's not that I fell old, but my birth certificate tell me I will be 60 soon, and that most folks retire when they are 65. But I have to just about start over financially at this point. It's  good thing I have never had any high expectations for my retirement years.