At the time we purchased the house in June 2006, it had a rental water heater and a rental furnace both rented from Direct Energy. Recently I had a home energy audit which resulted in us purchasing a new high efficiency furnace, new thankless water heater and A/C from a company called Enwise Power Solutions.
Prior to the purchase and installation of the new equipment I called Direct Energy to ask about the return of the rental equipment. I was told that I could return both the furnace and the water heater at any time and the charges would be removed from my bill. I called Direct Energy again, closer to the date of the installation to ask about where to return the water tank and the furnace and they gave me an address in Etobicoke, Ontario. On the day of the installation I called again to confirm where to return the equipment and was given the same address. They told me to hang on to the receipts and fax them to Enbridge to get the charges removed from my bill.
The installers returned the equipment and got a receipt for the heater but not the furnace because they were told by the Direct Energy people there that they (Direct Energy) stopped renting furnaces a while ago so they don’t have a process for returning them however, they did take the furnace anyway (but we didn’t get a receipt).
So today I called Direct Energy to follow up and find out how to get the two rental charges off my bill and to my surprise they are telling me that I have to pay the full cost of the rental furnace because the old owners had a contract that I inherited through the purchase of the home which says that I have to rent it for 15 years!!!
They are telling me that the contract for the rental would have been included in the documents for the purchase of the home and that my lawyer would have told me all about it and would have ensured that I was aware of the contract. I am 100% sure that I did not have any such conversation with my laywer about an obligation to pay for this furnace for 15 years (I don’t even know when this 15 years would have started) and I know that he would have told me if he was aware. I don’t have a copy of the contract and I have NO INTENTION of paying for a furnace that I no longer have in my home when I was told from the beginning that I could return it.
I am extremely frustrated and worried that it's going to take an enormous effort to rectify this situation. The buy out price is over $2000 and I don't even have the furnace anymore. I told the Direct Energy Rep (who says he's a manager but sounded like a goofy teenager) that I never signed a contract and have never seen a contract and he just kept saying there is nothing he can do and that I will have to pay. They lied to me several times, don't EVER deal with these scammers!!!
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