u/crafteethree

My dog is barking every time he hears a noise in the hallway of our building. Everywhere says “reward him when he stops” but I don’t understand how to do that

1. How do you know when he’s done?
2. Usually it’s just one or two barks - if he barks and I reward him “for stopping” how does he know that I’m rewarding him for stopping, not for barking in the first place?

I’m moving out of a bad unit owned by a slumlord. They sent a list of demands for things I should do on my way out, but I just want to do what’s legally required.

• Do I need to clean the oven? It’s decades old and I don’t think it’s ever been cleaned. I never used it much because of this
• Do I need to clean behind the fridge and oven? It’s pretty dirty back there, so not sure if it would be considered “normal cleanliness”
• There are admitted a lot of holes in the wall from hanging things, but none more than an inch wide. When does this become undue damage?
• I know painting is generally fine, but I painted black. Do I need to cover this up?

My building is owned by a notorious slumlord (Medallion Corporation). there are many issues, but the biggest one is that most of the units don’t have sufficient heat. I want to distribute fliers giving detailed instructions on how to file T6 forms. The goal is that some of my neighbours get back what’s been stolen from them, and it‘s expensive enough to force Medallion to fulfill its basic legal obligations in the future.

I can’t find reliable information on how much abatement we’re entitled to - IMO insufficient heat should be enough to consider the unit uninhabitable, and tenants should be refunded for all rent they’ve paid for winter months. For some of the older tenants that would probably entitle them to the max $50k payout, but I don’t think it’s likely they’ll actually get that. What’s a more realistic way to calculate the abatement amount?

Looking for an affordable way to split a room up into an office and a bedroom. I want the wall to let light through while providing privacy. The ideal solution would be a Japanese shoji wall with sliding doors, but I think that's beyond my DIY abilities and I can't find an affordable contractor for it. Ikea's SKYTTA system is pretty close, but it seems all of their options are opaque.

Are there any modular DIY systems I could use?

I want to make a home office in my condo with a sliding translucent glass door - the kind of doors that Toronto landlords use to pretend dens are bedrooms. Where does one go to get one of these installed? How much do they cost?

Need a new ISP as my Oxio service has stopped working and they won't fix it. What's an ISP that can get set up ASAP? Can't be without internet for multiple more days, I need it for my job.

Our internet is having intermittent outages where the speed drops to <10kbps. It's been like this for a week. This happens even over ethernet plugged directly into the modem. Oxio is falsely claiming it's our router because we're not using their POS amazon routers. It's not. I don't know what to do, we need the internet for our jobs. Now it's 10:00 so there's no support until I need to start working again.

So basically I'm screwed until I can get another internet company to come install an actual functioning service. Oxio, you better give refunds. Chargebacks are coming.

Shopping around for mortgages and not sure how to answer when they ask what my income is. About half of my income comes from RSUs and an annual bonus. Should I give the amount I made in 2025? Or my total compensation assuming flat stock price and typical bonus payout? Or just my base salary?

I think I would qualify with just my base salary but want the lower interest when my whole income is taken into account.

There always seems to be multiple condos for sale here - is there an issue causing people to sell? The building looks pretty nice...

I’m Canadian but was unfortunately born in the US. I last filed US taxes for 2023 - back then my investments were below the 25k threshold to need to report PFIC. Back then I didn’t owe any taxes to the US (a country I have literally no connection to 🙃).

I’ve been lucky enough to significantly increase my income, and now have about $260k per year in income and $210k invested in ETFs (VFV and XEQT) that generate roughly 10% yoy. I had never heard of PFICs until today. I’m trying to figure out my 2024 and 2025 returns and am freaking out - my entire financial plan seems like it’s out the window. Am I going have huge tax liabilities? How should I go about this - is it worth hiring an accountant and where do I find one?

I have zero connection to the US and zero plan to move there, but always thought I’d keep the citizenship just in case I ever need it. Now I’m really not sure.