Unhappy campers: Residents across Ontario complain about campground owners linked to Forge & Foster

And on the shores of Lake Huron, Betty Blasdell and other year-round trailer owners at a Goderich campground are taking the property owner to the Landlord and Tenant Board for allegedly trying to evict them “through neglect” of the newly labelled resort property.

These trailer parks are separated by hundreds of kilometres across Ontario and owned, on paper, by different named corporations — but all are linked to Joe and Mark Accardi, the founders of Hamilton-based real estate management firm Forge & Foster.

It turns out there are quite a few unhappy campers on land connected to the brothers, and their past or present management companies, Harmony Resorts and Resort HQ.

Last month, The Spectator reported on the conundrum faced by a dozen residents who bought tiny homes on wheels for up to $200,000 each from Harmony Resorts. They were told they could live nearly year-round on a rural, pond-view resort also owned by one of Accardi brothers’ companies — until the city labelled the units illegal, leaving them at risk of eviction.

Since then, the Ancaster Springs landowner has launched a court appeal against the city. But the apparently cash-strapped Forge & Foster now also faces the prospect of losing control of the tiny home resort property over mortgage default — a problem facing a growing number of the firm’s properties.

Grant McVittie opted against waiting and wondering whether he would be evicted, instead towing his contentious tiny home nearly to Woodstock to find a new, legal spot to live. “We were all going to get booted out anyway; it was just a matter of when,” said McVittie, who originally shared his dream-home-turned-nightmare experience with the Spectator as a cautionary tale.

His story struck a nerve.

Since writing about the plight of Ancaster Springs residents, the Spectator has heard from current or former campground dwellers across southern and eastern Ontario, including in Niagara, Caledon, Renfrew and Goderich.

All shared complaints about new campground ownership by companies linked to the Forge & Foster founders. Neither Accardi brother agreed to requests for an interview for this story, but Joe — the public face of Forge & Foster — replied to some questions by email.

In general, he emphasized court appeals are underway contesting building code violations alleged by both the City of Hamilton and Town of Lincoln related to the tiny homes on wheels sold by his companies — which Accardi argues should be treated as recreational vehicles (RVs), not permanent structures. He blames Hamilton, in particular, for “ruining people’s futures” with its zoning and building code orders at Ancaster Springs.

He acknowledged the challenge of inflation and high interest rates in recent years on his various properties — resorts or otherwise — and added his company will be “downsizing” in the future.

But Accardi appears to be standing by his contentious tiny home resort models — for which you can still find marketing campaigns online — despite the legal uncertainties. “There is more demand than ever for the outdoors and RV resorts are one of the only affordable places left that don’t cost so much,” he said via email, later adding: “We’re doing our best to accommodate everyone we can.”

‘I’ve done nothing but cry’

Some resort residents who spoke to The Spectator in recent weeks face the same threat of eviction as tiny-home owners in Ancaster Springs, having spent their retirement savings on homes that may not be legally allowed to stay where they are parked.

“They sold me a bill of goods,” said Jodi Ford, who bought an RV in Jordan, Ont., for around $200,000 cash and a lease that promised 10 months occupancy.

The retired teacher described her experience as a “shitshow from the get-go,” starting with the need for constant repairs to her “tin can on wheels,” disagreements over how long she could live in the park each year and an ultimately failed negotiation to have the resort owner buy back her RV.

In the middle of those problems came the horrified, slow-dawning realization — courtesy of visits from Town of Lincoln officials and correspondence from the Niagara Escarpment Commission — that her dream retirement home may run afoul of two different levels of government land-use laws.

“There are days where I’ve done nothing but cry,” she said in an interview at the west Niagara campground. “They’ve single-handedly ruined my retirement.”

Accardi did not directly answer a question from The Spectator about whether he was aware of the legal restrictions on the campground when his company marketed the RVs and 10-to-11-month occupancy opportunity in Lincoln. But in a letter posted on some trailers, the company’s lawyers says there is historical precedent for the resort model and they are “confident” the court appeal of “knee-jerk” building orders in both Lincoln and Hamilton will be successful.

Other complainants to The Spectator are seasonal campers — think RV-living mostly over the summer months — who variously alleged spiking fees, difficulty getting deposits returned, a lack of campground maintenance or what they describe as the threat of “eviction” from longtime vacation spots to free up space for tiny homes.

You can watch such complaints pile up on social-media websites like Facebook and Reddit against Forge & Foster, and its past and present resort management companies, Harmony Resorts and Resort HQ.

“You read the (online) stories … people everywhere are mad at them,” said Susan Wilvert, who attracted more than 100 comments of outrage, commiseration and worry on her post about Forge & Foster on a Facebook group about Ontario campgrounds.

In an interview, Wilvert said the company took over her Caledon-area campground two years ago, promptly raised fees and forced several longtime neighbours to vacate prime trailer locations to make room for planned tiny homes or luxury “park model” RVs. She abandoned the park last year despite having to pay close to $4,000 to remove her deck, pack up and relocate her trailer.

“I’m glad people are talking about it (online),” she said. “I’d be happy if we can save even one person from making a big mistake with these people.”

By email, Accardi blamed inflation, high interest rates and major infrastructure upgrades required at 1960s-era campgrounds for the rising fees causing camper outrage. He also said the company is now offering “improved compensation” or alternate arrangements for those RVers asked to vacate campground spots. “We’re trying to strike the best balance we can,” he said.

Financial troubles for Forge & Foster?

Until recently, Forge & Foster was better known as a commercial property management and investment firm, earning praise but also criticism for buying, fixing up and flipping a portfolio of restaurants, multi-use office spaces and converted industrial buildings at one point worth more than $400 million.

But during the pandemic, face-of-the-firm Joe Accardi signalled his team was looking to cash in on the “tiny home” phenomena — not to mention a nationwide appetite for scarce affordable homes and cheap vacation properties during COVID. “We’re looking at it as affordable cottaging,” Accardi told The Spectator in 2021 as the firm embarked on a property-buying spree.

Most of their campgrounds are in Ontario. But Forge & Foster also offered investors as chance to buy a fraction of a Nova Scotia campground in 2022 and late last year Mark Accardi joined the board of B.C.-based firm Pathfinder, which invests in RV and tiny home resorts in that province.

Online presentations aimed at potential investors early this year suggest Forge & Foster at one point managed or had an ownership interest in up to 21 different RV resorts in Canada worth an estimated $100 million.

But in recent years, the company appears to have run into financial trouble.

Mortgage lenders have gone to court over mortgage defaults on more than a dozen properties in Hamilton and other nearby cities this year, including a wide swath of commercial-industrial land in the Frid Street business park.

One of Accardi’s many holding companies is mired in receivership related to a James Street North residential building, while tenants in another Forge-managed building publicly called on the company in March to sell to them before losing control to lenders.

When asked about the slew of mortgage defaults, Accardi acknowledged the need to find solutions to “the shock in interest rates” and added the company is looking to find “new owners or managers” for some properties. “We will be continuing to find best solution for each asset,” he wrote. “We will be downsizing moving into the future.”

Those financial woes are cited by one investment partner as the reason it took control of about half of the Accardi-linked camping resorts in 2022.

Harmony Resorts was the original campground management firm set up by Forge & Foster and still listed the Accardi brothers as directors earlier this year.

But the Harmony website now features a note emphasizing investment firm Wavecom Capital has “assumed control” of 10 of those resort properties in Ontario because Forge & Foster was “unable to meet certain financial obligations.”

‘The most disgruntled of customers’

In an interview, Harmony Resorts head Ezio D’Onofrio said Forge & Foster is still technically a “partner” in the park properties but has “no control” over day-to-day operations. Accardi also separately confirmed by email Forge & Foster is “no longer” involved in management of those 10 resorts.

Instead, Forge & Foster now directly operates a separate resort management company, Resort HQ, which lists Joe Accardi as CEO. It is still responsible for 11 other resort properties including Ancaster Springs and Jordan Valley.

D’Onofrio, who was hired to lead Harmony in mid-2022, acknowledged the online anger toward Forge & Foster and its past and present partners. “I actually visited every single site and met the most disgruntled of customers I’ve ever met in my life,” he said.

D’Onofrio conceded the new management team is still raising rates to cover inflationary costs and “millions” of dollars in park upgrades like new electrical infrastructure and flood protection. But he said Harmony-run campgrounds are no longer following the contentious year-round, tiny-home model originally pitched by Forge & Foster.

For example, nearly all of its campgrounds will offer only seasonal May to October occupancy. The few tiny homes on wheels remaining in Harmony campgrounds are mostly used for weekend or vacation rentals, he added.

That’s notably different than Forge & Foster’s ongoing — and sometimes legally fraught — efforts to market “11.5-month occupancy” at other campgrounds managed under the “Resort HQ” banner, including in Ancaster, Jordan, Caledon and the newly purchased Olympia Village park in Waterdown.

The promise of nearly year-round living is what convinced Larry DeCorte, 69, to sink his retirement savings into a 43-foot RV at the Jordan Valley Resort.

The soon-to-be-retired hydro corporation worker loved the location, with the sound of Twenty Mile Creek burbling in the background, green escarpment looming overhead and the quaint village of Jordan just a short walk away.

But DeCorte started to regret his deal last year after realizing his trailer wasn’t winterized — “I was going through 60 pounds of propane every day and a half, trying to keep the thing warm” — and was later forced to live in three different Airbnbs over Christmas because of work needed on his trailer location.

His discontent graduated to full-scale alarm once he realized the legal status of his assumed year-round home was “not what was advertised, at all.”

The Town of Lincoln confirmed to The Spectator it believes the luxury RV-tiny homes, which are connected to town services, are “permanent structures” requiring a building permit — something that is unlikely to be granted after the fact given land-use and floodplain safety issues, said planning and development director Matt Bruder.

The Niagara Escarpment Commission, meanwhile, is also investigating “concerns” about the property, which is within the land-use boundaries governed by the province’s escarpment watchdog agency.

DeCorte, a former union steward, said he felt “cheated” by those revelations and consulted a lawyer — but so far, he has deemed it too costly to fight his landlord in court over what appears to be “false promises” about his retirement home. “I put all of my money into this trailer,” he said. “If I can’t stay here (year-round), what am I going to do then?”

Other campers have pursued legal action with varied results.

In 2022, Deanna Charlebois learned her longtime Renfrew campground at Reids Lake had been purchased by Harmony Resorts. She paid up for the season in January — only to get a new notice “basically doubling our fees” days ahead of the park opening.

“It said if we didn’t pay immediately we would not be granted access to the park,” recalled Charlebois. “We just said, ‘hang on, we have a signed contract!’ That’s not right.”

Local media wrote about the spiking fees — “it was the talk of the town” — and Charlebois sought help from a lawyer on behalf of around 60 other campground families to successfully fight the fee increase. Still, recognizing fees could legally go up the next year, Charlebois left the park feeling “soured” by the experience.

D’Onofrio said the new management for Harmony is committed to “better communication” with campers and will give appropriate notice of fee increases.

In Goderich, the legal battle for campground residents is a little different.

A Forge & Foster-linked company bought Bluewater Village Resort three years ago and raised the ire of longtime seasonal campers by insisting several of them either leave or buy — you guessed it — tiny homes on wheels. This fight, too, ended up in the local media.

But the campground also hosts dozens of permanent residents legally living there year-round under “grandfathered” zoning rules, said Betty Blasdell, who now heads the recently formed Bluewater Village Tenant’s Association.

Those residents are also upset with the company for various reasons — alleging poor park and road maintenance, rising lease fees and tussles over bylaw complaints.

“What they’re trying to do is evict us through neglect of the park. It’s sneaky and it’s not right,” said Blasdell, whose group has taken the Forge-linked property owner to the landlord tenant tribunal. Accardi argued municipal zoning is at the heart of this conflict, which he said preceded Forge & Foster ownership. He did not respond to questions about allegations of poor park maintenance or efforts to push out tenants.

Much of what happens next depends on court proceedings — including mortgage default battles in Hamilton, a landlord tenant board hearing in June and a legal challenge of Hamilton’s building department orders against Ancaster tiny homes expected to go to a court hearing May 14.

But no matter what, the dream is dead for Ford, who does not expect to be allowed to stay in her picturesque creekside resort year-round even if the ownership changes.

“Ultimately, at this point I just want out,” she said.

*** May 9, 2024: This story was amended to correct a quote from Forge & Foster head Joe Accardi, who said City of Hamilton zoning-related decisions about an Ancaster RV resort are “ruining people’s futures.” ***