Ania M Szpirak Law Office

This really should be ZERO STARS, but I’ll settle for one. Please read this review if you are considering using this lawyer, as I wish I had read one before hiring her to deal with my Real Estate closing. The short story is that she is nice and helpful as long as you have not yet paid her. Once the payment has been processed, but her work has not yet been finished, you will likely have to do it yourself. If you would like further details, please read on.
My husband and I had purchased a condo downtown in a fairly new building. We were the second owners of the unit. The condo building had not yet been assessed for tax purposes and so the previous owners had not paid any property taxes for the years they owned the place. For this reason some money was withheld from them after the closing so that when the assessment came out, the money could be used to cover their portion of the taxes.
The closing was at the end of October. At the beginning of December the tax assessments came out saying that the first installment for the previous years is due on February 1^st. I promptly faxed the assessments to my lawyer and called her office to make sure she received it. She said the information had been received and that she would contact me with an update once everything was taken care of. In mid-​January I had still not heard an update, and since the first installment due date was coming up, I decided to give the lawyer a call. She told me that she was about to get in touch with us to say that the other lawyer had gotten back to her and that a cheque is being sent as we speak directly to the tax department. No worries. Case closed.
No so much.
On February 3^rd I received a phone call from our lawyer telling me that she just found out that the taxes had not yet been paid. The other lawyer had «just» contacted her demanding that before they pay the taxes, they require a confirmation from the tax department that the assessments we forwarded were final. Also, once they receive the confirmation they will send the cheque to us instead of paying the tax department directly. She proceeded to tell me that she had tried to get in touch with the tax department via phone, but could not and is too busy to continue trying, so she requests that I take over. After a moment’s silence, as I tried to absorb all of this, I began by bringing up the fact that the due date for the first installment was on February 1^st and continued by asking who will be paying for the penalties. She proceeded to tell me that I shouldn’t worry about the penalties because they won’t cost ME too much. Secondly, I asked why I should be the one getting in touch with the tax department when I am paying HER for the service of dealing with this. Eventually, after expressing her sheer disappointment in my lack of cooperation, she told me she would fax the tax department the request and see what happens.
March 3^rd. I had not heard from the lawyer in a while, no cheques in the mail, the taxes are now over due by two months. I decided to call the lawyer for an update. The secretary picked up and told me that Ms. Szpirak was currently vacationing and would not be available until the following week. How relaxing for her, while I stress over being two months in arrears with Toronto Tax. For those of you who aren’t familiar with city policy on property taxes, as soon as a home goes in your name, the tax department looks to you for any outstanding taxes. The city does not care that someone else owned the home for the years the outstanding taxes are owed. And they will gladly penalize you and mess with your credit if they don’t get what they want. In desperation, I tried calling the tax department myself, but since I could only call during lunch time, getting through was never going to happen. The following week my husband got a hold of Ms. Szpirak. She told him that the tax department had still not gotten back to her and that since we had refused to help, her hands were tied until they did.
The following morning we decided to go into work late and call the tax department a few minutes before their lines opened. We miraculously got through. They confirmed that the information they mailed to us back in December was complete, in that ‘why wouldn’t it be?’ kind of manner, and reminded us that we were quite past due. We emailed this information to our lawyer, she managed to forward the email to the other lawyer (who got the cheque to us within a day). We paid the taxes and dealt with the penalties.
Bottom line: If you are not a fan of ulcers, stay away.