10/06/2026
THE ONTARIO WATER HEATER SCAM: WELCOME TO LOONEY TOWN 🔴
I am 63 years old, living right here in Ontario, Canada, and I am absolutely furious.
This all started with a casual conversation with my sister. When she told me how the water heater rental system worked, I was completely convinced she had it wrong. It sounded too crooked to be true. So, I called Reliance myself just to enquire.
That is when I realized my sister was 100% right, and I found myself standing smack in the middle of Looney Town. I realized I was trapped in a completely legal scam.
My hot water tank is 12 years old. I have quietly paid Reliance thousands of dollars over the last decade for a machine that only costs about $1,000 brand new.
When I questioned the customer service agent, she treated me with utter contempt. She repeatedly tried to talk down to me, snidely informing me that Reliance is not a "RENT-TO-OWN" business—making me feel like I was the idiot, or like I was trying to steal from them! At no point when this tank was put in did anyone say I would be paying thousands of dollars for as long as it sits in my house.
Then came the absolute kicker. She told me that because my original contract is over, they claim "the right" to keep charging me an increased monthly rate forever just in case I need "service in the future."
So I caught her in a total 'gotcha' moment. I said: "Okay, since I am actively paying you extra money for future service, come out and replace my 12-year-old tank with a brand new one today. Once it’s installed, I'll pay you the $450 buyout fee to own it."
BOOM. She completely backtracked.
She admitted that if they come out to replace a broken tank, they wipe the slate clean, cancel your right to a cheap buyout, and force you onto a brand-new, ironclad 10-year contract!
So what happened to the thousands of dollars I already paid that were supposedly 'earmarked' for future repairs? They pocket your money, but the second you actually need a replacement, they reset your financial clock and trap you for another decade!
This system creates a terribly unfair playing field:
• For Renters: In most places, tenants are forced to pay these monthly bills. They have absolutely zero say in what the landlord chooses to do, but they are stuck paying the corporate monopoly.
• For Low-Income Families: When a tank breaks, coming up with $2,000 upfront for a new one is impossible for many. Reliance uses that fear to trap people into a lifetime of monthly fees because they know people are desperate for hot water.
Premier Doug Ford and the Ontario government are letting this happen. They have the power to regulate consumer protection and stop these endless loops, but they choose to look the other way while giant monopolies like Reliance take advantage of hard-working Ontarians.
They want to extort $450.00 from me just to buy out an old tank that is mechanically worth next to nothing. I refuse to be bullied for lacking the knowledge of a system they purposely hid in the fine print.
Please, check your utility bills! Look at the age of your tank. Do not let Reliance talk down to you. We need to look directly at Doug Ford and demand change.
Please SHARE this post to expose this legal scam! 🛑👇
Please write to Doug Ford and your local M.P, together we can make change to stop this circle of out righ madness.
Doug Ford has waisted Time and millions of your money to store US alcohol that no one cares about!
Let's see if he will care about protecting us from this Ontario only, shady, scam that takes real money out of our pockets.
To make it easy for everyone to take action, simply copy the text below, go to ola.org/en/members to find your local MPP’s email address, and send this directly to them. Let’s flood their inboxes!
For those that are Globaly concern ask yourself what does Reliance do with these working tanks when customers change from rental to owner?
Subject: URGENT: End the predatory water heater rental loopholes in Ontario
Dear MPP,
I am writing to you today as a constituent in your riding to express my deep anger over the predatory and deceptive practices permitted within Ontario’s water heater rental industry—specifically by dominant corporations like Reliance Home Comfort.
Renting a water heater has been treated as a normal part of life in Ontario for decades, but it has devolved into a legally sanctioned trap that disproportionately harms seniors, low-income families, and renters.
I recently discovered that after paying thousands of dollars over a decade or more for an appliance that costs roughly $1,000 retail, rental companies use aggressive loopholes to keep consumers trapped indefinitely:
• The "Useful Life" Month-to-Month Trap: Long after initial contract terms expire, companies continue billing customers indefinitely at increased rates, claiming it covers "future service."
• The Repair/Replacement Ransom: When customers attempt to use the "future service" they paid for to replace an aging or broken unit, they are told that doing so wipes out their low buyout rights and forces them to sign a brand-new, ironclad 10-to-15-year rental agreement.
• Inflated Buyouts: Customers are being extorted for hundreds of dollars to buy out ancient, mechanically worthless tanks just to stop the monthly billing cycle.
Ontario is virtually the only jurisdiction in North America that tolerates this anti-consumer behavior. This system creates an incredibly unfair playing field for renters who have no choice but to pay these passed-down costs, and low-income families who cannot afford $2,000 for an upfront emergency replacement and are forced into a lifetime of financial servitude.
Premier Doug Ford and the Ontario government have the direct legislative authority to regulate consumer protection and stop these predatory open-ended loops under the Consumer Protection Act. I am calling on your office to pressure the Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery to step in, ban these endless automatic contract extensions, and mandate a fair "rent-to-own" structure.
As a voter in your community, I want to know what concrete steps you and the current government are taking to protect Ontarians from this ongoing corporate extortion.
I look forward to your prompt response.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your Postal Code]
[Your Phone Number]
Find MPP contact information and learn about members’ parliamentary roles and responsibilities at the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.
