TORONTO- Residents of a midtown apartment building are in their eleventh day without heat or hot water and there’s no end in sight.
According to a report from the Toronto Star, the landlord of the three-storey unit, situated at 2779 Yonge Street, says it could take months for the heat to be turned back on, saying the entire building would have to be gutted in order to fix the problem.
Landlord Bianca Pollak told the Star a decades-old pipe system, along with an aging furnace, are the cause of the problem and she is unsure what the next steps will be. The estimated cost of the repair is $100,000.
Pollak did not respond to several requests by Global News for an interview and residents of the building are questioning their landlord’s motives.
Pollak has applied for a permit to build a condominium on the land where the building is currently situated. Some tenants say this is a ruse to level the current building in favour of an eleven-storey condo. Either way, they’re searching for ways to keep warm.
“We turn on the stove, keep it open, obviously, and we have been boiling water just to create the steam. We try to barricade all the heat within the living room,” says tenant Coda Tinchuk.
“The hot water is more difficult because you’re just endlessly boiling kettles,” says Judy, an elderly resident.
This winter has featured below average temperatures and the potential for colder-than-usual weather continuing in February and early March is cause for concern for these residents who may not have heat restored through the tail end of winter.
“We have people that are suffering, and there are people in the building that are three times as old as me and they don’t have warmth,” says Allison Gammage, another tenant.
Toronto city bylaws require landlords to ensure residences are heated to at least 21 degrees Celsius. Pollak has distributed space heaters to residents but they have failed to heat apartments to a level of compliance. The city of Toronto has issued multiple $600 dollar fines, one for each unit in the building.
“On Monday we are going to move (the fine) to and escalate this entire situation to the highest fine the city has, which is a $5,000 fine per unit,” says Jaye Robinson, Toronto City Councillor. “We can gather evidence, and we can document, and we can fine, and we can take that all to the Landlord Tenant Board.”
While the city is aware of the violation and making daily visits, the onus is on the landlord to make repairs.
The heat was initially turned off on February 11, after firefighters responded to a call to the Yonge Street building and discovered a carbon monoxide leak.
The leak was found to be caused by the building’s furnace, which was then condemned, leading their hydro provider to shut down service until the building is brought up to code.
Tenants have now filed for an emergency hearing at the Provincial Landlord and Tenant Board, which will be taking place sometime next week.
-With files from Global’s Mark Carcasole
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