Dozens of tenants at four high-rise apartment buildings in east Hamilton are now withholding their rent.
They’ve launched a so-called rent strike to protest against their landlord’s recent application for a rent increase and are demanding the buildings’ owners make necessary repairs to their units.
Tenants at 11 Grandville Ave., 40 Grandville Ave., 50 Violet Dr., and 77 Delawana Dr. — located just east of Centennial Parkway and south of Barton Street East — say they will withhold their rent until CLV Group and InterRent Real Estate Investment Trust agrees to drop its rent increase of almost 10 per cent over two years and complete the repairs.
The Hamilton Tenants Solidarity Network says “a rent increase of this size would threaten many long-standing and low-income tenants with displacement, including many immigrant tenants, elderly tenants, and tenants living on fixed incomes.”
The group has created a rent strike defense fund to cover the $190 cost of the landlord’s filing fee at the Landlord and Tenant Board should CLV Group attempt to evict tenants for withholding their rent.
CLV Group and InterRent Real Estate Investment Trust has not responded to an emailed request for comment.