Residents of several Toronto apartment units were given less than two days’ notice to vacate their homes last week due to what a City official called “serious life safety issues.”
The units are located above an auto body garage on Bloor Street West, just east of Dundas Street West.
Resident Michael Seater, who moved into the building in August, told Global News on Sunday he began having concerns about his apartment a few months ago.
“We started having issues with smelling fumes from the auto garage below our apartment,” he said.
“We emailed our landlord, Brad J. Lamb Realty, multiple times expressing concern over this. They said they would look into it, but nothing was ever done.”
Seater said he decided to install a carbon monoxide detector in his bedroom, which is where he said he often smelled fumes.
He said that late Tuesday, the carbon monoxide detector went off and showed a high reading of 66 parts per million (ppm).
According to a U.S. government website, most people won’t experience symptoms as a result of carbon monoxide exposure of levels between 1 to 70 ppm. But above 70 ppm, symptoms may get “more noticeable,” with death possible at sustained levels above 150 ppm.
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Seater said all four residential units were evacuated and crews went into the auto body garage below where they found an even higher carbon monoxide reading of 100 ppm.
The building was aired out and gas lines were shut off to ensure the carbon monoxide levels weren’t increasing again.
Seater said they were eventually allowed back into their units on Wednesday as an “endless amount of investigators” came to the building.
“When fire prevention came on Wednesday morning, they told us that the carbon monoxide detector that we installed likely saved many lives that night,” he said.
“So had we not installed that just a month earlier, who knows what might have happened? It’s incredibly terrifying.”
Seater said there were detectors in other units but said he was told the devices were installed too high, meaning the unit would need to fill with gas in order for them to go off.
He said their gas was shut off on Wednesday and was not turned back on.
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“We reached out to Brad Lamb Realty all day on Thursday, many, many times saying, ‘When is our gas going back on?’ We don’t feel particularly safe here. Can you tell us the findings of these investigations? What is happening? Can we get on a phone call?'” Seater said.
He said at around 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, residents received an email “stating that the City has deemed the building unsafe and that we had 24 hours to vacate.”
Seater said he eventually got on the phone with the landlord’s office and they offered no support.
“They said, ‘No, we’re not going to do anything. Here is your last month’s rent deposit and that’s it,'” he said.
The landlord denied that allegation.
“At no time did we communicate to our tenants that financial restitution would be denied. Any statement to this effect is simply untrue,” Lamb said in a statement Monday afternoon.
“Today, we notified the tenants of our intention to reimburse any and all reasonable expenses related to this terrible situation.”
Meanwhile, Will Johnston, the municipal chief building official and executive director of Toronto Building, said in a statement that the City received a referral from Toronto Fire Services and conducted an inspection at the residence.
Johnston said while permits were issued for the auto garage, the apartments were built without a permit.
“Toronto Building also determined that the four apartments only had a single exit and the repair garage also contained a spray booth for painting type operations,” Johnston said.
“For life safety reasons, the Building Code strictly prohibits residential units in a building that is used for auto repairs. The building code also requires the apartment to have two exit paths – a critical fire safety requirement.”
Johnston said an order was issued to the property owner which required the residents to leave the building by midnight on Friday.
“In the interim, for safety reasons, the City required the auto repair garage to cease operating and a security guard to be in the building to alert and assist tenants in vacating should there be a fire,” Johnston said.
Johnston said the City “truly sympathizes with these tenants” but said the “serious life safety issues” meant they had to leave.
Seater said after they received the notice to vacate, the carbon monoxide detector went off again and emergency services were called, leading to a two-hour evacuation.
He said he was lucky to be able to find movers at the last minute on Friday.
“Not all my neighbors were that lucky,” Seater said, adding that he’s currently able to stay with family members.
“It all got packed up in a frantic, mad dash.”
He said they were then told they could have Saturday and Sunday to get some additional belongings if needed, but could not stay in the residence.
Tahsin Davdani lived in the building with her two children since April after finding the listing on MLS. She said she paid $3,200 per month in rent.
Davdani said she had no idea the units were reportedly not up to code.
“I think it’s highly negligent and it’s really irresponsible, especially considering the potentially lethal nature of the situation,” she said.
Davdani said she is not currently able to go into her unit to get the rest of her belongings and is looking for a new place to live.
Meanwhile, Lamb said after the initial call on Wednesday, Toronto Fire Services issued a violation notice “to make minor remedies in the detection system, which were done immediately.”
“Early Thursday evening and much to our surprise, the City of Toronto issued a notice to vacate the premises by Friday, March 12 at 12 midnight, giving our tenants less than 30 hours to leave their units,” he said.
He said a rebate of “all prepaid rent and balances of March rent” was given to the tenants.
“As a developer and landlord, the health and safety of all my tenants is paramount. While I never want to displace anyone, vacating the premises was a direct order by the City and we were all forced to comply,” he said.
“We offer our deepest sympathies to all our tenants.”
— With files from Sean O’Shea
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