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It has been five years since Heather Clark and her three children were able to move out of the shelter and enter a rental apartment building on Markham Road in Scarborough.
Since she moved in, she said the property management company has taken no action to maintain the unit.
“They haven’t repaired one thing in five years,” she told Citynews.
“There are mold, there are rats. My kids can’t fall asleep. They missed the school. [of my kids] Because of all the rats at night, move out. The balcony has not been repaired. The bathroom ceiling is about to fall into trouble. The vent does not work properly. ”
Heather has stage 4 COPD or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and said doctors gave her a serious prognosis.
“I have a life of five years or less,” she said, adding that mold, feces and leather from mice are aggravating her condition and are not conducive to her already fragile health.
Many service requirements have not been noted, Heather said her family lives in dirty places due to negligence.
“I placed a work order. They said they weren’t going to go. Then I talked to the principal and super said they were so supportive in the work order that they didn’t know what to do.”
“Every time I cook, I have to wipe and bleach the counter. On my counter, there are rat poop on the stove. They come out of my bathtub. It’s disgusting. I don’t have to live like this. It’s inhuman.”
Jonathan, partner at Heather, said he recently joined the Association of Tenant Advocacy Groups Community Organization Reform Organizations (ACORN) to seek support in his struggle to make the building liveable. He improvised the residents in the building to understand the generality of the problem.
“From the 13th floor to the first floor, I have over a hundred ‘is’ … they have the same rats or cockroaches, bugs, all of these same problems, no one solves it. They’ve been living all the time.”
Heather is seeking social assistance and is currently defaulting on some of the unpaid rent, but says the force is already in poverty before the problems begin. Jonathan said that while the landlord has the responsibility to maintain the property, regardless of the landlord/tenant dispute, it has the responsibility to maintain the property, which makes it even harder to repair.
“When you get into controversy on the landlord and tenant boards, it’s like a deadlock. When you pass the hall, they don’t look at you. They don’t come to your door. They stick an envelope under your door from time to time, and that’s how they communicate,” Jonathan said.
“It really affects my mental health, my quality of life. Sometimes it’s hard to spend in this building…it’s not a home at all. It’s almost just survival.”
Khadijah al-Maqdisy has lived in the same building for more than 30 years and has been paying rent on time. She said there is no difference in taking action and prompt repairs to acquire gold equity.
She said she has been fighting regularly for various solutions since the 1990s. In ’98, she managed to leak ceilings and water-soaked floors, gathered 120 signatures from established residents and advocated them before the Town Hall’s real estate standards authorities.
In 2017, Khadijah’s kitchen was in a premium shabby state, broken on the stove, scattered cabinets and damage to the entire water. After repeated requests deaf ears, she also joined Acorn because this time she said, “I’m not alone in a fight.”
“They want us to move to another apartment and pay market rent. They don’t want to fix it at all until Acorns step in.”
Citynews has repeatedly covered tenant issues in buildings owned by Gold Equity Property, from lack of maintenance and pest control to improper eviction notices.
The company is headquartered in Montreal, but has dozens of buildings in Toronto. They did not respond to Citynews’ request for comment.
King Equity eventually renovated Cadia’s kitchen in 2023 as Acorn is able to interact with the city of Toronto Rentsafeto Plans, designed to implement the charter and ensure compliance with maintenance standards.
“Acorns collect many repair requirements for many tenants and dispatch them as a group. So this brings Rentsafeto attention and consideration,” Cadia said.
She felt Rentsafeto was invalid and officials accused of executing the charter were not interested in advocating tenants. She has been trying to seriously damaged floors in her equipment since last year and despite months of follow-up, she has not made any progress.
Citynews contacted the City of Toronto with Heather’s and Khadijah’s units. They replied that they had not received any requests for service from any unit.
“The city will not be able to access these units without the permission and explicit request of the apartment residents. City staff will participate in the property today to follow up with the tenants and make sure they are aware of the reporting agreement. We encourage you because the reporter told the person you contacted, please contact you for the person you are 3-1-1 so that we can propose a specific unit in 3-1-1 so that we can investigate in a certain property, they say in a certain declaration, they say in a certain declaration, they say in a certain declaration, they say in a certain declaration,” said.
Heather and Jonathan said they submitted service requests dating back to 2023.
Khadijah forwarded several emails to Citynews detailing her request for service to the Rentsafeto ward officer in charge of her building. This suggests that when she followed up four months after the initial request, she received a reply saying that the ward officer had changed. Her email to new ward officials has not been confirmed and has not been repaired so far.
Call for overhaul of rentsafeto
Cadia said her interactions with Rentsafeto officials were very unpleasant, calling them condescending and rude, adding that the tenants did not update their cases or the people they were dealing with and were often stuck in cracks.
“Rentsafeto is constantly changing officials, which creates a major problem for tenants. Officials rarely follow up on cases, allowing tenants to understand the progress of their complaints in the dark. When officials re-sign, tenants are left to find out who the new officer is and who because fentafeto has not informed us of these changes.
She added that the city has authorities through Rentsafeto to carry out necessary repairs and to charge landlords when they do not respond to duplicate requests, but is very reluctant to take such remedies.
She also believes that Rentsafeto’s rating formula is deeply flawed, with her building scoring 81%. Meanwhile, she said the basement parking lot is flooding frequently, with many units dealing with rat and insect infestations, and there is a huge bump on the corridor ceiling outside the front door, apparently indicating an unchecked leak.
At first glance, the rating system involves three assessment categories – high, medium and low risk. Each category has many items listed, each with a score of 1 to 3 points and three are the highest scores.
However, all items in all categories are equally weighted, which means giving the same weight as the balcony railings, like scratches on the corridor floor. Arguably, it is crucial to health and safety, but lower items directly related to these issues have lower scores and may still lead to high overall scores.
Councilman Josh Matlow, who led the creation of the 2017 rentalsafeto program, agreed that the rating system was impractical.
“When we approved Rentsafeto, we approved the staff we expected and then run the operation. How to operate – I have been hearing consistently from people who work on the ground, such as the Metro Tenant Association, Acorn, etc., others working in practice – it doesn’t work in practice,” Matlow told Citynews.
“I’ve moved the action that failed here… There are color-coded signs on the window, such as to put it in the window, not only shows the tenants living there, but also to potential tenants who might choose to be a home in their home, whether it’s green, yellow or red. Is this a person, whether it’s a person who is responsible, or like a landlord, but a responsibility, and a responsibility?’
Matlow served as chairman of the Tenant Committee, which was demolished under Mayor John Tory’s administration.
“I’m happy to say that the new mayor has agreed that I need to strike the new tenant commission,” he said.
Through the reconvening committee, Matro said he hopes to continue advocating for accountability and improvements in the lease program.
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