Rent-striking tenants ordered to pay landlord Minto Group

Rent-striking tenants of a Flemingdon Park apartment building were ordered to pay months of skipped payments — or risk being evicted — at a hearing before the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) on Monday.

Residents from the Minto Group building went on strike on Aug. 1 over the state of disrepair in their units and a rent increase above the provincial limit of 1.8 per cent.

“What we heard is that they just weren’t happy that the rent was going up,” said lawyer Kevin Laforest.

“Meanwhile, they felt as though a lot of their units were in great disrepair, that their needs weren’t being addressed.”

The striking tenants had applied for an adjournment so they could make their arguments against Minto, but the LTB denied the request.

At the hearing on Monday, the board ordered the tenants to pay their outstanding rent in 11 days on average, barring extenuating circumstances.

“It’s really a feeling of what else can we do,” Laforest said. “People feel their backs are up against the wall. Some folks really are at risk of losing their homes. So for them, they’re looking at this saying we don’t know what other avenues we have left.”

Laforest and resident Isabel Murambiwa said they’ve seen extensive water damage, open furnaces in areas where kids live, exposed wires and fumes in the daycare — and mushrooms growing on a baseboard.

“For me, to have mushrooms growing in (my) apartment, it makes me feel like nobody cares about anybody,” Murambiwa said. “What Minto cares about is only money, not our living conditions.”

Murambiwa said only after a local news station exposed the problem did Minto work to fix it. And she said she had to move out of her apartment earlier for renovations, and the company forced her to sign a new lease when she moved back in, charging her $237 more than her previous rent.

The LTB ordered her to pay back rent, but she said she will continue the rent strike.

Laforest said he would be holding a meeting Thursday night to make sure tenants understand their rights and discuss next steps.

“My hope is always the same,” he said. “My hope is that we can get the parties at the table — landlord and tenant — to have good, frank discussion about what the issues are, how they’re affecting each party, and let’s try to come to an agreement that meets everyone’s needs.”