Tenants say they’ve been left out in the cold after building deemed unsafe by City inspectors

Several Junction residents have been told their building is unsafe and they must vacate. Maleeha Sheikh has the story.

By maleeha sheikh and news staff

Posted March 14, 2021 5:29 pm.

Last Updated March 15, 2021 6:43 pm.

Tenants of a Junction Triangle building say they were given 24 hours to get out with all of their belongings after the structure was deemed unsafe by City inspectors last week.

City inspectors said in a series of documents that the four residential units at 1407-1409 Bloor Street West, which are on top of an auto garage shop, were built without a building permit.

The inspection took place after a resident’s self-installed carbon monoxide detector went off at around 1 a.m. March 10.

CityNews reached out to the City for a response and they said in a statement the structure violated the building code.

“Toronto Buildings determined that the four apartments only had a single exit and the repair garage also contained a spray booth for painting-type operations,” the City 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.”

Tenants said the landlord has left them out in the cold with no support or alternate accommodations.

Tahsin Davdani says she and her two daughters are now homeless. They were all given a letter instructing them to permanently leave their units with a day’s notice.

“It was listed on MLS [Multiple Listings Service] I went through a realtor I ticked all the ‘Ts’ and dotted my ‘Is’ did all that stuff and thought I was in a safe place,” Davdani. said “There [are] very low levels of compassion here considering all the things that are going on in the world right now.”

The document given to the tenants from the landlord

Notice to Vacate by CityNewsToronto on Scribd

Michael Seater said they complained to the landlord about fumes in the building many times.

“We had complained to representatives of our landlord Brad J. Lamb multiple times about fumes we smelled in our unit and that we found the [fumes] concerning,” Seater said. “They did nothing to resolve those issues.”

Davdani also says there were issues in the building.

“My kids were experiencing headaches I didn’t put two into together I don’t know why I didn’t,” Davdani said.

Housing lawyer Caryma Sa’d said even in an urgent repair situation, tenants are given at least 120 days’ notice and that doesn’t include the time it takes to go through a landlord and tenant board hearing. She said even though a building may be deemed unlivable by the city, the landlord should show the tenants some compassion.

“Whether it’s an alternate unit access to a different unit if that’s an option for the landlord or compensation that would allow the tenant to basically set themselves up in a different spot,” Caryma Sa’d said.

Seater said the landlord needs to help out more, but so far the company has only refunded the last month’s rent.

“Are you going to pay for movers are you going to give us a hotel, food transportation, basic things,” Seater said. “That is the responsibility of a responsible landlord and we [were] refused any of that. We were told ‘here’s your last month’s rent deposit’ and that’s it.”

The one-day notice is forcing the tenants to move in with family and friends. Another unsafe dwelling situation, considering it’s a pandemic.

“All anyone can do in the situation in the immediate is stay with friends and family,” Seater said. “I’m staying with parents that are over the age of 65. I’ve never exposed them to everything I’ve been exposed to this week.”

The city says one of the residents called them requesting information on housing options and staff referred the tenant to Woodgreen Community Services.

CityNews reached out to the landlord, Lamb Sterling Corp., several times for comment and didn’t hear back.

On Monday night, Brad J. Lamb, President of Brad J. Lamb Realty & Lamb Development Corp., tweeted a statement, saying his company “issued a rebate of all pre-paid rent and balances of March rent to the tenants” on Friday.

Furthermore, Lamb said that on Monday “we notified the tenants of our intention to reimburse any and all reasonable expenses related to this terrible situation.”

“At no time did we communicate to our tenants that financial restitution would be denied,” he added. “Any statement to this effect is simply untrue.