Tenants in North York building fighting 5% increase as Landlord and Tenant Board hearing approaches
Posted November 1, 2022 4:33 pm.
Last Updated November 2, 2022 9:42 am.
Tenants of the Laurel Grove apartment building in North York are fighting back against a proposed five per cent rent increase by the building’s owner, Homestead Land Holdings.
Current tenant Daniel Wilkes, who also started a tenants’ group on Facebook, said they first received notice of this rent increase in May of 2019, but due to a backlog at the Ontario Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB), a hearing for the guideline increase is expected to happen on Nov. 21, more than three years later.
If property owners want to raise a tenant’s rent above the maximum set out by the province, they must apply for the above guideline rent increase through the LTB.
Some already started paying that amount years ago, explained Wilkes. “[But] some tenants haven’t paid that increase, so they’re going to be hit between 36 and 48 months of back rent, whatever that percentage difference was.”
Wilkes said the rent bump was requested because of “cosmetic repairs.”
“It only brings the value of their building up. They’re not doing anything inside the units. Tenants are afraid to ask for small things because they’ll get renoviction here.”
Wilkes said currently, his rent is under $2,000 as he has been in the building for over seven years, while a unit across the hall from him is $2,600.
“They would love to get the older tenants out so they can start collecting their market share value of today,” shared Wilkes.
Steve Herman has lived at Laurel Grove for over 40 years and said this increase would be tough on those on fixed incomes.
“Some people are on disability. And the government doesn’t always put up the amount to cover the rent increase. And nobody wants to live in the street. We have to eat. So that’s the problem. It’s more money,” Herman said.
Wilkes said it’s not only the rent upsurge that has been a problem in their building.
“We get ignored [by] Homestead. Every time we call, that person is out of the office for the day. Most of the time, the property manager ignores our complaints.”
“There’s been a lot of vandalism inside. We’ve had doors broken in, and they tell us to call the police,” he added.
Tenants are also concerned about security and safety. Wilkes says Homestead had asked residents to remove cameras that some had installed in the peepholes of their doors.
“I don’t know if that’s because I watch their staff work. I’ve also caught five people checking doorknobs and trying to break into different units,” said Wilkes.
Homestead is just one major housing corporation that has been accused of increasing rent above the guidelines in an attempt to drive out residents. Last December, a group of East York tenants were rallying against a rent bump above provincial guidelines at a building owned by Starlight Investments; an increase they say will price many of them out of the building.
Kelly Bentley, an outreach organizer with the Federation of Metro Tenants’ Association, tells CityNews this is very common.
“There are hundreds of these a year. I hold two meetings a week with buildings facing an above-guideline rental increase, and I’m never suffering for meetings,” Bentley explains.
She said there isn’t much tenants can do to prevent the increase.
“The law is pretty clear that if the landlord did capital expenditure work and it’s completed within the right amount of time, and it was required, landlords are entitled to the increase.”
The only options they have, Bentley says, are challenging the increase before the LTB or more direct action like protesting, which some tenants have taken to in the past.
“Many tenants will ask, ‘Where can I move so I don’t have to experience an above-guideline rent increase?’ In the city of Toronto, that’s nowhere,” said Bentley.
CityNews has reached out to Homestead for comment but has not received a response.
