Tenant towed from paid parking spot, hoisted for $700 to get car back

“Some tenants in the Vanier apartment buildings are livid because, in the past couple of weeks, a number of their vehicles were towed 18 kilometres to a compound that demanded hundreds of dollars to release them. Keri Pilgrim is furious after she paid $700 to get her boyfriend’s car back last weekend — the same day she paid the $50 monthly fee for Spot 41.

Pilgrim, who works two part-time jobs to make ends meet, is refusing to pay the October rent until the matter is settled.

“It was like we were being extorted.”

Toronto senior getting ‘an eviction by another name’ due to new disability, friends say

Friends of an elderly Toronto man who's lived in his Parkdale apartment for 45 years fear he's in the process of getting tossed out of his home due to new mobility issues, because he can't afford the solution his landlord is offering him. 

George Morrison, 77, suffered a heart attack Aug. 23, according to his neighbour Emina Gamulin, and is no longer able to climb the stairs to his third floor unit at 1475 King St. W.

"We don't think George should be punished because he now has a disability.”

Elderly, ailing tenants fume as 'ludicrous' elevator outage drags on for months

“There's been no elevator service in the six-storey building since last fall. And there likely won't be until July.

Residents — many of them elderly or frail — say they began complaining to the landlord and the city about the broken elevator early last November. A city inspector came by on Nov. 19, city records show, and gave the landlord four weeks to fix the problem.

But the owner, Montreal-based Golden Equity Properties, appealed and on Monday, the city's property standards panel extended the company's deadline. They now have until July 1 to have the only elevator at 185 Cosburn Ave. up and running.

Shirley Gastis said her husband had hip surgery last year. Without a working elevator, they can't do weekly grocery shopping, because the load is too much to carry up to their fourth-floor apartment. "What I've been doing is getting a little bit every day, or every other day or whenever we need something," she said. "I would like the elevator fixed."

She and other residents suggested communication has been a problem ever since Golden bought the building last summer.

Toronto landlord still issuing eviction notices, tenants say

“One of the tenants of the Toronto building, Emina Gamulin, said two units were served with eviction notices this week over what she said were false allegations that residents had paid their rent late.

Gamulin, who did not receive a notice, added the building was without water Thursday for the third time since the COVID-19 health emergency began. "They put up something about how we should practise proper hygiene, but, you know, how are we supposed to do that if we don't have running water?" she said. "There's people who are working from home, they're doing self-isolation, people who are out of work.... So all of these things are just becoming a situation that's untenable," she said.

"I don't think it's hyperbole to say this kind of greedy, predatory behaviour from landlords is a threat to public health.”

Bonni Burns has lived in the building for more than 13 years, and while she and her husband have not been threatened with eviction, she felt it was important to speak out in support of those who have.

"It's just a constant emotional and mental barrage of stress and unnecessary nonsense," she said."We have enough stuff to stress out about and now they're continuing to pile stuff on to us. It's, like, unbearable."”