Renovations meant to push us out: Outremont tenants
Residents of an Outremont apartment building say they believe disruptive renovations are intended to force them to move out, as their landlord looks to charge higher rents for renovated apartments.
For more than two weeks, residents of 590 Outremont Ave. have had no heat in their apartments as their landlord, Swedish multinational Akelius, conducts renovations to more than a quarter of the apartments in the building.
On Thursday, city inspectors ordered the company to stop work in several apartments, after finding that renovations were taking place in 12 of the 42 apartments in the building.
Akelius only has permits for work in eight, according to a spokesperson for the Outremont borough.
The inspection — and the order to stop work — came one day after Julio Viana, Akelius’s city manager in Montreal, denied the company was working on more than eight apartments.
“No, all the units that we are working on, we have permits for,” Viana said in an interview on Wednesday.
Viana said the company had to turn off the boiler that heats the building while it repairs parts of the plumbing system.
“The plumbing system in the building is original, from 1942. Since we bought the building last year, we’re having a lot of issues with leaks, the pipes break and then it leaks in the unit below, so there’s a lot of damages on wood floors and ceilings,” he said.
Viana said the company has taken steps to mitigate the issue. “We provided them with electric heaters from Day 1,” he said. Tenants tell a different story. Jeanne Carcanagues, who has lived in the building for three years, said she called Akelius on Oct. 3, 8 and 10 to complain about the lack of heat and got no response.
“They would tell me that ‘somebody’s going to call you back, someone will come check it out,’ ” she said.
The company only got back to her after she sent a legal letter on Oct. 11, she said.
“On Oct. 12, I got a call, finally, from them telling me that their solution was to provide us with little electric heaters,” she said.
But when the heater is on, Carcanagues said she can’t use appliances that consume much electricity without blowing a fuse.
On Monday night, she said she lost power and the temperature in her apartment dropped to 14 degrees.
On Wednesday, Viana said the company hoped to have the heat back on by Friday.
Some tenants are also worried about how the company is dealing with asbestos.
Jenny Berthiaume said she’s seen plastic curtains — placed over the doorway of units where work is ongoing and intended to prevent asbestos dust from spreading — open.
On Tuesday evening, company representatives met with tenants at the building. They said inspectors from the Commission des normes, de l’équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail have done tests in the building and found no problems.
However, company representatives refused to show tenants the results of the tests.
“For me, that’s a huge red flag,” Berthiaume said.
The company is following “all the protocols,” Viana said. “I understand they have concerns, but on our side we are doing everything that we have to, to make sure that nobody’s affected, that nobody’s at risk.”
He said Akelius has asked the CNESST to send it “recent confirmation” that there are no issues related asbestos in the building and will share that with tenants.
Berthiaume said she thinks it’s telling that Akelius is waiting for new results before it shares them with tenants.
CNESST inspectors were at the building this week, a spokesperson for the agency said on Thursday, and no work involving asbestos is currently taking place.
Tenants have a long list of other complaints and they say Akelius is slow to respond to issues.
Akelius, which owns 50,000 apartments worldwide, has faced similar complaints in Toronto.
Viana said things have improved since those complaints were made in 2014.
Tenants at 590 Outremont say they believe they’re being pushed out.
Renovated units at the building will rent for around twice what current tenants pay.
“We only renovate apartments that are vacant, so if tenants decide to move out, we renovate those apartments, but if tenants want to stay, as you know, it’s the law in Quebec, they are allowed to renew their lease for as long as they want,” Viana said. “We never force anybody out.”
Berthiaume said she’s had enough and is planning to move out.
“I know that it’s not safe and I’m not going to keep my kids in a place that’s not safe,” she said.
But Carcanagues, as well as other tenants who asked not be named for fear of repercussions, said they want to stay in their homes.