‘Renovictions’ loophole keeps tenants on edge
Dovercourt residents fear renovations to their building will push them permanently from their affordable homes
From the outside there is nothing about the lowrise, brown brick apartment building at 394 Dovercourt Rd. that gives away the extent of the turmoil and anxiety within.
But behind its walls a group of renters who barely knew each other have banded together to weather an uncertain future and brace for a fight they fear could end with them losing their deeply affordable homes.
“I can’t even wrap my head around what that would mean, not to mention taking down all the crazy stuff in my apartment,” said Kiisti Matsuo, a make- up artist for film and television who pays $758 for a bachelor unit. “Maybe I’ll have selling parties.”
Their new landlord has said the building is unsafe and must be entirely rewired, work that could take half a year, and requested that everybody leave by the end of February — or risk being ordered out by the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB).
What concerns the Dovercourt tenants is the chance of a “renoviction,” when a landlord uses a legal process to remove long-term tenants during renovations but never intends to let them back in.
Matsuo’s neighbours include a painter and community organizer, an inde- pendent business owner and occasional extra for film, a sessional lecturer at York University, a tree-planter and musician, and the director of housing services for Dixon Hall Neighbourhood Services, a multi-service agency that serves marginalized people.
Low rent, they told the Star, is what has made it possible for them to live and thrive in Toronto. They’ve posted flyers, engaged a lawyer and hope that speaking about their building will raise awareness around a process that if unchecked, they said, could severely change the landscape of the city.
The Residential Tenancies Act (RTA) states that tenants who want to return when work is done can claim their “right of first refusal” and pay about the same rent, as if they never left.
Property owner AIPL Canada Holdings Inc., the landlord, has and will continue to follow the law and respect tenants rights, the Star was told.
The tenants realize the units would go for higher rent if empty. Briarlane Rental Property Management Inc., which manages the building as well as neighbouring 382 Dovercourt, also owned by AIPL Canada, lists on its website one-bedrooms starting from $1,850 and studios from $1,650.
To most of the Dovercourt tenants, paying market prices is not an option — rather, it would be “game over” for their time in Toronto, as described by tenant Aleksandar Kulauzov.
A recent “renovictions” case involving a nearby building at 795 College St. found that despite ruling, the landlord for that building had blatantly disregarded the law — forcing tenants out, ignoring their requests to return and finding new ones to pay more than three times the rent — the LTB doesn’t have the power to get the original tenants back in their homes. The board fined the landlord $75,000, but that’s money it can recoup from the higher rents in less than a year.
“What we are seeing is more and more of these in the city, which is extremely concerning,” said Ana Bailao, chair of Toronto’s planning and housing committee and councillor for Ward 9 (Davenport).
Renovations need to happen, she said, but there must be better ways to make sure buildings don’t reach the point where a mass eviction for work is needed.
“We know there is this loophole that exists,” Bailao said. “People are being pushed out of their community and it is something that needs to be addressed.”
The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing has consulted with landlords and tenant groups on potential changes to the RTA, a spokesperson for Minister Steve Clark told the Star in an email, and that input will be used to help develop a housing supply action plan expected in spring, with potential legislative changes in fall.
“With any proposed changes brought forward, we will ensure the continued protection of tenants,” Julie O’Driscoll said.
Matsuo said the current law paves the way for gentrification.
“You are going to lose so much culture, and the culture makers, and all the teachers, artists, musicians, everybody, you are going to lose us all ... Then you don’t have a city. You have a cell of a city,” she said.
“It is totally preventable what is happening, but what is happening is profound.”
Their building was sold for $3.15 million in October 2017 to AIPL Canada, a company incorporated in B.C. with mailing and delivery addresses at a P.O. box in Vancouver and a commercial property called the Masterpiece in India. AIPL also purchased 382 Dovercourt Rd. for about $2.8 million, from the same owners.
Both buildings have a history of safety issues. The previous owners were fined $96,000 in provincial offences court for numerous fire code violations about six months before the sale, Toronto Fire confirmed. Deputy Sgt. Jim Jessop told the Star that subsequent inspections resulted in both buildings being cleared before the properties changed hands.
Two weeks after the sale, tenants were told in writing that “a significant number of major issues” were discovered after purchase, and reiterated that the landlord did offer funds to people willing to end tenancies to help offset the costs of finding new places to live. The amount was, the landlord noted, “well above” what the landlord was required to offer tenants affected through the N13 process. If tenants agree to leave, landlords must give them three months rent, or a new place. If they want to return, the landlord must pay three months rent or whatever the rent would be during the time work is being done, whichever is less.
An official notice, the N13, arrived two weeks later informing residents that knob and tube wiring had been used throughout and must be replaced.
“We have been advised by our building insurance and electrical engineers that this wiring is problematic and dangerous and needs to be replaced,” it read.
Some tenants left and construction began on empty units. But last month a city inspector found that fire separation was removed “prior to obtaining a permit” and ordered work in and around four units to immediately cease, according to an Order to Comply dated Feb. 15 and posted at the building.
If the landlord wants to remove the remaining tenants, the next step is filing an application with the LTB. One day before the Feb. 28 deadline, nothing had been submitted.
Property management company Briarlane did not respond to emails, calls and a hand-delivered letter containing questions about the property, the order from the city and a request to be connected with the owner.
The Star was sent a statement from a Gmail account after emailing the corporate office of Advanced India Projects Ltd. in Haryana, India, and speaking with two men with Toronto phone numbers who were identified as the landlord’s representative in a notice to tenants and who declined to comment, but took messages.
The property owner, AIPL Canada, the statement read, “has and will continue to ensure” the building is managed and operated in accordance with the law, “will continue to respect the rights of all tenants” and “any comment, suggestion or insinuation to the contrary is simply untrue.”
In a followup email, the author wrote there has been “absolutely no attempt” by the property owner to forcibly remove people and if tenants pursued the right of first refusal, their wishes would be respected.
In a city where the vacancy rates hovers at about 1 per cent and landlords can charge what they want for empty units, the Dovercourt tenants have little choice.
Occupied one-bedroom units in purpose-built rental buildings in Toronto cost an average of $1,270 and bachelors $1,089, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CHMC) reports.
Full units are subject to rent controls. Empty and new units go for whatever the market will bear. In the Greater Toronto Area, one-bedrooms go for closer to $2,024 and $1,793 for a studio, housing research firm Urbanation, reported.
Beyond making a yearly profit, there is another incentive to boost rent in purpose-built apartment buildings, albeit one rarely used. Buildings where all units rent at 1.5 times the CMHC average qualify to be converted to condominiums with city council approval. Three applications have come in and just one was approved in the past five years, city staff confirmed. New Democratic Party MPP Marit Stiles (Davenport) said flaws in existing housing law means at the end of the day, tenants have very few rights.
“We are going to end up being a city where only people who are very wealthy can afford to live in our communities,” said Stiles, noting the NDP sought to amend the law to address “renovictions” under the previous Liberal government. “My fear is we are going to see more of them, not less,” Stiles said. “The fact is the provincial laws around this are too weak and there are too many loopholes.”