Rent strikers stave off eviction at tribunal
Tenants of Stoney Creek Towers in east Hamilton score small victories but dispute with landlord rages on
ASHOWDOWN between striking east Hamilton tenants and their landlord is in its fifth month with both sides signalling no signs of compromise.
But on Tuesday, a handful of tenants, who are protesting hikes of nearly 10 per cent over two years, notched a small victory by staving off eviction for not paying rent.
That win came when a Landlord and Tenant Board adjudicator ruled in favour of a tenant’s bid to stay in her unit.
“I keep a paper trail,” tenant Donna Boyes said after the decision Tuesday morning at the Ellen Fairclough Building on King Street West in downtown Hamilton.
Boyes’ case was among roughly 20 from Stoney Creek Towers before the provincial tribunal.
Her hearing hinged on whether a payment she made July 23 was meant to cover July’s rent, thus making the eviction notice void.
A legal representative for CLV/InterRent argued his clients followed sound accounting practices by putting Boyes’ $758 money order toward previous arrears, leaving July’s rent still unpaid.
Tenants can’t “skirt” provincial legislation by “picking and choosing” which month’s rent to pay, Daniel Abraham told adjudicator Sean Henry.
“It is certainly a tacit approach to prevent these matters from going before the board,” Abraham added.
But Brendan Jowett, a lawyer with the Hamilton Community Legal Clinic, said the “landlord is effectively trying to do an end run around” provincial legislation meant to protect renters.
Henry agreed with the landlord’s take on accounting but ruled Boyes was in the clear since her money order indicated the payment was for July’s rent. “Therefore, there’s no basis for the filing of the application.”
This was also the case for other eviction applications, which were withdrawn Tuesday. Other cases were adjourned with time running out Tuesday.
The tenants of the four towers just east of Centennial Parkway started the rent strike in May in response to InterRent/ CLV’s proposed above-guideline increase (AGI) and lingering problems in their units. A number of the 100 or so strikers paid rent in July to avoid eviction but continued to withhold payments in July, August and September.
Boyce told The Spectator she joined the strike to support longtime tenants — seniors on fixed incomes, immigrants with language barriers — who can’t afford the hike.
Work has been done on the buildings, she said, “but the amount of money they’re asking for is just insane ... It’s not right and it’s not fair.”
The strikers, backed by the Hamilton Tenants’ Solidarity Network, have urged the landlord to negotiate rather than slug it out in the tribunal.
“Let’s get this over with. Let’s stop ... but they haven’t even entertained that,” strike captain Kevin O’Toole said Tuesday.
The landlord argues the Landlord and Tenant Board is the appropriate forum to
resolve the dispute.
“We have great respect for the way the process works,” spokesperson Roseanne MacDonald-Holtman said after Tuesday’s withdrawals and holdovers. “This is just par for the course, and we will return.”
InterRent, a real estate investment trust, bought Stoney Creek Towers for $51 million in 2015 with the goal of “repositioning” them through renovations and hiked rents.
Landlords can raise rates without limit once units are vacated since there’s no cap between tenancies in Ontario. But to charge existing tenants above the province’s annual guideline, 1.8 per cent this year, landlords must apply for an AGI. An AGI is meant for significant renovations to address structural problems, health and safety, plumbing, heating or electrical issues, for example. They’re not for cosmetic changes, such as a refurbished lobby, or landscaping.
Whether the Stoney Creek Towers AGI follows those rules is central to the dispute. A hearing to decide the matter is scheduled for Nov. 1 to 2.
In the meantime, landlords in Ontario are keeping a close eye on the east Hamilton rent strike, consultant Danny Roth said outside Tuesday’s hearing. “The industry is concerned, in particular, with this issue in regards to the number of rent strikes that we’re starting to see,” said Roth, who represents the Federation of Rental-housing Providers of Ontario.
The Stoney Creek Towers rent strike draws inspiration from recent campaigns in Toronto.
Roth said these are often organized by non-tenants who use the fear of bad publicity to pressure landlords.
Bjarke Risager, a member of the Hamilton Tenants’ Solidarity Network, rejected the image of disconnected, outside agitators. The vast majority of organizers are renters with concerns about escalating rates and gentrification, he said.
Moreover, the rent strike has the support of labour unions, “who, of course, recognize the strike as being a legitimate tool to win rights.
“People now realize that may be necessary to do in housing struggles as well ...”
The strikers, with the help of the Hamilton Tenants’ Solidarity Network, have pushed the landlord to negotiate with them rather than slug it out in the provincial tribunal.