We had quite the loud and lively meeting yesterday evening. It lasted two hours and covered a variety of important topics.
Building 201 is primarily a senior building. Weirdly, they seem to be having the brunt of the issues lately. Their first issue was a door that was broken sometime late Christmas night/early Boxing Day morning. Someone, unfortunately out of range of the security cameras, threw a rock through the glass back door. The concern was the lack of timely repair of this door. Granted, it was the holiday weekend, but the door was "secured" with tape and a plastic recycling bin. This allowed everyone free access to the building, until the door was finally repaired the evening of Wednesday, December 28th.
Nina, the representative for Cap-Reit, immediately began the blame-game. It wasn't their fault because no one called the office. She said this several times until she finally listened and realized the office had been called... several times. She immediately went on to blame the caller. If she'd said "secure the door" and detailed exactly how to do that instead of asking them to "fix the door" everything would have been fine. Then she blamed the staff member who did the initial "repair". He's new and didn't know that doors need to be secured with more than tape and a plastic bin. He thought he'd done a good job. When tenants expressed concerns that they'd felt unsafe while the door was open to all, Nina laughed and told tenants they were perfectly safe and they should try moving to Toronto if they thought they were in any danger to see what "unsafe" was like. After much animated discussion she backed down and said she'd talk to the person in the office about how to deal with phone calls from tenants. The person was supposed to notify Nina immediately, instead she closed the office and went home (the caller watched this from her window).
At this point Nina got a phone call and had to leave due to an emergency. There was a water leak in the basement of 201. This water leak also occurred on the 28th. Several tenants commented the leak smelled like sewage, despite Nina's insistence it was just water, and one tenant said the previous repair didn't appear to be much more than replacing the floor tiles over top the leak. Concerns about repairs in 201 lead to discussion regarding a loud buzzing sound heard throughout the building (primarily in the bathrooms). Tenants described it as loud, annoying, persistent, and irritating. One tenant explained she had to sleep with a fan blowing to cover the sound so she could sleep at night. When Nina came back she informed the tenants it was just normal noise and that all the experts they'd brought in had told her this. But if tenants wanted to bring in their own professionals to check, she'd pay for it (all said in tones of extreme irritation). Tenants in 201 wanted to know why their hallways were unheated and cold to the point that they needed to put on coats to go to check the mail. They were informed that no hallways in any building were heated. It was brought up that the hallways in 101 were warm. 201 has known circulation issues and it was brought up as a possible reason for the temperatures in the hallways. At this point several tenants commented that cigarette smoke and cooking smells entered their units from other apartments.
A final, but huge issue, for tenants in 201 is "escort services" located in certain apartments in the building. Tenants were deeply concerned about the people entering the building to go to these locations. Multiple tenants have been propositioned in the elevator. We had a couple of police officers attend the meeting and one mentioned a co-worker was also propositioned in that building. There are condoms scattered around the building and one tenant's teenage son entered the elevator at the tail end of a blowjob. Thankfully this issue is being dealt with and, also thankfully, not entirely by Nina who once again informed the concerned tenants that these are the best buildings in Whitby and, if they thought otherwise, they could always just move. Hopefully we'll have a positive resolution for this issue by the next meeting.
Apartment repairs came up next. Two tenants had the same issue. The bathroom fan had problems, a work order was filed, and oops, Cap-Reit didn't have the right size fan so a larger fan was installed until one could be ordered. One tenant was still waiting for the right fan while the other tenant had to fill multiple work orders (and speak to the former property manager at a previous meeting) in order to get a new fan. Tenants wanted to know why maintenance staff didn't file paperwork stating a repair was incomplete and a new product needed to be ordered. Nina explained that the staff was "busy" and we just didn't understand what their days are like. The tenants, all of whom either worked or were retired, were underwhelmed by this excuse.
The final and biggest issue was hydro. When I moved into the buildings years ago, our rent was all-inclusive. New tenants now have to pay hydro on top of their rent. The tenants came in confused, angry and frustrated. Tenants were told, when they moved in, that their electric bill would only be about $30 or $40 a month. One tenant's bill was $170 (not including initial set up fees and deposit). Him and his wife work full-time so no one's home for most of the day. He said all they do in the evening is watch some TV with only one light on. Their stove is broken so they don't even cook at home. Another tenant's hydro bill came to $75 and they haven't even turned their heat on yet. She's freezing and shivering under blankets with their dogs to try and stay warm, terrified of what their hydro bill would be with the baseboard heaters on.
The two tenants who brought their bills in were both being charged for two meters and neither knew why. One had tried to call Stratcon (the electric company on the bill) only to be told they'd contracted their services out to Cap-Reit and only Cap-Reit management could explain the bills. Cap-Reit said it was Stratacon who dealt with the bills. Meanwhile the tenants are stuck with bills larger than the ones they had in full detached houses and no one willing to explain why. And they're stuck dealing with leaky windows and faulty thermostats (although Nina insists work orders will fix this).
There is some good news for the tenants who moved in while the rent was all-inclusive. I called the Landlord and Tenant Board today and those tenants will not be paying hydro unless they sign something stating they want to (or move to another unit).
The next meeting is on February 1st at 7:30pm and I'm hoping to see more people there.
No comments:
Post a Comment