March 24, 2024
Sent By Email
Muge Fikri, Property Manager
Akelius Residential Properties
Re: Tenants’ Safety During Heating Failure at 16 St Joseph Street
Dear Ms. Muge Fikri at Akelius Residential Properties,
I am writing this letter because your tenants at 16 St Joseph Street need decisive action and urgent accommodation to protect their well-being during the failure of your heating systems in their homes. Please share this letter with Akelius Head of Canada Shelly Lee as I ask that she personally involve herself in this matter to ensure the health and safety of her tenants.
It is unimaginable that Ontario residents have been living in an Akelius rental building without essential heating since March 2, 2024. Winter temperatures in Toronto have remained consistently below levels that are safe. Tenants have an inviolable right to safe dwellings and this includes the vital service of an indoor temperature that is at least 21 degrees Celsius.
It is the responsibility of the property manager and landlord at 16 St Joseph Street to ensure its heating and ventilation systems are maintained and regularly serviced. The failure of the critical heating and ventilation system and any delayed response to adequately address this problem underscores the importance of proactive work to maintain all of your rental properties’ critical infrastructure. I understand from correspondence with involved parties that proactively upgrading the boiler heating system was not prioritized until the boiler failed.
These failures are not an accident. They happen too regularly in Ontario when landlords allow critical equipment to fail by not regularly maintaining the equipment or proactively planning to replace systems as they near their end-of-use cycle. I unfortunately have extensive experience with misguided landlords deferring costs on these critical infrastructure failures from my time as a City Councillor and now as a Member of Provincial Parliament. It is always more costly and inconvenient to your tenants to let the systems fail. I know that it is your responsibility to keep your tenants safe and to ensure that they have uninterrupted access to their homes. When your critical infrastructure fails, it is also your responsibility to propose immediate and adequate solutions to keep them safe and unharmed.
As you cannot find a way to restore the heating system immediately, I demand that you provide hotel rooms in the vicinity as temporary accommodations for your affected and now vulnerable tenants until adequate heating is restored. It will be your responsibility to ensure that they can access their units, and that their units are secured from an increased risk of break-ins during this time. This is your direct responsibility as a landlord and the tenants should not be punished for the failure of your heating system – something that they had absolutely no control over.
I’m informed Akelius is offering partial rent abatements and space heaters — but your tenants have shared with my office that these measures are wholly inadequate. Fuses are regularly blowing because of the outdated electrical system. Your tenants are cold, tired and getting sicker. Their physical and mental health will be harmed for as long as they go without heat. I believe that providing them with safe and adequately heated hotel rooms or other suitable alternatives while ensuring they can access their homes, would be the least that you can do during this most challenging time for them.
I am not asking for any shortcuts to be taken that might put your tenants at risk. Providing hotel rooms is a reasonable accommodation for this situation. I even imagine that it may be covered by your insurance policy.
I need to hear back from you or Shelly Lee as soon as possible and no later than March 26, 2024. You can reach my office at any time by emailing [email protected] or calling 416-972-7684.
Sincerely,
Kristyn Wong-Tam
Member of Provincial Parliament for Toronto Centre
120 Carlton St. Suite 401
Toronto, ON
M5A 2K4