Long-time residents of an apartment complex on Brant Avenue are ‘terrified,’ facing potential renoviction from their rent-controlled units.
In a letter dated July 26, residents of 8 Brant Ave. were told the corporation that owns the building, Brant Apts Inc., has “no choice but to terminate your lease” effective Nov. 30, as they plan a major renovation project in the building.
The work, it says, will take between six to nine months, and has been deemed a critical health and safety concern, making the units uninhabitable during that time.
As most tenants pay under $1,200 for their units, they fear they won’t be able to afford new market rentals for those nine months, and worry they won’t be able to return in the first place.
N-13 and N-9 forms were enclosed with the letter, given to tenants in the 11 units that haven’t yet been renovated.
Two other apartment building in the same complex, 4 Brant Ave., and 6 Brant Ave., have also been granted building permits for significant renovations to all units, although no eviction notices have yet been sent in those buildings.
In total there are 45 apartments in the complex, built in the mid-1960s.
The Residential Tenancies Act requires a landlord to pay a maximum of three month’s rent as compensation. For many of the tenants, this would amount to just over $3,000. But if tenants agree to leave before Aug. 31, relinquishing their right to return and voluntarily ending their tenancy, that increases to $6,000.
Tenants who don’t voluntarily end their lease have a right to return once the work is completed, but some worry that won’t be the case.
“Nobody’s getting the honest truth out of anybody, so people start getting scared because they don’t know what’s happening,” said Kathy, who asked to only use her first name. “It’s scaring people.”
Kathy lives in one of the few already-renovated units in 6 Brant Ave. But her daughter, who is visually impaired, and her 18-year-old grandson who was just diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour, live in 8 Brant Ave. and received the notice to end their tenancy.
Her daughter, like many others in the complex, pays only $1,100 for her three bedroom unit, which includes utilities, and can’t afford to go anywhere else.
Kathy is worried as she doesn’t believe their right to return will be honoured given the lack of transparency and trust since the corporation took over earlier this year.
Tenants of the three buildings owned by Brant Apts Inc. have had no contact with the owner since they took over; they say their leases still list the previous building owners, and have been given no contact information for Brant Apts Inc. besides a PO box.
Corporate records show Michael Klein as the only face behind the corporation, but no one can seem to find him. His name has surfaced in the news recently with ties to similar situations in Kitchener, London and Hamilton.
Attempts to contact Klein or the building superintendent were unsuccessful.
Building permits were issued on March 12 for all three buildings for “interior renovations” removing kitchen walls to create an open concept layout, installing new bathroom tiles and a new tub, new flooring throughout, new kitchen cabinets, an island, new kitchen appliances, new closet doors, updates to lighting fixtures, switches and electrical sockets, as well as the replacement of risers.
Daniel Kaufmann has lived in his three-bedroom apartment at 8 Brant Ave. with his dad, Tom, for the last six years, paying a total of $1,200 for rent, including utilities and parking spots.
He said he doesn’t doubt the building needs upgrades but that a lot of the renovations are cosmetic – tearing walls down for an open concept space, “to make it look fancy.”
“We’re very fortunate to be here,” he said. “But just because we’re fortunate, we still legally are entitled to be here. They can’t just kick us out for renovictions.”
“If we want to exercise the right of first refusal, we’re not confident that we’re going to be able to do that,” he said. “We want to be able to guarantee that we can actually come back to our units.”
Nate Davison lives in a two-bedroom apartment with his wife in the building on 6 Brant Ave. Their building has not received any notices to terminate the tenancy yet, but they assume it’s only a matter of time before they arrive, since all three buildings in the complex were approved for the exact same building permits at the same time.
“So I’m assuming we’ll be getting N-13’s sometime,” he said. “It might be waiting until the tenants of 8 leave… so they don’t have the tenants working together.”
Still, he said the looming renoviction has been stressful.
“Everyone in the (building) is terrified because there’s nowhere to go. Guelph is already in a housing crisis (with) insane rental prices to begin with. You have senior citizens who have been here for 20, 30 years, who are on government paychecks; we have people on ODSP. Where are they supposed to go? Even if they could afford it, you have 15 units in that one building, and they’re all going to be looking for somewhere at the same time.”
He said under the RTA tenants have a right to move back in after the work is completed, but believes the owner will rent the units at a higher price.
“If they do that, the only consequence for them is that they have to pay the old tenant up to a year in rent,” he said.
So if someone there pays $1,000 in rent, they would get $12,000
“But he’d be charging that unit up to $2,500 a month, so he’ll make up his loss in time. It’s almost like it doesn’t matter, it’s just the cost of business for them, whereas it’s placing people out of their homes for us.”
Meanwhile, 4 Brant Ave. resident Charles McKay has been strategically withholding rent since June in hopes of forcing Klein to take him to the LTB, and in the process, revealing his contact information.
He said he was advised by the LTB to withhold rent because a landlord is supposed to provide contact information, or the tenant is not required to pay rent.
He’s paying under $1,050 for a two-bedroom with utilities included.
“(Klein) doesn’t give us (a real address), he doesn’t give us a phone number or anything like that. So I can’t serve him court documents,” he said. “There is a clause in the Residential Tenancy Act that says if the landlord isn’t giving you that ability, you don’t have to pay them rent.”
In response to withholding rent, McKay is hoping Klein will take him to the LTB “to expose him to the point where I can actually take him to tribunal.”
In his building, he said the bulk of tenants are new to Canada from Eritrea, or elderly widows.
“They’re not going to defend themselves. So I’ve been trying to fight him,” he said.
He said the timeframe of six to nine months is unreasonable for tenants to relocate.
“I really can’t afford to live anywhere else in the city. It would push me out of town. I have a daughter with a congenital heart defect. She needs to be near her doctors, her family; I’m not going to disrupt her life like that.”
