In the cold: Toronto apartment residents boiling over boiler failure

Residents of a midtown Toronto apartment building who haven’t had enough heat for days say they’re worried about facing one of the coldest days of the year.

“I feel like I’m in the Arctic,” said Alex Donovan, a longtime resident of the building who lives on the third floor.

“Just doing the basics in the bathroom you’re freezing when you get out,” Donovan told Global News in a television interview inside his 800-square-foot suite.

Donovan hasn’t showered in days, he says, because of the cold he’ll face after turning off the water and stepping from the tub.

“It’s really cold, everybody’s suffering,” said Andrea Thompson, a second-floor resident who works from home.

She considers herself lucky because the temperature in her apartment is relatively good. But the banging of the struggling heating system is another matter.

“It bangs all the time, like baseball bats and a train going through,” she said.

The temperature inside units like Donovan’s hovers around 15 C. Under the law, landlords must provide a minimum temperature of 21 C between the middle of September and the end of May.

Residents of The Fleetwood apartment on St. Clair Avenue, west of Yonge Street, say the building’s owner and property management company were unresponsive when they complained.

“This is completely unacceptable,” said Josh Matlow, the councillor for Toronto-St. Paul’s, Ward 12.

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“The property management company, Briar Lane, was dismissive and slow to respond to tenants until my office and I engaged RentSafeTo staff to investigate the issues,” Matlow wrote in a tweet.

The building is owned by North York-based Cherishome Living.

Contacted by Global News for comment, president James McArthur said by telephone that “we are doing everything possible through our property manager Briar Lane to get (the heat) restored as soon as possible.”

Later, McArthur declined to confirm Cherishome Living actually owns the building, even though its sign hangs on in front of the building and The Fleetwood is listed in its online portfolio of rental properties.

“That’s not public information,” McArthur said, before ending the call.

Global News went in person to the company’s corporate office in search of answers.

Jeff Usher, Cherishome Living’s vice-president, said the company had provided space heaters to residents who asked for them.

He would not acknowledge that there was insufficient heat in some apartments.

“We’re doing everything we can to make sure they have heat in the units,” Usher said.

Earlier, Toronto Mayor John Tory showed up at The Fleetwood to meet with residents, including Donovan, to whom the mayor gave his personal phone number.

Tory said he would be calling the building owner personally.

“We’ve made it clear and will be making it clear to the owners that it should be fixed as soon as possible, spare no expense, spare nothing in getting it fixed because it’s cold in there. We can’t have people cold in their homes,” Tory told Global News in an interview in the building lobby.

City of Toronto bylaw enforcement officers were also at the apartment Thursday, going door to door to check temperatures inside each unit.

As a result of five complaints about low heat and two complaints about property standards, the city issued two notices of violation and two property standards orders.

A spokesperson for the city said investigations are continuing.

Asked what she’d like to see happen now, Thompson said she just wants the heat fixed.