Several tenants in Toronto's Thorncliffe Park who are withholding their rent in protest of above-guideline rent increases being sought by their landlord have been served with eviction notices.
The tenants association for the buildings at 71, 75, and 79 Thorncliffe Park Dr. says approximately 100 households began a rent strike in May after their landlord, Starlight/PSP Investments, refused to withdraw applications to up their rent beyond the annual allowable amount set by the province.
The proposed increases vary from 4.94 per cent to 5.5 per cent in 2023, according to copies of notices provided to CP24.com. Starlight/PSP Investments, which the tenants group says has not specified why it is seeking the AGI aside from some mentions of work being done to the structure and balconies of the buildings, also sought a 4.2 per cent increase in all 3 properties in 2022.
If both increases are ultimately approved by the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB), tenants will be required to pay the difference owed retroactively from May of 2022 when the first increase was supposed to come into effect.
That could add up to thousands of dollars for some renters.
“We don’t feel it’s our responsibility to pay for building upgrades. For us, we don’t want this rent increase. Most of the people in these buildings are living basically paycheck to paycheck,” said tenant Sameer Beyan, who has lived in a two-bedroom suite with his parents for the last eight years.
“After three years of pandemic, there are lots of job losses. People are off work and getting reduced wages, but we’re still paying our rent in full and the landlord is still making money. Now they’re asking for an almost 10 per cent rent increase.”
Every year, the Ontario government announces the province’s rent increase guideline for the following year. In 2023, the allowable amount a landlord can up the rent on rent-controlled units, those that are first occupied before Nov. 15, 2018, is to 2.5 per cent. The year before, the provincially-approved rent increase was 1.2 per cent.
Anything above that requires approval from the LTB and so far a hearing has not been scheduled for any of the increases being sought by Starlight/PSP Investments.
In a June 1 statement provided to CP24.com, Danny Roth of Starlight Investments described the applications as “reasonable” and said that the additional rent is necessary to help offset some of the work associated with ensuring “our communities are well maintained, structurally sound, safe and secure.”
Roth also said that the number of tenants actually withholding their rent is much lower than reported by the tenants association.
“Our records do not support the contention that more than 100 residents are participating in this action and, in fact, the number of tenancies withholding rent since the announced campaign is significantly fewer, with the vast majority of our tenants respecting the terms of their lease,” he said.
“While a reasonable and considered application for an above guideline increase has been filed to recover some of the costs associated with the work, an AGI application hasn’t been heard yet or approved, and no tenant is required to pay a single dollar more in rent at this time. As such, we believe that a rent strike over a possible rent increase - that is not in effect - is poorly timed and misguided.”
According to the Residential Tenancies Act, above-guideline rent increases may be granted when a landlord’s costs for municipal taxes and charges have gone up by an “extraordinary” amount, when the renovations, repairs, replacements or new additions to their building or individual units are deemed to be “extraordinary or significant” or when a landlord’s costs for security services increase.
Some tenants in the building, however, believe that the increase that is being proposed isn’t reasonable.
Both Beyan and fellow tenant Tricia-Ann Israel are members of the Thorncliffe Park Tenants Association and have been working with their neighbours to organize and raise awareness about the proposed AGI. The tenants group has met almost weekly for more than a year.
They say they’ve tried multiple times to get their landlord to come to the table and talk with them, and ultimately withdraw the AGI applications.
“But we’re not getting a response so we’re hoping that this action (rent strike) will get a response,” he said.
“We’re hoping that the power of numbers will lead to some kind of conversation. … A rent strike is a strong tool to get our message across.”
Israel said she’s not too confident that will happen, adding “the only kind of conversation the landlord wants to have is about when the rent will be paid.”
Roth, for his part, said that Starlight/PSP Investments is doing what it can to support residents struggling to cover rent. But he said that the rent strike is viewed as a “potential breach” of rental agreements.
“We have and will continue to offer rent relief to any tenant struggling meet their financial obligations. Nevertheless, choosing to withhold rent as part of a ‘rent strike’ will be viewed differently and seen as a potential breach of our rental agreement,” he said.
On Monday, some of the tenants on rent strike received a notice from the LTB that the landlord has filed to evict them for non payment of rent. It is not clear how many of the tenants received the notice.
“We are disappointed that instead of withdrawing the rent hikes or meeting with us to discuss a way forward, PSP has filed to evict us,” one of the impacted tenants, Suleiman Romodan, said.
“PSP continues to show complete disregard for families in Thorncliffe Park.”
CP24.com has reached out to the landlord for a follow-up statement, but we have not heard back.
