Residents of a Toronto condominium say they’re being left in the dark about significant heating issues during one of the coldest winter stretches of the year.
“I am guessing it’s happened about seven times now,” one tenant, who wished to remain anonymous, told CityNews.
He says rolling heating outages started in October at the condo at 251 Jarvis Street at Dundas Street East, dubbed Dundas Square Gardens.
“With the space heater, we had to purchase ourselves, we raised the temperature a bit before we actually had to start using the oven.”
The tenant turned the space heater off for CityNews, and within an hour, his thermostat dropped to 63 F or about 17 C. He’s not the only resident at 251 Jarvis Street encountering this.
Lola Fugnitto said she recently awoke to freezing cold temperatures inside her unit. Another building resident, Chris Moore, told CityNews he’s been experiencing the opposite issue.
“I wake up every single day, and it’s overheated. The entire apartment.”
The 50-storey building, completed in 2020, is run by Icon Property Management. The unidentified tenant tells CityNews his constant attempts to rectify the problem have been ignored. He was eventually told that the heating was an issue with his unit and that the landlord was responsible for it.
In an email shared with CityNews, management explained to the tenant that an emergency repair was needed but that technicians were waiting on parts.
“It could be up to two weeks.”
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Icon Property Management issued a statement to CityNews, which reads, “The Condominium Corporation and its agents are actively working to implement a permanent solution. It has taken and continues to take all possible steps to remedy the disruption.”
Meanwhile, the tenant says the space heater is inadequate, and the building management hasn’t provided any other solutions.
The City of Toronto requires landlords and property managers to respond to requests about inadequate or nonexistent heat within 24 hours and keep the heat at a minimum of 21 C during the winter.
The tenant claims this is a bylaw issue.
“The temperature is not being reached. But has anyone come out to check the building temperature? No.”
Toronto and much of southern Ontario experienced frigid winter temperatures this week, with daytime highs in the -12 C and -11 C range. Environment Canada issued an extreme cold warning, which was eventually lifted, but not before wind chill values made it feel more like -33.
A city spokesperson tells CityNews that it has not been made aware of any recent heat concerns by tenants at 251 Jarvis Street, adding they can contact 311 and submit a complaint to launch an investigation.
If landlords or property managers do not comply with the heating bylaw, the City of Toronto says they could face a fine of up to $100,000 or a daily fine of up to $10,000 each day the violation persists.
