Heat restored, tenants home at last
[attach]7719[/attach]Heat was finally circulating on April 5 in a North Toronto apartment building that had been cold since February.
“I wouldn’t say they’re happy — just relieved that the worst is over,” Yonge and Strathgowan Tenants administrator Dan Simon said of 15 tenants he had represented in pressuring landlord Bianca Pollak for repairs and an ensuing series of seven emergency hearings before the Landlord and Tenant Board.
The building at 2779 Yonge St. was without heat and hot water since the morning of Feb. 11, when firefighters arrived to investigate a suspected carbon monoxide leak. The furnace was condemned, and Toronto Hydro refused to turn the gas on until the heating system was repaired.
Simon called in the Landlord and Tenant Board on Feb. 26, accusing Pollak of not taking the necessary steps to repair the furnace. The tenants were moved to temporary accommodations, the state of which became the subject of subsequent hearings before adjudicator Joseph Berkovits.
Most tenants returned to their apartments after hot water was restored on March 26.
“We did the best we could to get [the heat] on as quickly as possible,” Pollak’s legal counsel Carolyn Kerr commented to the Town Crier after the final emergency hearing on April 7.
Additional hearings have been scheduled for June 13 and 24.
