Hot water at last!
[attach]7643[/attach]Hot water was turned back on in apartment units at 2779 Yonge St. this morning, but it could take as long as 10 days before heat is restored and 15 displaced tenants can return to the stricken North Toronto building that has been cold since mid-February.
Landlord Bianca Pollak told a March 25 Landlord and Tenant Board hearing, the sixth in as many weeks, a new hot water boiler had been installed but a new steam boiler had not yet been delivered, and estimated that installation could take 10 days or more.
Tenants, meanwhile, were left scrambling for alternate accommodations after learning the midtown hotel they’d been staying in could not accommodate them beyond today.
Tenants of the Yonge Street and Strathgowan Avenue apartment building have been without heat and hot water since the morning of Feb. 11, when firefighters arrived to investigate a suspected carbon monoxide leak. The building’s furnace was condemned, and Toronto Hydro has refused to turn the gas on until the heating system has been repaired.
The Landlord and Tenant Board got involved on Feb. 26, after Yonge & Strathgowan Tenants administrator Dan Simon called, accusing Pollak of not taking the necessary steps to repair the furnace. In five previous hearings adjudicator Joseph Berkovits demanded an accounting of steps being taken to replace the aging heating system and compelled Pollak to provide suitable accommodations.
“We’re doing everything we can to get the heat back on and working in cooperation with the tenants,” Pollak’s counsel, Carolyn Kerr, told the Town Crier after the March 25 hearing, which was also attended by local city councillor Jaye Robinson.
Based on Pollak’s new estimate of when final repairs would be complete, Berkovits scheduled a seventh hearing for Monday, April 7.
After some of the building’s residents made it known they would be willing to return to their apartments once hot water was restored, Berkovits estimated 10 to be still displaced and warned Pollak he would call another hearing before April 7 if she did not pay for accommodations for them until then.
Those remaining tenants and Kerr agreed to collaborate on finding an alternative to the hotel, and report their final decision to the board today.
“We’re starting to move in the right direction,” Simon, who has been representing the tenants, said after the hearing. “It’s been dragged to this point, but I think we’re finally starting to pick up some steam.”
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