Parkdale residents protest against landlord's application for 'above-guideline' rent increases

Residents of two apartment buildings in Toronto's Parkdale neighbourhood staged a protest on Tuesday accusing their landlord of what they say are unjustified and "above-guideline" rent increases.

The residents protested outside the Toronto offices of property management company Akelius Canada — a Sweden-based multinational corporation.

Residents of Akelius-owned buildings 77 Spencer Avenue and 109 Indian Road say the company is looking to increase their rent by 5.5 per cent, which is more than double the guideline of 2.5 per cent set by Ontario. They say many of the tenants are low-income and living in precarious situations.

Annie Gibson, a resident at the Spencer Avenue building, said the company is claiming that it carried out a "capital project" there within the last year, and is using that to justify an increase.

"They're applying [to the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB)] for balcony repairs. A lot of the people who live in the building don't have balconies and we're expected to pay for it anyways because it's considered a capital expense," Gibson told CBC Toronto.

CBC Toronto reached out to Akelius Canada for comment but did not receive a response.

Gibson said she found her apartment many years ago when it was affordable, but that "every time they raise the cost, it just makes it a little bit harder to afford to live in this city.

"When I'm faced with a company ... that doesn't need the rent increase they're giving to any of these tenants, I just can't stomach it. It makes me sick," she added.

Gibson admits that the rent increase is "not a huge amount," but said when taken in the context of other living expenses, it all adds up.

"For me, it's an extra $34 a month, which maybe it's not a huge amount of money, but you know, when my grocery bill went up, when my telephone bill went up, you know, every bill has gone up — every expense, every cost — it gets exhausting," she said.

Rent increases 'not justified,' legal case worker says

Candace Nguyen and Tina Hafizy, legal case workers with Parkdale Community Legal Clinic, joined the protest to show support for the tenants.

Nguyen said the rent increases are "not justified at all."

"They haven't been maintaining the apartments and they use capital expenditures on things like lobbies, useless things that don't help the tenants, while they have real issues like mice and cockroaches and real maintenance requests that have just been ignored time and time again," she said.

Hafizy said while "these above-guideline rent increases" happen regularly, "nothing gets fixed for the tenants."

"From our experience, there's just a flood of problems, and really what they're doing is fixing the balconies on a cosmetic level, maybe changing the lights in the lobbies. These are not actually things that fix things for tenants," Hafizy said.

Landlords must apply to the Landlord and Tenant Board for increases that are above the provincial guideline.

But too often, Nguyen and Hafizy says, increases are simply approved instead of negotiated.

Hafizy called the increases "a legal loophole" that allows companies to collect more profits even when tenants can't afford them.

The high cost of renting in Toronto has consistently been in the spotlight as rental prices have skyrocketed in recent years.

The average price of a one-bedroom apartment in the city has jumped 23 per cent from December 2021 to December 2022, standing at $2,532 monthly, according to a report published by the rental search site Rentals.ca and Urbanation, a real estate research firm. A two-bedroom apartment will cost you an average of $3,347 per month, the report found.