Tenants push back against 5-week eviction notice

After living in her apartment for nearly four years, Karelle Sikapi figured she would get more than five weeks' notice to find a new place. 

The 23-year-old lives in a building in Little Italy she says is filled with students. Tenants were recently told the property manager wants all 185 units vacant by the end of August. 

"To be [thrust] into this process is jarring, not just for me, but for a lot of students who don't have backup plans," Sikapi said. 

Residents of the building on Champagne Avenue South were notified on July 23 by the property's general manager that a motion will be brought before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on Thursday to seek approval to sell the property.

A condition of the proposed sale is that the building be vacant Sept. 1 so that the buyer can address mould issues in the building, according to the letter to tenants. 

To Sikapi, the approach is giving the impression that "they want this place to be filled with people that aren't us, that aren't the students and the young people and the people that can't afford high rent prices.

"It really feels a bit like a betrayal."

Seeking fairer terms

Yaasir Hosenie says he believes he's been living with mould in his unit since May, adding that all residents were notified about the problem in June.

An email from the general manager stated they conducted an interim indoor air quality and mould assessment throughout the building. 

"We are not pushing against the sale or against the remediation because we understand mould is a health hazard and everything, but we are pushing for fairer terms and also for our voice to be heard," Hosenie said. 

The notice to tenants stated that if the court grants approval to sell, the tenant will execute a N11 — an agreement to end the tenancy form, and a release form. 

Once the tenant signs the forms and vacates the unit, the new owner will have to pay each tenant the equivalent of two months' rent for relocation expenses. 

In a statement to CBC, the property manager said it recognizes this is a time of uncertainty for tenants and that it's committed to being a reliable source of information and assistance throughout the process.

"As legal proceedings are ongoing, we are unable to provide further comment at this time," Varsity Communities added.

Lawyer takes case as pro-bono

Hosenie says he has a letter with over 40 signatures to push back in court and expects more tenants to lend their support too. 

His goal is to extend the timeline to give tenants the proper amount of notice, to properly compensate them to move out so rapidly, or give them an option to return to their unit after remediation with the same pre-existing lease conditions. 

Lawyer Kevin Wiener has stepped in to take on the case pro-bono. He said he heard about the situation on social media and reached out to help as he thought it was unfair that tenants might get evicted on short notice "without any real opportunity to have a lawyer argue for them."

"That's not how we're supposed to do things in this province and in this country," he added. 

Wiener will represent Hosenie in court on Thursday and expects to see "some kind of adjournment." 

"If this building genuinely does require to be vacated to do mould remediation, there's a process to do that, although an expensive one and if they want to short circuit that process, they need to incentivize the tenants to voluntarily give up their leases or they [have] to go through the process," Wiener said.