NewComplaint

This is the story of my first apartment, a corrupt landlord and his boot lickers.

In February of 2021, I moved into my first apartment by myself following a break up. There definitely were some red flags, but being that I desperately needed to move and I had I had no credit, no job, no money, and no references, I took the first place I could get. The first red flag was the first time I spoke to the (on-site) superintendent over the phone when I was asking to view the apartment. He asked me if I was working or not and I told him I’m on ODSP (Ontario Disability Support Program). He responded by saying that he’s had problems with people in the building on ODSP paying their rent, implying that people on social assistance are irresponsible. The second red flag I got from him was when I was on my way to view the apartment, he asked me to buy him a coffee. He didn’t pay me back either.

He also lit up a cigarette in the empty apartment and made the whole thing really difficult for me by not letting me sign the lease until I had put money down, even though I was getting assistance to cover the first and last month’s rent, and therefore needed to sign the lease before they would release the funds to the landlord. I had to sneakily take a photo of the lease after I had signed it because he wouldn’t let me have a copy of it until he had gotten the funds! And to be honest, yes I did notice some maintenance issues when I was viewing the apartment, but I don’t even want to describe how desperate I was to get out of the situation I was in and I hoped that if I brought up the issues they would be fixed.

Another unpleasant experience I had with the superintendent was on August 25 of that year when he was hanging out with two of my neighbors in the morning right outside of my bedroom and I went to confront them about waking me up. This had been an ongoing issue with the neighbors hanging out right outside my bedroom while I was sleeping, and I thought with the superintendent there too this time maybe I could get somewhere with getting them to stop. When I opened the door and complained they had woken me up, the superintendent told me that any man would be lucky to have me. When I asked him why he said “because you look so good when you first wake up” or something like that. Nothing like some casual sexual harassment from a 60 year old man! I was 27 at the time, younger than his children.

To get started I’ll just give a quick rundown of what the maintenance issues were to give an idea of how much of a slum this apartment building was. There were pests, bed bugs and mice, and there were birds living in my bathroom vent. Most of the lights flickered and turned off by themselves. There was black mold in the bathroom and bedroom. Both doors to the outside weren’t weather sealed. One of the windows had a broken panel and didn’t close all the way leaving about a centimeter open gap at the bottom, and most of the windows didn’t lock and most of the screens were ripped or missing. The hot water heater went out twice leaving me with no hot water and my heating stopped working once. And one time the water pressure went extremely low so I had almost no water coming out of any of the faucets.

I notified the superintendent about the lights on September 9th. Keep in mind that they were LED fixtures, therefore, they had no light bulbs. They had LED diodes. I told the superintendent 3 times that they were LED fixtures. When he came over to look at the lights he was staring at my chest which I found to be really uncomfortable and I’m always confused when people do that because there really isn’t much to look at. He didn’t do anything about the lights and so I texted him about it again on September 30. He responded, “On Sept. 9th this year I came to your unit you had a concern with light fixtures through out your unit I was going to replace them, but I have reconsidered. According to the Housing Tribunal tenants are to replace there own light bulbs and believe that is all that is needed you can find replacement at home Depot, Lowes or Rona.” I also notified the building manager on October 5 of the problem specifically explaining that they’re LED fixtures that need to be replaced. She responded by saying, “unclear as to why lights flicker. Maybe try tightening the bulb. Let me know after bulbs have been tightened”.

I had bed bugs twice while living there. The first spray done in my unit was on May 21, 2021. The superintendent gave me another unit to stay in for the day, but I was told by a neighbor who had been helping with construction in that unit that I shouldn’t go in there because there was a severe bed bug infestation. The bugs returned again in September, and that’s where this story really kicks off. When I told the superintendent about the bugs having come back, he came over, and asked me if anyone else was home. I was there by myself. He started stripping my bed sheets from my bed and throwing them into garbage bags and threw the bags outside telling me I should throw them away. It was completely inappropriate and it really freaked me out that I was alone with this man in my bedroom. He was giving me verbal instructions about how to prepare for the spray but I was so triggered that I didn’t remember most of his instructions, not that I’ve ever been great with verbal instructions. He also asked me if I leave my dogs cage open or closed at night. I told him I leave it open so that he knew if he tried anything he was gonna get bit.

On September 18, the superintendent took it upon himself to spray my unit for bed bugs using an over the counter product and a spray bottle from the dollar store. I knew beforehand that he was going to do this because of my neighbors talking about him behind his back so I decided to point my security cameras inwards for the day to catch him in the act. I even caught him on camera mixing the chemicals on my kitchen counter. I waited for him outside of my apartment to confront him about it. He came out for a break and I asked him where the exterminator was, and he told me that he would be doing the spray. When I asked him if he was licensed he said “no”. He began deflecting by telling me I hadn’t prepared for the spray properly as he had told me to, to which I told him I have a disability that causes memory issues and therefore he should have given me written instructions. He took that opportunity to gaslight me by telling me that he had told me multiple times that he would be doing the spray, which was not true. I told him I don’t remember him saying that and he said, “I also told you to seal your bags and you don’t remember that so”. If he had told me beforehand that he was going to be doing it I wouldn’t have gone along with that. Furthermore, the superintendent blamed me for the bed bugs in my unit on October 1, saying over text, “when it comes to the bed bug situation that you have we are not unsympathetic to your situation but at the same we believe that it is possible that you are the cause of this problem. In my tenure here at [address] since 2014 there has never once been an infestation of bed bugs in your unit and it has been checked many times”, although living in this apartment had been my first experience with bed bugs ever in my life and the neighbors had talked about repeated outbreaks of bed bug infestations. When I talked to the building manager about the problem over the phone on October 5 she told me to use lavender or other essential oils to keep the bugs away! They tried everything… except for actually hiring an exterminator.

I ended up bug bombing my apartment myself since they wouldn’t hire an exterminator, so I posted a sign on my front door warning the neighbors to be cautious because I’m bombing the bed bugs, and I also taped around the door so that the fumes wouldn’t come out into the hallway. This set off the superintendent! He ripped the sign off my door and the tape and texted me telling me not to allow my friend to post anything on the door ever again, even though I was the one who had told my friend to do that. He followed up by saying, “at your earliest convenience, you and I only need to have a conversation. Please let me know when this can happen A.S.A.P.” I responded by telling him from now on that he can communicate with me over text or email, over the phone with the phone call being recorded or in person with my friend present. He responded by threatening to call the police, saying, “I will not accept your friends interference in any and all communications in the future and if need be I will contact the police.”

On September 27 at roughly 12pm my friend was moving some stuff to and from the storage space in the basement for me which we had both believed to be a common area because we had both been told by multiple neighbors that they have stored things in the basement and that we could also. As well, storage space was mentioned in my lease so we both reasonably thought the basement was a common area for all tenants to use. The superintendent saw my friend moving things to and from the basement and took this moment to have a power trip and arbitrarily decide that this was not a storage space and that my friend could not go down there, despite this never having been an issue before considering I had stuff stored down there for months and the superintendent had never said anything about it being a problem. The superintendent ran towards my friend, pushing the box he was carrying out of the way, and stood in front of him to block his path and to intimidate him. The superintendent then proceeded to yell at him and then threaten him by telling him they should take the matter off the property, threatening to have him evicted, and threatening to call the police on him for trespassing. When I came home that day the superintendent proceeded to yell at me from across the street that I need to “stick around because the police are coming”, attempting to intimidate me. Since the police never came we assumed he never called them and was making false threats to scare us. I figured out that the superintendent was especially upset that day because he had gotten my letter that I sent to all of the tenants of the building where I was trying to start a tenant union, but the mailman had misdelivered the mail, sending one of the letters to him which was not my intention.

On the last day of September I texted the superintendent a list of the maintenance issues I have in my apartment and around the property as well as the problem that I have with his behavior and the way that he had treated me and my friend. He responded the next day mentioning, “Also 1 final note if and when I effect repairs in your unit your guest will not be present and I will not be subjected to being videoed or audio. You do not and never will have my permission. Finally if any of these terms are unacceptable to you the tribunal is at your disposal or it has been relayed to me by the ownership that I can and will except your 60 days notice to vacate the unit. We will even accept at 30 day notice. This decision and only this decision we leave to you,” again trying to get me alone with him, trying to infringe on my rights to have people over and to take video in my apartment and attempting to coerce me into just moving out so that he doesn’t have to deal with any of the maintenance issues in my apartment.

I notified the building manager of the maintenance issues I was having in my apartment on October 5 as the landlord requested. In response to the mold issue she told me “please apply javex to the mold”. When I didn’t respond because I was upset by the way she was talking to me she texted me, “I have never dealt with a tenant like you. We are trying. If you are not happy we will not fault you for leaving. You have a lease… Like I said. You are not happy. We are trying our best. Please leave and we will bill your lease no fees. You have posted negative remarks about our building. We tried to help but you refuse. You will not be bound to your lease. You do not have to give notice. Are you ok,” trying to coerce me into just leaving.

I notified the building manager on October 14 that I had no hot water in my apartment since the superintendent had hit the gas line while digging two days earlier. She responded by saying to me, “Complete bitch. Sorry for my honesty.” When I told her that she is being unprofessional and that what she had said is considered harassment, and mocked her regarding the lights, she told me, “You’re giving me a headache. You’re being quite anal. Like I said. We will not fault you for leaving. Just please go.” Then I told her to stop coercing me into moving out and she responded by saying, “I am no longer employed by this building. Please do not harass me any further. You won. You can leave as I am no longer involved.” I responded once more by telling her I don’t believe that she is no longer employed by the landlord, that she is still involved and that I need her address for my applications to the Landlord Tenant Board. She ended the conversation by saying, “you’re a fraud. Will call police. No longer employed. Go haunt another house.”

I emailed the landlord a screenshot of my conversation with the building manager which clearly showed me explaining that I had no hot water and her response telling me I’m a “complete bitch”. He didn’t respond until 23 hours later by saying, “My understanding is that you have been in touch with [name]?” I explained the situation and included more screenshots of my conversation with her. He told me that, “In order to resolve your hot water issue and your other maintenance issues, you first need to fill out a work order and then allow the building manager to perform the necessary repairs.” He also said, “As [name] stated to you, you do not have to reside in a building that you are not comfortable with. We will hold not you responsible for any penalties re: your lease. All we would ask for is a proper 30 day notice and that you leave your unit in the manner that you first found it.” I responded by telling him that his suggestion that I need to fill out a work order form for them to fix my hot water was completely ridiculous and the issue needs to be fixed immediately. The issue was not fixed until October 18 (4 days later).

In December of that year there was an issue of not having heat in my apartment. I notified the landlord of the heat being out on December 5 and the issue wasn’t fixed until December 28! I live in Canada! The issue causing the delay was the superintendent refusing to work in my apartment because I have security cameras and the landlord’s refusal to hire another person willing to do the work.

Over the holidays the hot water pressure in my shower was so low that I had to take cold showers, which a plumber said was due to the superintendent repeatedly bleeding the system trying to get the heaters to work. My friend notified the superintendent for me on December 26 and the issue was not resolved until January 9. The issue with the hot water could have been fixed earlier but the plumber had to self isolate because of COVID and the superintendent refused to hire a different one. Over text the superintendent said to my friend, “he is the building plumber and that’s that”, ignoring that a critical service in my apartment wasn’t functioning. After looking at the shower, the plumber classified the issue as an emergency and came in on a Sunday to fix it despite originally saying he wasn’t working that day. I spent weeks either taking cold showers or having to heat up water on the stove to make a bath which took hours to heat up enough water, and there was a couple days overlap having no heat and no hot water. Those days were miserably cold. I was having trouble functioning and doing the things I needed to do when I was home because I was so cold. I started wearing my winter gear inside and had to put clothes on my cats.

The landlord, superintendent, and building manager all continued trying to convince me to move out and didn’t fix any further issues, despite me telling them all to stop and that I’d be taking legal action by filing with the Landlord Tenant Board. They even called animal services on me and took a photo of the notice on my door from animal services to include in their “evidence” against me. Unfortunately for them, just making a phone call to take a photo of the notice isn’t evidence of anything. As the landlord tenant board hearings approached, they began making up more lies about me to include in their case against me. Firstly, they said I wasn’t paying my rent, which wasn’t true. I always paid my rent on time, if not early. Next they said that the reason the building manager called me a bitch was because I called her a racial slur. I had never met her in person and had no idea what race she was. Really she was just salty that I brought up that the idiot of a superintendent hit a gas line because he hadn’t called the city beforehand to check where the gas line was before digging.

At some point the landlord’s lawyer started getting on my ass too, making that 4 employees and 2 neighbors making my life an absolute living fucking hell.

No, the neighbors never stopped waking me up the entire time I lived there. I continuously asked them politely over and over to please hang out in the front of the building instead. And keep in mind that I was super nice to these people and would bake for them frequently at least once a month, often cookies, brownies or cupcakes. One morning I became enraged after waking up to them talking shit about me so after (barely) calming down I knocked on one of the neighbor’s doors and told him I can hear everything they say and to hang out somewhere else. He completely backed down and tried to tell me he was talking about another neighbor, but I’m not stupid so obviously I didn’t believe him. I heard their whole conversation, word for word and I let him know that. They were saying how I sleep so much and how I stay up until 3 A.M. playing video games, which had not been the case at all. At the time I would get in bed at 9pm and wake up at a reasonable time, not the crack of dawn, and go to work. I wasn’t sitting at home on welfare getting high like they were and they had the audacity to judge me, and fuck with my ability to function… when I had consistently told them I need a little more sleep than the average person and have trouble falling asleep because I have PTSD, a disability I had little control over. I still can’t fucking sleep. One of the times I complained to my neighbor he told me “you sleep too much” as if I was the problem. Getting in bed earlier didn’t help either, because the neighbors started hanging out back there in the evening too, sometimes blasting music from one of their trucks, when I was trying to fall asleep, and would also wake me up in the morning. They made it impossible for me to get enough sleep, regardless of me talking to them about it or trying to adjust my schedule when they wouldn’t change their behavior or using ear plugs, white noise, the works. And what a fucking pussy, a 60 year old man who talked shit about me behind my back and lies about it when I confront him about it! Fuck you, Dave. If you’re going to talk shit about me behind my back then have the fucking balls to say it to my fucking face!

As things heated up with the building management, the neighbors became even less considerate of me, and began intentionally waking me up, being noisy and being rude to me because they were friends with the superintendent… the superintendent who I saw manipulate and lie to them, who let them live in these terrible conditions. Fucking boot lickers. One of the neighbors had a disgusting cough and when he finally got a job, would wake me up by coughing as he walked to his truck in the morning. He would go out the front door and walk along the side of my bedroom and around the back to get to his truck as he coughed the whole way, even though he had a back door right where his truck was parked. He began increasing the volume of his alarm on his phone which went off at 5 A.M. or something stupid. I texted him multiple times asking him politely to turn the volume down so it wouldn’t wake me up. He responded by telling me, “feel free to move somewhere else and take your vicious dog with you”. He mentioned how he was a working man which I thought was fucking rich considering he had had a job for a few days while I had been living there for a over a year, fucking loser. He started having people over and blasting music well into the night too. Fuck you, Dan. You don’t pay your rent or bills either, bitch.

Now, some of you might be wondering, why didn’t you just move out? I had actually started looking for apartments in October, but being that my city has a severe housing crisis, things weren’t really that simple. I was looking at listings every single day, and viewing apartments multiple times per week. Every time I went to view an apartment there was a huge line of people waiting to view the apartment. Just moving to a new apartment wasn’t a possibility. In the end it took me 10 months to get a new apartment and move in, even becoming homeless for 4 months during that period.

The maintenance issues and harassment from the staff and neighbors had a tremendous negative impact on my life. It caused me to be depressed and not be able to sleep. I had to start 3 new medications since it all started. I went to the emergency room multiple times for suicidal thoughts. I wasn’t able to live independently for a time and had to have my friend come stay with me and take care of me, as well as for emotional support as I didn’t feel safe there since that all began. I still feel that trauma to this day and get so triggered any time I have to speak with my current landlord or building management that I start shaking.

And that’s what I have to say about that. FUCK LANDLORDS AND THEIR BOOT LICKERS!