Toronto Renters Forum
Common Tenant Problems => Maintenance => Topic started by: samantha on September 11, 2021, 12:47:49 pm
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I've got water damage on my bedroom ceiling, probably because of a leak in the roof.
I've complained to my landlord but he hasn't doing anything.
What can I do?
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You should consider calling the City of Toronto to file a complaint with them. There are two main department that might be helpful – Toronto Public Health, and “Rent Safe TO”.
Public Health can send a health inspector to view the status of your apartment, and their inspector has the authority to order your landlord to do things, so the complaint to make with them is that your apartment is unhealthy (dusty, poorly maintained, do you have any holes in your walls?).
RentSafeTO also has inspectors, and they can issue orders and fines to Akelius, and they enforce some rights that you may not know that you have. In particular, check-out this webpage:
https://www.toronto.ca/community-people/housing-shelter/rental-housing-tenant-information/rental-housing-standards/apartment-building-standards/rentsafeto-for-tenants/
On that webpage, click on the section: “Making a Service Request to Your Landlord”, which explains that landlords have to respond to urgent maintenance requests within 24 hours, and all other maintenance requests within 7 days. (Unfortunately, lots of tenants find that RentSafeTO is a bit of a “black hole” with respect to tenant complaints – they are frequently ignored, so you might have to pester them to do their job and help you. But if you have the time then it can be worth it.)
Both Toronto Public Health and RentSafeTO can be reached by telephoning “311” or e-mailing: 311@toronto.ca
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I've complained to my landlord but he hasn't doing anything.
What can I do?
You could reach out to your City Councillor and MPP. If you don’t already know who your Councillor and MPP are then google – start by figuring-out which riding you are in. All Councillors and MPPs have webpages and public e-mail addresses – send them an e-mail stating that you are having trouble with your landlord (so they know what’s going on), and then CC them on e-mails that you send to your landlord so they can see that the politicians have been involved.
(I have seen many others approach their politicians, and I myself have also done this myself, and my opinion is that the “quality” of our elected officials varies widely – some are great, and some don’t care about you once they have your vote. Regardless, this CCing them on the e-mail isn’t because the politician will necessarily do anything very helpful, but the landlord doesn’t want to attract negativity in front of the politicians, so having the politicians on the e-mail you send will in itself add leverage in support of your efforts.)