Tenant union says “together we are stronger, and we proved that”

York South Weston Tenant Union is fighting unfair rent increases and evictions

Members of York South Weston Tenant Union have been battling their landlord, and recently stopped an eviction with a 72-hour sit-in at their property management office. Image from the YSW Tenant Union website.

Desmond Cole

December 19, 2023

York South Weston Tenant Union has been fighting for better living conditions for renters in Toronto, and recently scored a victory against a property manager by stopping an eviction. Barney River Investments is the landlord of buildings on Lawrence Avenue West that include YSW tenant union members. Those members say the landlord is violating their leases by charging them Above Guideline rent Increases, or AGIs, for repairs or upgrades that should already be covered by their rents.

This past weekend, when one resident at 1440 Lawrence Avenue West was threatened with eviction over apparent AGI fees, the union pushed back. Its members occupied the property management office for 72 hours, and ultimately forced the landlord to allow the tenant back into her unit. We invited Sayeed Nooruddin, a member of the union, to speak with us about AGIs, evictions, and organized tenant power.

In this conversation, we do not name the resident whose eviction was stopped, to preserve her privacy. A full transcript of the conversation is below.

Desmond Cole:

Sayeed Nooruddin is a resident of 1440 Lawrence Avenue west, and he is part of the York South Weston Tenants Union. Thank you so much, Sayeed, for joining me.

Sayeed Nooruddin: Yeah, thank you. Thank you for having me here.

DC: So, first of all, can you tell us what is the York South Weston Tenants Union and why was it created?

SN: The York South Weston Tenant Union was created for three reasons. One is there is a clause called AGI, which is Above Guideline [Increase] value, which the landlords are claiming for the additional works done in an apartment building. But as per our understanding, when we sign up an agreement with the landlords, my rent should include all the maintenance which is inside my apartment, as well as the common areas.

So what has happened of late? I am talking about my apartment first, but general scenario is also this. In our apartments, where there are about more than 400 dwellings, two buildings here, this company called Barney River took over in 2018. After that, they started applying for AGI, and part of the application, which they claimed that they have done, was not done by this Barney rivers, it was done by the earlier landlord.

So generally when there's an AGI applied, the tenants have a say at the LTB [Landlord Tenant Board]. But we were not given enough notice to go and represent ourselves at the Landlord and Tenant Board. So the management of Barney River fixed a few tenants, about four, and they got from them in writing that this AGI is valid. So they got through that. But the order observed and got delayed by more than two years because of COVID.

This AGI was approved in 2021, and from then on, the management started sending everybody N4s [eviction notice] starting from 2018. By the time they took over that we have to pay a huge amount. For some people it is $2200, for some people it is $400, and it's enormous. And if we have to tell my case, they charged me about $2800.

So I went to the management and I wanted to be a very law abiding citizen, and I wanted to pay them. When I went there and asked the management representative, the property manager, who was at that point of time, she wouldn't agree, she said, I have to pay everything together. I said, I'm unemployed, I don't have a source of income.

And basically, in this building, we are all very working class people. We don't have money even to put food on the table. So we are actually struggling to make our ends meet. That's the fact of these buildings, people who have occupied these buildings. So after a week, I can't hear you.

DC: Sorry, that was my fault. Let me just ask you, if I can, specifically about your situation. What is it that you were charged this large sum of money for? What had to be done that the landlord was saying that you had to pay these additional charges for?

SN: This is for the AGI, Above Guideline Increase. That's what I said. The landlords apply for AGIs saying that they have done improvement for the building.

DC: But in your case, do you see any improvements?

SN: Even if they have done improvement, it should include in my rent. My lease agreement doesn't say that I need to pay something separately. Also, this AGI apply for buildings which are now. It doesn't apply for a building which is 35, 40 years old.

That's one part. Second part is, even if they have applied for the AGI, I have gone in my personal vision, I have gone myself and volunteered to pay them. If I say I don't pay, then there is a reason that, okay, the landlord says I'm a bad tenant or something like that, right? I agreed to pay, but they want all the money together. I was taken by surprise. It's not easy to pay $2,200, $2,800, just like that.

So they sent me N4 [eviction] notice from their lawyer in about, say, a week's time. Again, I went back to them, I said, see, look here, let's settle this issue. I'll pay you. She said, I'm not for any payment plan. You should speak to our lawyers. I spoke to the lawyers. They told me, you have to speak to the landowners, landlords. So I was sent back and forth. I had no other option.

Then I had to approach this YSW, York South-Weston Union. And like, this is not only one case of mine, as you are aware, you live in Toronto, you know about the GTA area, you know Ontario, and you know the housing crisis, what we are facing. Everybody is facing a housing crisis, and that's become the talk of the town and talk of the country. In this scenario, to save people like us, this tenant union was formed.

And it's not only our building which is under the tenant strike. There are quite a few buildings. And this momentum is gathering, and our representations, what we are making is the landlords are not allowed to increase more than the guideline value which is fixed by the Toronto city every year. For example, this year, if it's 2.5% increase from my rent last year, they are increasing to 4-5-6 or whatever they like, and that's not acceptable.

And also, what's happening with these greedy landlords, they target people singly, and they get eviction notice without knowledge of powers in any judicial system. There should be a hearing where I can represent my problems and explain to the lawyers and explain to the judges and get a better solution and a good verdict where justice will prevail.

So here in our case, they have given the notices. And now what we are surprised is in the last few days, people are getting evicted unawares. And this has happened in one of the apartments in our building.

So I just want to explain about what the incident happened is a lady who is living singly was knocked on the doors by the sheriff, the police, and the property manager and the supervisor here on Thursday at about 02:00 p.m. So when she failed to open, knowing that there is some commotion, and they said, you have to pay or you have to go get out of the apartment, when she asked, what is to be paid, I have no clue of what is to be paid. And what are you claiming for?

They did not give her any information, or they were not ready to listen to her. So what finally she did was she didn't open the door. They drilled open the door forcibly, which is an act of crime. If you have to go by the rules. It's not acceptable. It's a forceful eviction. By the time she called the Weston Union, York South Weston Union representative, the chair of that, her name is Chiara Padovani. And we are also here in the tenant association of this. 1440, 1440 Lawrence Avenue west. It's at the Lawrence and Keele junction.

So we all pressed ourselves into action. We went there, we tried to explain to the sheriff. We tried to explain to the police. They won't listen. So what we did was we called the landlord. Landlord picked up the phone, and he promised, I want to stress on the point that he promised in front of the sheriff, in front of the police. It's all recorded on the police body cameras. And they agreed that if this lady is going to pay the amount, which is actually $400, but they said she has to pay the sheriff fees and the code fees and whatever we agreed, then it added up to $1,046. And we agreed.

She was readily giving her the debit card. She said, I can give you the pin number, you can go to the office and take the money, but I'm not moving. But they won't agree on that. But after that, the landlord agreed, the property manager, everybody agreed that, okay, you come to the office and pay the money, and you can be back in your apartment. I myself was a witness to the whole proceedings, myself and a few tenants. And the union representatives, we all went with the lady to the office to pay.

Meantime, they replaced the lock in her apartment, which is not acceptable. And when we came to the office, they wouldn't accept her payment, and they backtracked their words. And they said, we are not allowing her to go into the apartment, back to apartment. So we had a peaceful sit in. It was a 72 hour ordeal. We said, we are not vacating your office unless we get justice, because you cannot promise something and you cannot push out somebody from the home.

When we are ready to pay. If the judgment is okay, if you pay, then you don't get evicted. But the landlord wants to evict us. You know why? If he evicts me today, he can get at least 50% rental increase. They are becoming greedy. That's the only reason. It's inhumane against humanitarian value. So we said, we are not going to move from here. We sat there till we achieved. Our demand was she has to go back to her apartment and she will stay there. Okay. Eventually, the landlord will not budge.

They called the police. Police came multiple times. You won't believe. They wasted the resources of the city. The police, which is actually very busy at the crime rate now in the city, they spent about 10 hours. Will you believe me if I say that? 10 hours to negotiate in batches. They were coming in batches. Maybe about six or seven battalions of police came in batches. Okay? They tried to convince us when we told them that this is the reason we are doing a very peaceful sit in. We are not objecting anything else, we just want to pay the money and she has to go back to her flat, her apartment.

Okay, the police tried to talk to them. They did not listen. And finally yesterday, that was on Sunday, it all went well. The 72 hours were about to get over. And at the time we paid the money, we got her back into the apartment. And then in between, when this dialogue was going on between the police and the management and our representative, the police said, this is not under their control. I fully agree with that, because it was a sheriff's order he had.

So the police said, you please apply at LTB, Landlord and Tenant Board and get the injunction for that. We made an emergency application, which I appreciate, the LTB, which is so busy, it's so difficult to get any date from them so easily. We put in all our effort. You won't believe me. All our energy was concentrated on that. The application was accepted. They gave us a date. It was taken up in the morning today. And they said, it is reserved for order on 21st December.

So in the meantime, they've also given a clause that the landlord has no reason or any, he cannot use any force to evict her and all the belongings will be with her till there's an order. And we also agreed with the police and with everybody that, okay, if there's an order from the LTB that she has to move, obviously we'll agree with that. So this is exactly what happened.

But this is happening time and again with so many tenants. And where the tenants go, we have to form a union. And that's why we have with the union the York South Weston. And the motto of the union is, together we are stronger and we proved that. Together we were stronger, we achieved what we wanted and we are not going to stop with this. This is our first milestone. We are going to keep repeating this.

Wherever there's injustice, when there is a housing problem, when there's no shelter, shelters are full, food banks are, operators are full. And with this kind of scenario, we will not budge unless we get justice. And we will always play by the rules. We will not break the rules. So stronger, we are together.

DC: Let me ask, you Sayeed, because this is definitely a victory, it's a show of people power, what can happen when people organize and come together. But how do you feel having to take such a drastic measure in the first place for a woman who in your mind really didn't do anything wrong and was trying to pay these fees, was trying to do her best? What does it say to you that you all had to go to the lengths that you did?

SN: This is unacceptable. First of all, she's so innocent and we want her to go to any extent to get her back because we cannot see a neighbour, a single lady being thrown out of the house when there's no mistake on her part and when she's agreed to pay and when the landlord has agreed to take the payment and they did this, it was very, very annoying, it was stressful. And she's a diabetic patient, she had a lot of problems. We had to call the paramedics twice on Thursday night because of the stress level she was undergoing.

And this was all happened before the police presence. And that's pathetic. We are living not in the third world country to undergo all these things. Correct? Rules are rules and everybody has to respect that, however highly you are placed. If I have broken a rule, fine. I'm obliged to be arrested. When I've not done anything, when I'm asking for the rights they have to agree for our rights and there is a crime when I say I will not pay.

When I'm agreeing to pay, then what's the problem? So there, it clearly exhibits the greed of the landlord, where he wants to throw out us and then put new people. Because, you know, the shortage of housing now throughout GTA and Toronto, so they will get much more rent. We won't believe single bedroom is now trending at about $1800. Will you believe that? A two bedroom is trending at about $2,800 $3,200 So that's it. That's the greed is the bottom line.

What these people are operating on and humanitarian basis, it was not nice and we had no other option. We underwent a lot of stress, all of us, because if it could happen to her, it could happen to any tenant in this building. So we stood strong.

DC: Now let me ask you about tenant strikes. You're engaging in a tenant strike personally. People in your union and in the buildings of 1400 and 1440 are engaging in tenant strikes. First, I want to ask you about the tactic of tenant strikes, but first, could you just tell us very briefly, like what is a tenant strike? What does it mean when tenants decide to do this?

SN: A tenant strike doesn't happen overnight. It culminates at a point where there is no agreement reached between the landlord and the tenants for their demands. A tenant strike is we are holding the rent. We are not saying that we'll not pay the rent. We are holding the rent to put pressure on the landlord to agree to what we are saying, which is ethical, which is as per the rules of the government.

So tenant strike is we are holding the money. Okay. In my case also, we have a hearing in LTB shortly after new year. If the LTB decides that I need to pay, I'm going to pay. We are telling all the tenants who are holding the rent. It's not free money or just for using it. No, you keep in a separate account when there's a judgment we need to pay. It's just putting the pressure on the landlord, getting the attention of others and just to make it public, to know what we are undergoing, what kind of stress we are undergoing.

We have enough problems to handle: joblessness, the inflation rate, the cost of living. And above this, when you come home, when you don't have a peaceful place to stay, then what's life? Then what do we achieve? That's the reason we started the rent strike. Okay, maybe the landlords say it's illegal, but we will not agree to that because we say. We are not saying that we'll not pay the rent. We are holding the rent. That's a rent strike.

DC: So we've heard about rent strikes in other parts of Toronto as well. As you mentioned, this is a city wide, region wide, province wide, country wide phenomenon. But we've seen rent strikes in Toronto, in places like Thorncliffe park. We've seen rent strikes in Parkdale. Maybe there are people watching who have thought about this idea, but who are scared.

They're afraid of the repercussions. They're afraid of punishment. They're afraid of the landlord tenant board and eviction and homelessness as a result of standing up for themselves. So as somebody who believes that more people means more power, what do you say to people who are thinking about it, but who are not sure because of those fears?

SN: I’ll tell you a small problem. If you want to walk fast, you walk alone. If you want to walk far, you walk with people. So union wise, together, we are stronger. So everybody who wants to participate in the rent strike, they don't have to be scared. This is not illegal. This is not against the law. Probably it may be framed against the law as per the textbooks and the law books, but we are holding the rent to gain the attention, to achieve what it is.

If I'm going to say I'm not going to pay a rent when the landlord is charging me exactly as per the government rules, as per the government guidelines, then I'm at fault. The truce, or the agreement was first broken by the landlord. That is how this momentum was gathered. And I tell all the people who are watching this, be confident. Join some union, or you can join our union. We are very confident. We have stopped evictions and we have been victorious, and it's all around.

And this victory did not come by a single person's effort. It came with the effort of everybody who stood strong for justification for one tenant who was thrown out illegally and had no place to go. So rent strike are not a problem. Please join. I will again stress the point. You don't have to be afraid. There is LTB, there is everything. But LTB also doesn't give, just like that verdict against anybody. They go through the case, they take the time, they give you an appointment, you have a hearing.

You can always stress on what you wanted to say and based on the points, what you say and the validity of the points, LTB gives a very fair judgment. And I am very happy that they took an emergency application which shows that they're very fair to people and they will not do anything which is against the rules, and they will not give any trouble to anybody for tenants like us who wants to abide by the laws of the country and the laws of LTB.

DC: I just also want to know, you spent the better part of four days in the property manager's office in order to hold this public demonstration. That's not an easy thing to do. How did you pass the time?

SN: It was very stressful, but okay. It was not one person. We had made up a chart, we put timetable, we asked all the volunteers who want to join. We made turns, we put timing and we said, okay, two, 2 hours, we'll manage. Somebody will manage for the night. And people started giving food, water, coffee, whatever you need was all supplied to us.

And in fact it was not stressful. Personally, we didn't feel the stress because of the confidence, because of the power we got from everybody. If I had to fast or get locked up in one place for four days, I would have lost my confidence. You would have broken down my self-confidence and I would have budged, given up. No, it didn't happen.

Of course, physically it was very stressful. Sleepless night, 72 hours. Not an easy joke. And me being one of the very active members of our tenant association because it takes time and energy to bring people together. It's not easy, though. We have 400 apartments here. I'll be very true to you, frank, and candid. Not everybody's on the rent strike. There are people who are scared. The people talk on my face because they know me. They'll do, but they go end up paying the rent. I don't blame them. It is how they look at it.

Their perspective is okay, they're afraid, fine, but we want to set an example and we don't stop people who want to go and pay. We don't stop that. That could be against the law. We don't stop them. We just tell them the facts of the case. We just tell them, see, look here. There is a common achievement to be done in this, okay? There's a common cause. It is not for you, it's not for me, it's for everybody. And everybody can be safe and nice and we can live peacefully if everybody joined together.

And we are going to represent the same thing because each dollar counts, nobody wants to pay extra, right? So that's what we are educating. Every week in our apartment we are having a meeting at 04:00, 4:30 in our building, and there are volunteers. We put flyers, we go door knocking every Thursday. Imagine how stressful it will be. Every Thursday, 400 apartments to be covered. The union members come down, volunteers come down, the tenants join. We do turns. I think my team, the union, everybody's done a wonderful job to achieve this.

It's a victory for us and we will relish this. We'll enjoy this and forever it will be remembered. And this is the first time in the history of Toronto, or maybe GTA or the province, somebody has barged into office, occupied, and had a very peaceful sitting without any incident, with police coming in many times and not being sent out, while the police understood that our cause was actually for a common cause and humanitarian grounds. And that's how I could explain my victory and all the energy which I lost.

All the strategy with this victory and with the achievement, it's all gone. I'm again back to square one, fully energetic, to take up anything which comes for my neighbours or my fellow tenants here.

DC: Well, I'll tell you, Sayeed, there's been a lot of really rough news in front of us all very recently. But when I saw this news in the last couple of days and the outcome, it lifted my spirits. And I wanted to share this story in the hope of showing other people what's possible. So thank you so very much for speaking to me today.

SN: I appreciate. Thank you for having me. And thank you for giving me an opportunity to tell our achievements and explain to other tenants, also to join the union and fight for a common cause. Thank you so much.

DC: It’s my pleasure. Thank you.