Parkdale: March on Akelius!
Tuesday, June 10
11:00am
Meet at the Akelius Office at 289 Niagra Street (corner of Niagra and Ricnhmond St. West)
No repairs, no rent increases!
Stop the bogus eviction notices!
Provide rent receipts on request!
Hire superintendents in all buildings!
Compensate your tenants!
In the past two years Akelius has bought up 95 & 188 Jameson, 77 Spencer, and 99 Tyndall. Akelius is now pushing out sitting tenants so they can jack rents and change who can afford to live in Parkdale. In May more than 30 Akelius tenants occupied the Akelius office to bring forward our demands and Akelius representatives said they’d begin to address our concerns by June 5. On June 10 we are going back with even more people. Join us!
Organized by the building committees at 95 & 188 Jameson, 77 Spencer, and 99 Tyndall.
Background
On May 20 a delegation of tenants from three Parkdale apartment buildings owned by Akelius Properties came together to confront their landlord (video here). After being denied entry to the Akelius office by staff, tenants found a way in through the back door. Faced with more than 20 people occupying their office, Akelius was forced to hear their tenants out and to accept dozens of letters detailing the disrepair in tenants’ units. For more than an hour tenants spoke out and insisted that Akelius address their concerns immediately. The tenants demanded the following;
- Stop bringing bogus eviction proceedings against tenants and provide rent receipts to tenants on request
- Withdraw the rent increase of 4.1% at 188 Jameson Ave. (the increase is based on renovations to balconies and common areas while apartments are left in disrepair)
- Do the necessary repairs in all apartments requiring them
- Hire live-in superintendents at the buildings (there are currently no live-in supers)
The Akelius property manager responsible for the buildings in Parkdale told the crowd she would take steps to address the rent receipt issue, and to send out letters to tenants clarifying that the rent increase had not yet been approved by the Landlord and Tenant Board, and that she would bring the disrepair and superintendent issues to the higher-ups at Akelius. Tenants were told they would hear back from Akelius on these items no later than June 5. Tenants responded that that they intended to hold Akelius to their commitments, and that they were more than willing to mobilize in greater numbers if need be.
Akelius is a Swedish real-estate company which owns 35, 000 apartments in Sweden and Germany. In March 2012 Akelius announced that it bought 3 apartment buildings in Toronto, its first Canadian rental properties. It also announced its goal of buying up 10, 000 rental units in Canada by 2017 Akelius now owns at least 36 buildings in the GTA, including 99 Tyndall Ave., 77 Spencer Ave., and 95 and 188 Jameson Ave. in Parkdale.
In Parkdale, Akelius’ agenda is clear. They harass sitting tenants with bogus eviction notices and illegal fees. When tenants call or fill out work order forms to have basic repairs made in their units their requests are ignored. Akelius renovates balconies and common areas while apartments remain in disrepair and then passes the costs of the aesthetic renovations on to the tenants in the form of above-guideline rent increases. When tenants are finally pushed and priced out of their homes Akelius renovates the vacant units and jacks rents to unaffordable levels.