‘We fight until the end’: Parkdale tenants launch rent strike as landlord seeks significant increase

Tenants of a Parkdale apartment building launched a rent strike today protesting the landlord's application to increase rent by more than 5 per cent.

Chanting “Stop the rent hike,” dozens of tenants at an apartment building in Toronto’s Parkdale neighbourhood launched a rent strike on Sunday afternoon in response to their landlord’s application for an above-guideline increase (AGI).

MetCap Living, which manages more than 200 properties across Ontario including the 72-unit building in question at 75 Spencer Ave., along with the property’s owner, Kin Pong Chung, are seeking to up the rent by 5.4 per cent.

The maximum allowable rent increase permitted in Ontario is 2.5 per cent for both 2024 and 2025.

Exemptions can be granted, however, to fund renovations and building improvements.

“If we unite as neighbours. We can put our hands together. We can make a difference,” one tenant said during the rally.

“Guys, we fight until the end,” said another.

Tenants hung banners from their balconies before gathering in the building’s lobby on Sunday afternoon for a demonstration, saying that it is the only space that has been upgraded in years, while the landlord is neglecting to fix to actual units and control pests.

“They didn’t do anything. We didn’t see it. They didn’t approve it so how can we accept that and it’s hard to pay that much,” said Fazal Muhammad, who has lived in the building for a decade.

He says he and other tenants first agreed to pay the 2.5 per cent increase but says MetCap isn’t negotiating.

“They don’t want to talk with us, even. We went to the office, nobody agreed to talk,” he said.

There have been several rent strikes in Toronto over the years, including one from May to July 2017 involving the same company and 300 tenants living five buildings in the Parkdale neighbourhood who were also protesting an above-guideline increase.

That dispute was ultimately settled outside the Landlord and Tenant Board process after three months and the landlord did not apply for an AGI at its Parkdale buildings, most of which were sold in 2021.

“This rent increase must be withdrawn – now,” Ashleigh Dougherty, a member of the tenant advocacy group Parkdale Organize, said during the launch of the rent strike at 75 Spencer on Sunday.

She believes if these tenants don’t push back there will be a ripple effect of further rent increases at other buildings.

“There will be some tenants too scared to come down today but it is your example of action and bravery that will show tenants, not just at 75 Spencer, not just tenants in Parkdale, but tenants all over what it means to fight back,” she said.

The striking renters say a petition signed by the majority of tenants at 75 Spencer and delivered to MetCap’s head office last year was ignored.

“We won’t be ignored or intimidated by (the landlord),” Muhammad said.

“We are united in our demand that the landlords withdraw the above guideline rent increase.”

CTV News Toronto has reached out to MetCap Living but we haven’t received a response.

The building’s property manager has told The Canadian Press that they’ll abide by the LTB’s final decision.

• READ MORE: Another rent strike brewing in Parkdale as landlord seeks retroactive increase