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As the first major heat wave of the season bears down on Toronto, residents of a condo building near Jarvis Street and Dundas Street E. are particularly concerned.
The building has been without air conditioning for about a month since its air conditioning system broke, and several residents told CBC Toronto they haven’t been given a timeline for repairs.
Residents say that units affected by the outage, which are located on floors two to 30, are enduring temperatures pushing into the 30s.
“It’s been super hot for the last month — no AC at all,” said Alan Avila, who lives on the eighth floor of the Dundas-Jarvis Street tower. “They don’t tell us anything, they just say they’re working on it.”
Condo resident Alan Avila says it’s been ‘super hot’ for weeks at 181 Dundas Street E. He says he worries about how he’ll manage in the coming heat wave without AC. (Lokchi Lam/CBC)
The company that operates the building is 360 Community Management Ltd. CBC Toronto has reached out to 360 for comment, but has not yet received a response.
With temperatures set to soar this week into the mid-30s, Avila says he’s concerned. “I need to go get a fan. There’s no other way to survive,” he said.
Adding to the frustration for some residents is the fact that this is the second time in five years they’ve had to sweat it out during a heat wave.
At the beginning of June 2021, the building’s cooling system went down for several weeks in the midst of hot weather. At the time, residents told CBC Toronto they were seeing temperatures in their units in the high 30s, a problem that persisted for weeks.
‘No updates. No time frame’: resident
Current resident Zach Vogler said even the simplest activities, like walking the halls in the building or using the gym, have been difficult.
“It’s pretty humid and muggy” in common areas, he said. Vogler also pointed out that residents on the south side of the 48-storey tower are especially vulnerable, since their floor-to-ceiling windows are exposed to the sun all day.
Twenty-eighth floor resident Caleb Fleming told CBC Toronto he’s relieved he’ll be away from home this week, but he and his partner are considering buying a portable air conditioner.
“It’s pretty brutal, it’s just all day,” he said.
Fleming also wondered why the property manager hasn’t updated residents about the AC system’s issues or provided a timeline for repairs.
“No updates. No time frame,” he said. “Every email is just no update.”
City staff investigating
The city’s new Indoor Temperatures Standards bylaw came into effect June 1. It stipulates that managers of rental buildings covered by the RentSafeTO program — all rental buildings with three or more storeys and 10 or more units — must keep summer temperatures inside the units no higher than 26 C.
Audrey Loeb specializes in condo law at Shibley-Righton in Toronto. She says that while property managers should keep residents up to speed during a crisis, there is likely no legal recourse for people left sweltering during a heat wave because of malfunctioning cooling equipment. (Zoom/CBC)
The catch for residents at the Dundas East condo tower is that the new bylaw only covers purpose-built rental buildings.
City staff say they are currently investigating 181 Dundas Street E. because, since June 7, they’ve received eight complaints about the lack of AC there.
Audrey Loeb, a condo law expert and partner at Shibley Righton in Toronto, said the condo board and the property manager should be in constant contact with residents, explaining what the problem is, and what’s being done to solve it.
However, she also points out that since the property manager appears to be working toward a fix, the residents have little legal recourse.
“You have to tough it out,” she said. “You have to find friends you can go and stay with for a few days.”