Tenants say Michael Klein is treating them like ‘garbage’ — however in a uncommon media interview, Klein denied the tenants’ allegations and stated he follows all Ontario legal guidelines
Carrying indicators and devices, a bunch of tenants dealing with eviction staged a protest one night final week in entrance of a house in one in every of Toronto’s most upscale neighbourhoods. They stated the home-owner was Ontario’s most prolific “renovictor,” Michael Klein.
“He’s treating people like absolute garbage,” stated Billy Thornhill, a Toronto tenant dealing with eviction who attended the Forest Hill protest.
“He’s got a very bad heart — a very cold, cold heart.”
In a uncommon media interview with TorontoToday final week, Klein denied all allegations of improper or unlawful actions.
Thornhill is one in every of greater than 25 tenants who acquired eviction notices this summer time and fall at a property in Toronto’s Mount Dennis neighbourhood, owned by a Klein-affiliated firm.
Thornhill is a single father who has lived in his residence at 80 Guestville Ave. for greater than 20 years. He stated he doesn’t wish to depart.
“I know everybody,” he stated. “I know the church across the street. I know all the caretakers that clean the school next door. I know everybody and everybody around there knows me.”
Much more than the native connections, nevertheless, Thornhill stated he’s petrified of shedding the rent-controlled residence the place he lives together with his son, paying about $1,100 month-to-month.
If evicted, Thornhill stated it could be subsequent to unimaginable to search out one other place he may afford.
“Where are you going to go? What are you going to do?” stated Thornhill. “What, go to Canadian Tire and buy a tent?”
In October, the tenant advocacy group ACORN printed a report linking Klein to 21 properties provincewide.
The report alleged Klein is Ontario’s largest “renovictor” — and that the companies he directs have systematically bought properties that provide cheap hire, subsequently mass-evicting tenants and charging new residents a lot increased costs.
The report alleges Klein has been in a position to “hide” behind a number of separate companies that personal the properties, and that his affiliated buildings include an estimated 680 models which might be present process renovictions throughout seven Ontario cities.
Klein vehemently denied the allegations.
“There’s no such thing as renoviction,” he stated.
Klein added that every part his affiliated corporations do is authorized and in accordance with provincial regulation.
He stated his affiliated corporations have by no means confronted any authorities penalties for evictions — and alleges that ACORN has repeatedly slandered him to the purpose of contemplating authorized motion.
“They may force my litigious hand,” he stated.
The protest
On the night of Dec. 18, protestors from a number of Klein-affiliated properties throughout the province sang landlord-themed Christmas carols and delivered speeches in entrance of a Forest Hill residence linked to the businessman, whereas a number of neighbours seemed on.
Thornhill knocked on Klein’s door, however no person answered.
Final week, Klein advised TorontoToday that he owns, however doesn’t dwell on the property — a member of the family resides there as a substitute.
“They made fools of themselves,” he stated, of the protestors.
Nonetheless, Eastwood Burnett, an ACORN member and the tenant of one other Klein-affiliated property in Toronto, stated organizers have tried to achieve the Toronto businessman in a wide range of methods with out success.
Klein’s companies haven’t any actual head workplace and the one individuals accessible to tenants are property managers who don’t name the photographs, Burnett stated in an emailed assertion.
“Klein left us with no other option,” he stated. “We’ve tried everything so what other choice do we have?”
Nadine Lewis and Billy Thornhill attended a protest on Wednesday night in Forest Hill, an upscale neighbourhood in Toronto, Ont. Gabe Oatley/TorontoToday
An ominous landlord letter
Thornhill stated his renoviction hassle started in late August within the type of a letter from constructing administration.
“We want to let you know that Guestville Apartments Inc. is starting a major renovation project,” it learn. “Unfortunately, your unit will not be suitable for living in during this renovation period.”
The letter, obtained by TorontoToday, stated the corporate had “no choice” however to finish Thornhill’s lease as of Dec. 31, 2024 — and that the renovations the owner had deliberate would take seven to 10 months.
It stated that beneath the Residential Tenancies Act, Thornhill was entitled to 3 months’ hire.
It added, nevertheless, that if he voluntarily agreed to go away inside a month the corporate would pay him $6,000 “in good faith.”
Thornhill stated he laughed when acquired the doc.
“What are you going to do with $6,000?” he stated. “You’d be lucky to [use it to] pay first and last months’ to move in somewhere.”
Klein stated the renovations at 80 Guestville Ave. are essential and lengthy overdue.
“These are 50-year old buildings that have never been renovated,” he stated, noting the models want new kitchens, bogs and flooring.
Thornhill disagreed.
Exhibiting TorontoToday his residence on Thursday, he stated all it wants is an effective coat of paint. “It’s a perfect place. These places are dynamite.”
Thornhill alleged Klein’s motive for the renovation is disingenuous.
“Anybody with half a brain could figure out what’s going on here,” he stated. “It’s all about money.”
Klein denied the allegation.
Billy Thornhill together with his canine Bella in his residence at 80 Guestville Ave. in Toronto, Ont. on Dec. 19, 2024. Gabe Oatley/TorontoToday
Deceptive letters?
York South-Weston Tenant Union organizer Bruno Dobrusin stated his group has seen a sample at Klein-affiliated buildings provincewide.
He alleged that one of many key techniques utilized by the homeowners to get tenants to vacate their properties is to benefit from their lack of expertise of their authorized rights.
Below Ontario regulation, landlords can apply to the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) by means of a so-called N13 utility for the suitable to quickly evict a tenant so as to full a considerable renovation.
Tenants are allowed to struggle the applying, nevertheless, in the event that they consider it’s potential for development to be accomplished whereas they dwell there, or in the event that they suppose the applying is in “bad faith.”
Ought to the development go ahead, tenants are additionally, crucially, allowed to return to their house upon the development’s completion, paying the identical hire charge as earlier than.
Dobrusin stated nevertheless, that none of that is made clear to tenants in Klein-affiliated buildings.
“Most people do not know they have a right to a hearing,” he stated. “It sounds like a done deal.”
Klein denied the letters are deceptive. “It’s very clear and concise,” he stated.
Tenants allege poor constructing repairs
Dobrusin alleged that Klein-affiliated corporations additionally use poor upkeep as a lever to stress residents to go away.
Nadine Lewis, one other longtime tenant at 80 Guestville Ave. who acquired a letter like Thornhills’, stated the property has been “horrible” since a Klein-related agency took possession in 2023.
Lewis stated there have been days-long stretches the place the water and warmth have been turned off, rubbish is left about, and this summer time, flooding within the parking zone was so extreme that residents may barely get out and in of their automobiles.
The mom of three, who has lived in her house for greater than sixteen years, stated when issues have arisen, the property’s upkeep workers have been near-impossible to achieve.
“It’s like you’re talking to a dead end,” she stated.
Klein stated his affiliated corporations don’t use upkeep points to stress tenants.
Water has typically been turned off, however it’s been within the regular course of renovating empty models, he stated.
80 Guestville Ave., an residence complicated in Toronto’s Mount Dennis neighbourhood. Gabe Oatley/TorontoToday
LTB denied Klein-affiliated firm an N13 request final month
Sam Mason, a Toronto lawyer, alleged that pressuring tenants to vacate their unit isn’t the one method that Klein-affiliated companies have sought to extend their revenue.
He stated he knew of situations the place workers of Klein-affiliated corporations negotiated “illegal rent increases” with tenants in alternate for dropping proposed main renovations that might pressure a resident’s eviction.
In assist of that view, Mason, who stated he’s appearing for greater than a dozen tenants combating renovictions in Klein-affiliated properties, pointed to a November resolution by an LTB tribunal.
Within the resolution, a Klein-affiliated firm was denied an N13. The tribunal stated it denied the applying, partially, primarily based on proof the corporate had negotiated a hire enhance with a separate tenant in alternate for withdrawing an N13.
Below the specter of the N13, the resident had agreed to pay almost $500 extra in hire per 30 days for his or her identical unit, in accordance with the tribunal.
The tribunal additionally denied the N13 as a result of the proposed renovations — which mirror these deliberate for Thornhill’s unit — “contain[ed] few valid grounds for the request for vacant possession.”
Klein stated the LTB tribunal’s resolution shall be appealed.
He stated the state of affairs was complicated, that rumour proof had been launched, and that there are two sides to each story. He didn’t present further specifics.
Proper to return
Thornhill stated he’s fearful that if he’s evicted utilizing an N13, he may not be allowed again to his residence, regardless of it being his authorized proper.
Marcia Stone, chair of Toronto ACORN’s Weston chapter, stated that concern has foundation in actuality.
In Hamilton and Toronto, tenants of corporations un-affiliated with Klein have been denied the suitable to return, in accordance with experiences by CBC and Toronto.com.
“It’s a simple financial calculation for the landlord. The money they can make from pushing out long term tenants and then doubling rents for someone new far outweighs the fines they might have to pay,” she alleged, in an emailed assertion.
Klein nevertheless, denied this has ever occurred at properties affiliated together with his corporations.
“We offer [the right to return] for every tenant [who] obliges by the N13 rules,” he stated. “[They] are free, and allowed, and eagerly welcomed back into their units.”
He stated tenants of 80 Guestville Ave. who vacate their models for renovation shall be “100 per cent” permitted to return after the development is accomplished, paying the identical hire as earlier than.
As proof, Klein stated his affiliated corporations have by no means confronted any penalties on the LTB over failing to permit tenants to maneuver again in.
“You cannot find one case that is even outstanding where we have failed to oblige [with a right to return] as per N13,” he stated.
Mason stated such an announcement isn’t as simple because it seems, nevertheless.
He stated so as to be charged with such a penalty, the burden is positioned on the tenant to file a T5 utility.
Mason stated T5s aren’t frequent as a result of they require a tenant, “who is probably evicted into more expensive or unaffordable housing” to provoke a authorized continuing in opposition to their former landlord.
He stated these processes could take years.
Marcia Stone, co-chair of the Weston chapter of ACORN, stated landlords are treating tenants like a “bank machine.” Stone spoke at a protest on Dec. 18 in entrance of a house in Forest Hill owned by Michael Klein. Gabe Oatley/TorontoToday
Dramatic current enhance in N13s
Stone stated using N13s within the province has turn out to be extra prevalent in recent times.
“[Ontario Premier Doug] Ford has allowed Ontario to be open for business and a lot of these corporate landlords are doing business. They’re doing exactly that — using the tenants as a bank machine,” she stated.
In a current report, ACORN discovered using N13s elevated by about 300 per cent from 2017 to 2022 — from about 300 in 2017 to about 1,000 in 2022.
In its report, ACORN referred to as on municipal governments to cross sturdy “anti-renoviction” bylaws, which some have just lately achieved.
In November, Toronto’s metropolis council handed a brand new renovation licence bylaw aimed toward stopping renovictions.
Amongst different issues, it’ll require a landlord who evicts a tenant for a significant renovation to offer the resident with comparable housing at an analogous hire at some stage in development — or to offer funds to make up the distinction between their present hire and the hire they need to pay through the development interval.
The bylaw will come into pressure in July 2025. However till then, tenants should depend on the LTB.
Combating N13s
Provincewide, dozens of tenants of Klein-affiliated properties are combating or planning to struggle their N13s, in accordance with ACORN.
Amongst them is Thornhill.
The longtime Mount Dennis resident is defiant, however acknowledged the stress of the N13 course of has been arduous on his psychological well being.
“Can’t sleep — depression and anxiety is through the roof,” he stated.
Regardless of this, he stated ultimately week’s protest that he’s decided to struggle.
“I’m not leaving, I don’t care what happens,” he stated.
