Too many
problems—political
“Most people spend more time and
energy going around
problems
than in trying to solve them.”
—Henry
Ford
YCC #42 has a long list of deficiencies both
with the buildings, the
machinery, the stairs, elevators, parking garage, the driveways, the
water pipes, the landscaping, the fencing and the electrical wiring and
many other things I have not mentioned.
However it also has political and social problems, problems that are
far more difficult to solve. After all, man-made things can be fixed by
throwing money at them but political and social problems are far more
difficult to solve.
Lets start with a few of them.
Street
gangsters
After the major police raid in June 2013, there are approximately 25
gang members still living in the complex. Drug pushing,
prostitution
and other street crimes have not gone away.
Putting in a security system consisting of guards, FOBs and CCTV
cameras must be tied together into a complete system. This will not be
cheap.
The tenants that are selling drugs, loitering in the hallways,
vandalizing the property, pulling the fire stations and disturbing
their neighbours need to be evicted and banned from the property.
Overcrowded
units
Reliable sources have told me that some two-bedroom units have been
illegally converted into three and four-bedroom units with families
having boarders and/or units converted into rooming houses. In other
units, there are numerous mattresses laid all over the floors.
This overcrowding puts tremendous stress on the common
elements.
Unacceptable
behaviour
People throw lit cigarettes and garbage off their balconies,
leave
abandoned cars on the property allow their kids to
vandalize the common
elements and not much, if anything, is done to prevent any of this.
False fire alarms cost the corporation tens
of thousands in penalties every year. Will the new
CCTV cameras help? Hopefully.
Abandoned
vehicles
There are a number of abandoned cars in the underground parking garage, some with expired
plates and some with no plates at all.
Arrears
The corporation has perhaps as much as $600,000 owing in unpaid common
element fees.
Water
leaks
Leaking taps and toilets in the residential units are suspected of
costing the corporation thousands of dollars a year in unnecessary
water fees. An annual inspection of all units is required to find the
tenants and owners who allow this and the corporation must
insist that the owners complete all necessary repairs.
Moving
days—moving nights?
Most apartment buildings, rental and condo, only allow people to move
in or out during daytime hours. Some buildings restrict moves to only
week days while others are a little more flexible.
However at YCC #42, people drive in with rented moving trucks day and
night. It is common to see a U-Haul truck driving in at 10:00 pm or
even midnight for a move in or move out. They don't book an elevator,
they just use them.
Master
keys
All the residential units need to be fitted with a good quality master
lock so that the superintendents can gain entry in case of emergency
and for regularly schedule servicing and inspection of the units.
Vermin
There are cockroaches and bedbug infestations. The
board will treat individual units for roaches but will not spray the
entire three buildings.
At the present, the board holds the owners responsible to have their
units treated for bedbugs. An owner in 340 Dixon is concerned that the
bedbugs are in his hallway carpet.
Mouse
droppings inside a hallway light fixture
The ground floor had a serious mice infestation problem with the
mice
getting into the false ceiling above the dropped ceiling tiles. The
hallway was treated to kill the mice but not all the mouse droppings
and urine were cleaned from the ceiling light fixtures.
Whose
responsibility?
The board is responsible to uphold the provisions of the Act,
Declaration, bylaws and rules. The board has all the power it requires
to correct all of the above problems, it just has to have the will and
grit to see it through.
Low
standards?
Does the board have low standards or do a few of the owners
have high
expectations? I
suspect the former because every problem I raise was brought to my
attention by a frustrated owner.
Damaged concrete top of staircase
The board has to set the building standards and then put the money into
repairing the parts of the building that needs renovations.
The
little mosque in the basement
This is a sensitive subject so I won't spend much time on it. There is
a mosque and in the basement of 340 Dixon Road. Recently two prayer
rooms were built beside it.
None were build with the approval of the owners and the two prayer
rooms were apparently built in the common areas without official board
approval, without building permits or with the owners' knowledge; let
alone consent.
According to the city bylaws, places of worship are not allowed in
multi-residential buildings.
Landlords,
slumlords & owners
Some owner-residents believe that the absentee landlords, who are the
majority of owners, don't care about the tenants who are
abusing the property, committing crimes and are obnoxious
neighbours.
They believe that all the absentee owners want is their monthly rent
money and that it was the landlords' proxies that elected this board
and those proxies will keep them in office.
It is very likely that this board got elected by a large number of
resident-owners as well as the absentee landlords because they promised
to lower the maintenance fees.
That they did.
The
owner-activists
The owner-residents who are not happy with the physical and political
conditions on the property are unable—so far—to prove much of a
challenge to the sitting board.
None are opposed to the 20% cut in fees and it is not certain that they
would oppose a further 10% cut. Yet, to fix all, or even just some of
the problems that I have listed, where will they get the money when
they all have a fixation on cutting the fees?
A second issue is that the owner-activists consist of a very small
percentage of the owners.
A third problem is that the owners who are opposed to the board are
unable to agree on a common election platform and present a credible
slate of five candidates to replace the existing board, or even replace
just three directors which would give them a simple majority.
They are split into two different "owner associations" that will not
merge into one group. Other owners act individually and do not support
either group.
So, how will YCC #42 deal with all of these problems? That is something
only time will tell.
top contents
chapter previous next