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.


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