Brampton landlord unfairly evicting tenants, affordable housing group says

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Published July 6, 2022 at 1:44 pm

An affordable housing group has turned its attention to a Brampton landlord believed to be “renovicting” its tenants.

Peel ACORN, a social and economic justice organization, is organizing a rally today (July 6) at the apartment building at 143 Main Street South.

The group says the building’s landlord, Drake Property Management, has asked tenants to move out so it can renovate the units and offer them at a higher rent.

“Tenants have a legal right to return but the landlord is stripping away this right from long-term tenants because they want to extract far more money from the new tenants,” says Peel ACORN.

“The company is known for renovicting tenants in other cities including Hamilton where ACORN has been organizing and fighting renovictions for years.”

The rally, which is scheduled for 3 p.m., will demand that Drake Property Management immediately stops the displacement, fixes the units and makes them accessible for tenants.

However, Drake Property Management denies the allegations that it’s evicting tenants, calling ACORN’s statements an “outright lie.”

Kyle Pulis, owner of Drake Property Management, says an N13 was issued to only one tenant in the building because the tenant was not allowing management to complete necessary renovation work.

Pulis notes that the building is 70 years old and says management has been renovating and modernizing the building’s units, including units that tenants have chosen to leave “on their own accord.” He maintains that the tenants are not leaving due to any action from Drake Property Management.

“We are not evicting anybody, we are only renovating units to which tenants have chosen on their own accord to leave, to which we are modernizing the unit and re-renting the unit out at market rents,” said Pulis.

“The premise that ACORN loves to tout of forcibly evicting tenants to profiteer from the circumstances is frankly an outright lie and one that ACORN continues to push.”

Drake Property Management currently operates rental properties in Brampton, Hamilton and Toronto, with its head office located in Brampton.

Peel ACORN is the local chapter belonging to ACORN Canada, described as a national independent organization of low- and moderate-income people. The organization says it currently has 160,000+ members in 20+ neighbourhood chapters across 9 cities.

In addition to today’s rally, members of the Peel chapter also recently protested outside Mississauga City Hall in an effort to push City officials to do more to tackle the affordable housing crisis.

Ontario recently announced its rent increase guideline for 2023, which will allow landlords in the province to raise rents a maximum of 2.5 per cent on most units without seeking special approval next year.

The province says the rate applies to the majority of rental households but it doesn’t apply to units that were first occupied after Nov. 15 2018, vacant units, community housing, long-term care homes or commercial properties.

Landlords can also set higher rents with approval of the province’s Landlord and Tenant Board.

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