EVEN WHEN A TENANT DIES YOU CAN'T GET AKELIUS CANADA TO PROPERLY RESPOND TO TENANTS COMPLAINTS ABOUT THE ODOR.
This is a follow up to the tenants concerns at Akelius Canada Ltd. property located at 260 Gamble Ave. over the odor of a deceased tenant being left in their apartment for two weeks and the lack of response by Akelius Canada Ltd. Following the review posted on Google Reviews below here is the link to the case brought before the Landlord and Tenant Board.
260 Gamble Avenue Case of a deceased person being left inside an apartment for two weeks at Akelius Canada property 260 Gamble Avenue
Akelius Property Manager at the time Mr. Adam Kitchener
Landlord and Tenant Board 78 St. Clair Ave E adjudicator Mr. Dale Whitmore
REVIEW ON GOOGLE
January 2018 (Update at bottom)
Several tenants (us included) on the 2nd floor of this building complained to Akelius (through the hotline) about a horrible odour coming from one of the apartments on this floor. The hotline attendants said they would document the concern and notify the property manager right away.
1 week goes by and no action taken by Akelius. Numerous calls were made to notify the staff that this situation is worsening and that we were worried about the state of the tenant in that apartment, her lights and television had been on for over a week... Each time I called the hotline attendants would say the original ticket/request was still active, and that they would escalate the concern. My ticket alone must have been escalated to the 10th level... but clearly that meant nothing. Not to mention the calls from almost every other tenant on the floor.
Over 1 week: finally Akelius puts a 24-hr notice of entry on the door to the apartment. This seemed to be a sign that they were finally taking action. The odour was now unbearable; it was entering multiple units on the floor and making it impossible to walk in the hallway without holding your breath. (gagging was the alternative)
Over 2 weeks since the original complaints and 3 days after the notice: Akelius still had not sent anyone to investigate. Odour forces tenants to call the police. Police arrive and are unsure what they were smelling. They admit the situation is suspicious but suggest we ask the landlord to check it out since they cannot break down the door to simply investigate. But, Akelius has no on-site landlord/superintendent!
2 days later I called Akelius again to ask what was going on and why they were so unconcerned about the well-being of their tenants. This was no way to live for so many weeks. The attendant made a note of my concerns, and "escalated" my ticket. and promised to notify the property manager right away! But I've heard that so many times that I knew it mean nothing... Later that evening the odour was absolutely horrific! I could not stand another day in this condition so again I called the hotline, the attendant apologized and said it was now after hours on a Friday so they could not address the issue until the following week. At this point several other tenants were also calling management. We could not stand another night in the building, so either the issue would be resolved that night or we would find a hotel to spend the weekend. Next, we called the police because the management was not going to do anything about our situation.
The police came and agreed that the odour was really bad. But they needed management to give them access... and so they left and promised to return if management grants access. For the next 4 hours we spoke with management until we got the property manager on the phone and explained our situation.
Eventually Akelius agreed to send a security guard. WE had to now call the police again and coordinate to have them arrive once the security guard had arrived. The security showed up around midnight and the police around 1am. They went into the apartment to find the tenant deceased on the floor!
This event in its entirety was not handled very well.
UPDATE: In the weeks following this incident, Akelius has taken giant strides to improve their relationship with tenants in our building. This kind of communication improves the quality of service they provide and improves tenant satisfaction. They have shown interest in our individual concerns and made arrangements to address them. They have also made an effort to improve service on their end. (i.e. the way calls are handled at through the hotline)
They are showing an interest in wanting to make their tenants happy. My hope is that this is the beginning of improved management across the board at all properties. There will always be lots of improvement to be made, it wouldn't be fair for anyone to expect perfection. But it is important to learn from mistakes since that is the only way real progress can be made.
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