London woman awarded $3.5K for cockroach ordeal in public housing

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London’s social housing corporation failed to protect a tenant from a cockroach infestation and owes her financial compensation, Ontario’s landlord and tenant board tribunal has ruled.

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The ruling should be a wake-up call for London and Middlesex Community Housing (LMCH) and inspire other tenants to come forward, say a city councillor and the tenant who took the city-funded corporation to the tribunal after waking up with a cockroach embedded in her ear.

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The corporation “failed to comply with health, safety, housing or maintenance standards for failing to adequately address the cockroach infestation,” the tribunal concluded. “It cannot be said that the landlord’s actions were timely, adequate or effective.”

The tribunal also took issue with LMCH testimony that many rent-geared-to-income units are inherently difficult to manage because of tenants’ mental illness and other factors.

“The submissions perpetuate harmful stereotypes about tenants while deflecting from the core issue: their failure to uphold their responsibility to fulfil their duties.”

The tribunal ordered LMCH to pay the tenant $3,533, far less than the $17,562 the tenant had sought.

Even so, “the ruling should put the agency on notice that they’ve got to do a better job in terms of their maintenance practices,” Ward 6 Coun. Sam Trosow said.

“I think that the news of this award is going to spread, and it’s going to give the tenants some hope that there’s something they can do about it. It’s especially egregious when you look at the fact that this is a city agency. They should be held to a better standard. They have failed,” Trosow said.

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The ruling provided some satisfaction, tenant Brandi Bulanda said.

“The wording that the landlord (didn’t) provide a safe, livable home – those words should be blown up in huge letters and announced across the city because this is not about just one person,” Bulanda said. “Almost every person that lives in London housing is going through this problem.”

From the moment she moved into her unit at 349 Wharncliffe Rd., in December 2022, she noticed and told LMCH workers about holes in the wall and baseboards, and the presence of cockroaches, Bulanda testified at a tribunal hearing held in October.

Repeated attempts to get the housing agency to solve the problem went unheeded, and she woke up in August 2023 with a cockroach embedded in her ear, she testified.

The insect had to be surgically removed “through a procedure conducted via her throat,” the tribunal said in a summary of her testimony.

Distraught and anxious, she was forced to take a sick leave and eventually gave up the apartment, Bulanda testified.

Bulanda told the tribunal she had to throw away furniture, food and other belongings and put other property, including electronics, into storage, where she sprayed them. The spray ruined those items in storage, and she was seeking compensation for lost property, Bulanda told the tribunal.

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The tribunal awarded Bulanda $3,000 in general damages, $500 for out of pocket expenses and $53 for filing the application.

Bulanda failed to mitigate her losses in part by failing to communicate with her landlord about how to treat or store and preserve her belongings, the tribunal ruled.

That prompted a sour laugh from Bulanda, whose complaint centred on the difficulties of getting her landlord to communicate in the first place.

“Come on, that’s ridiculous,” she said. “Every time I was reaching out to them and reporting things, I was just basically dismissed. When they would come in, nothing was really being done.”

That complaint is echoed by LMCH housing tenants across London who regularly contact The Free Press about not getting action for pest infestations, security issues and damaged property.

The corporation operates 3,282 units in 32 properties, with its sole shareholder the city of London.

Staff have to prioritize complaints, with fire and safety concerns and broken appliances topping the list, property manager Kacper Obrzazgiewicz testified at the tribunal hearing.

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He testified that pest control is made more challenging by “mental health issues among tenants, varying levels of tenant co-operation and sanitation concerns,” the tribunal noted.

Whatever factors make that difficult, the landlord is obliged under Ontario law to provide units “in a good state of repair, fit for habitation and complying with health, safety, housing and maintenance standards,” the tribunal said.

The Free Press reached out to LMHC for comment but did not receive a reply.

City council this fall rejected calls from anti-poverty advocates to study the idea of a publicly run extermination service for its community housing properties.

Trosow was one of only four councillors who supported staff at least studying the idea of a city extermination team.

Many LMHC tenants he’s met at the 349 and 345 Wharncliffe Rd. N. buildings, which are in his ward, are afraid that complaining will lead to eviction, Trosow said.

“People are scared of the retaliation that they will face,” he said.

That’s one reason why LMHC properties need not a piecemeal inspection and maintenance regime based on the complaints of often-fearful tenants, but a full-scale audit, Trosow said.

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“There needs to be a building-by-building audit of all of (the corporation’s) properties. And 349 Wharncliffe would be a good place to start,” he said. “I do not want to place the onus on each and every individual tenant.”

Bulanda said she’s still getting calls from tenants after sharing her story, and is advising them to keep records of their phone and email complaints to LMHC.

“People aren’t organized. When they go to try to report and do something, they’re just being bullied,” Bulanda said.

But not everyone has the resources to take the LMHC to a tribunal, and there’s no single organization helping tenants, she said.

“A lot of people in (public) housing have to just shrug if off, like cockroaches are just a spider. They become used to it. They’ve had to learn to live with them.”

rrichmond@postmedia.com

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