Tenant organizers say they have successfully beat back a landlord’s attempt to retroactively raise rents by over five per cent at a west-end Toronto apartment building.
In March, tenants at 75 Spencer Avenue began withholding rent payments after their building’s property manager applied for an above guideline rent increase, or AGI.
After six months of the rent strike, tenant organizers say Metcap Living has withdrawn the application.
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The maximum allowable increase for rent-controlled buildings in Ontario was 2.5 per cent in 2025, but landlords can apply to the Landlord and Tenant Board for AGIs to fund renovations and building improvements.
The tenants told The Canadian Press in February that the landlord had renovated the lobby and turned an office into a rental unit.
They argued that those projects hadn’t directly improved their living conditions so they shouldn’t have to cover the costs by way of a rent increase, and that a 5.4 per cent increase in their housing costs would be unaffordable.
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Organizers say the building in Toronto’s Parkdale neighbourhood was sold to a new owner in May, and tenants travelled to Montreal last weekend to confront them over the rent increase.
“The rent strike won because our neighbours did the thing that everyone talks about but almost no one does: they formed an independent organization, stepped outside of legal and political convention, and directly confronted their landlord,” said Bryan Doherty of Parkdale Organize, a group that advocates for tenants.
Why are landlords now allowed to charge tenants for improvements to a building when they will not receive the increased value later the way the owner does. Any improvement increases the real estate valuation if the building is sold. Tenants are not owners. Rental apartments are not condos. What the heck is going on that landlords now collect rent from which they should expect to pay any costs they incur for decisions they make. Tenants are not involved in the decision making yet they are supposed to pay for it. We are now reverting to feudal times when landlords have control over the ability of tenants to have protection by government rules. This is terrible.
Retroactive rent hikes? Must be liberals.