Winter 2020 Update
In December 2019, the Tenant Association met with CAPREIT to discuss a number of issues. Sam and Marilena from CAPREIT attended. Kelly and Dean represented the Tenant Association. Let’s bring you up to date.
GEUCR Bin
The GEUCR bin has been removed. Thank you to all the tenants who signed the petition earlier in 2019 to have it removed.
Traffic Circle
The curb cut near the front door was completed in fall 2019. We noted the work was unsatisfactory because the contractors did not bring the asphalt up to the level of the adjacent asphalt – effectively creating a trench. CAPREIT will have the contractors return to correct the problem. It might be later this year (in the warm weather) before this happens.
Parking prohibition stripes need to be painted at the curb cut. (This also needs to be done at the curb cut at the west end of the building.)
Parking
An audit of the parking garage will be coming soon. If you use the parking garage, you likely know that there are a number of cars there that seem to be abandoned.
Before these can be removed, Toronto parking enforcement has to be called. If a car does not have a visible VIN number and a plate, police have to be called to investigate in case it is a stolen vehicle.
Additional Parking Information
To change a parking spot you need a new lease.
Tenant cars in parking need to have license plates and up-to-date tags.
The cars must be in working condition – e.g. no flat tires. The garage is for parking cars, not storing cars.
If a tenant finds a vehicle parked in their spot, they can put their car in visitor parking. But they need to purchase a ticket. If you find a car in your spot, you must have it towed by parking enforcement. Here is how to arrange that.
Tenant Portal
This should be rolled out to the building in February or March. It will handle work order requests and tracking. This has been promised and delayed many times, so let’s hope that we see it soon.
Storage Room Keys
Storage room keys continue to be an issue. Tenants request the storage room keys only to find none are available. Please return these keys as soon as you are done with them.
CAPREIT will look into getting an additional set of keys that will be kept in the office and only used by a staff member to give a tenant access to a storage room.
Automatic Door Opener
In a previous meeting, we had requested an automatic door opener to help people with mobility issues get in and out of the building. We learned this is likely to happen in 2020.
Laundry
We asked CAPREIT to follow through on the paper towel experiment in the laundry room as they had promised in the September 2019 meeting. The idea is that CAPREIT will put out paper towels so that tenants can clean the inside of the machines. The front loaders get a build-up of gummy/gunky debris at the bottom of the rubber seal. Cleaning staff clean the outside of the machines, and tenants are required to clean the inside of the machines. If all goes well with the paper towel experiment, supplying paper towels for cleaning machines could become standard practice.
We asked CAPREIT who is responsible for cleaning the soap dispenser part of the washing machines. These get quite dirty. CAPREIT will call Coinamatic to find out if they clean these parts.
CAPREIT also agreed to put up posters in the laundry room reminding tenants to leave the washer doors open after use. This will help prevent mould and mildew from growing in the machines. Please be sure to leave the doors open on the washers after use.
Window Washing
We informed CAPREIT that it has been 25 months since the last window washing. We had been told that the windows would be washed this year after some brick work was done at the building.
This is far too long to let our windows go unwashed. We will keep requesting that this be completed.
Security
We noted that we have had no response to an email sent to CAPREIT in October 2019 outlining the Tenant Association’s concerns about security cuts. In particular, we asked how CAPREIT believes it is maintaining security service despite the cuts to the hours security is at the building. This question, and others, have not been answered.
We were told that tenants should call police for security issues. We have already written about this part of the meeting here.
Pool Temperature
We noted that the pool temperature is set below any industry guidelines for comfortable use of a pool. CAPREIT informed us that the pool is intentionally set for between 75F and 78F. An engineering firm said that the structure of the building will be compromised if the temperature is higher.
We informed CAPREIT that the water temperature has been measured below 75F and that a repair of the heater or thermostat might be required.
Parking Garage Project
The scheduled parking garage project is for maintenance on expansion joints. It will take about six weeks. It will affect lockers – some will be decommissioned and replaced by new one