In 2017, the low-rise apartment building at 394 Dovercourt Road sold to a corporate landlord. After the sale, the new owner issued form N13 eviction notices to all tenants claiming extensive renovations. Tenants responded by organizing together and collectively refusing to move out.
This week, after five years of struggle, the tenants are celebrating a major victory: The Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) dismissed the landlord’s eviction applications. The case of 394 Dovercourt demonstrates the importance of tenant organizing to stopping evictions and displacement in our city.
At the LTB hearings, tenants argued that the evictions should be denied because the landlord did not actually need to evict them in order to renovate their units. Represented by PCLS housing lawyer, Samuel Mason, the tenants asserted that the landlord failed to prove its case, that the evictions were in bad faith, and that the LTB should grant relief from eviction in light of the tenants’ circumstances, including their social ties to the building and neighbourhood. In its decision, the LTB found that the landlord did not require vacant possession of the tenants’ rental units in order to renovate. The Board member also had this to say about the tenants’ organizing: “…each tenant involved in these proceedings testified that they have formed a community with their neighbours, and that they will support each other as necessary…”
This was not the first time the landlord tried to evict: in 2019, the LTB dismissed a first round of evictions filed against tenants. In that case, the landlord proposed to replace the existing knob and tube electrical wiring in the building. The tenants, represented by Kevin Laforest, a former PCLS student caseworker, and current housing lawyer at Scarborough Community Legal Services, argued that the proposed work would not require them to move out. The LTB agreed. Yet soon after, the landlord issued new N13 notices to all tenants, starting the eviction process all over again.
According to 394 Dovercourt tenant Benjamin Pullia, organizing has been the decisive factor in preventing his and his neighbours’ eviction:
“It is heartening to see that the adjudicator in our case relied on the fact that our building was organized in his legal reasoning, but the community-building that has taken place during the course of our struggle was important to me for a few, perhaps more fundamental, reasons.
First, this battle would have been impossible to fight, much less to win, alone: the mutual support network we’ve nurtured over the course of the last five years has provided emotional and mental staying power needed to win a protracted battle against a financially well-resourced opponent.
Second, organizing with and getting to know my neighbours deepened my investment in my community: fighting alongside my neighbours (whom I now also count as friends) made me realize that I wanted to stay where I was, not only for “cheap rent” or whatever, but because I am a member of a community, of a place. While our landlords have deep pockets, we have strength in numbers, and as long as we remain organized, I am confident we will stay in our homes, in our community.”
The law allows landlords to repeatedly issue eviction notices and file for eviction against tenants. That is why it is critical that tenants be organized. Without organization, tenants cannot withstand the displacement pressure exerted on them by landlords. The good news is that, while organizing takes effort, it is simple, and any group of tenants can commit to it.
Neighbourhood groups like Parkdale Organize and initiatives such as RenovictionsTO can provide organizing information and support to tenants. So can we at PCLS. Get in touch.