119 Sentinel Road

Thao Le (Teresa) takes advantage of vulnerable people and ignores their complaints.

This landlord takes advantage of people in vulnerable situations whether that be immigrants, elderly or low income tenants. When I moved into the basement unit, it was to occupy the basement bedroom of the unit already being rented by my parent. This landlord automatically began charging $400 more per month once I moved into, despite that increase not being legal. This was not part of the regularly scheduled yearly increase. She did this again after my brother moved in and parent moved out, but this time by $200. After I moved in, she began removing amenities that were originally agreed upon, such as access to the laundry room, having the machines broken all the time, began charging for the washer and dryer, having time limits of use the laundry (after 7pm and on weekends) while having no less than 6-7 people living in the whole house at a time. Honestly I had to start hand washing my essentials because I just never knew when I would be able to get a load or two washed. She would try to show up unannounced all the time and be upset when I denied her entry. She did this to my elderly mother all the time up until I moved in and started pushing back on our tenant rights. My bedroom flooded (twice) and she did not do any mold remediation or repairs. Honestly, not even a damn apology or anything. She let the HVAC system sit in disrepair each winter and summer. It was frequently 90F+ in the house despite originally moving in and having normal running AC and heat in the beginning. Super freezing in the winter but the heat was always turned on late and then broken for weeks. Hot in the summer because she took an extra two months to turn on the AC and of course was always broken (so she says). She removed access to the backyard and put a locked fence so we could no longer use it. They bolted the sliding back patio door shut so we couldn’t exit that way or use the backyard (which was originally agreed to be exclusive access to us and our unit). Insisted the garbage, recycling and compost bins sit next to our door, which were in a constant state of overflowing due to the number of people living in the house (upstairs unit). The garbage and compost was always on the ground torn up from raccoons, squirrels and even rats. She didn’t handle any snow removal or salting the walkway or driveway. It took months before she got someone to somewhat maintain the lawn after we finally put our foot down and refused. Literally weeds up to our waist, but whatever lol. Honestly I could go on forever, living there was my personal hell and I’m so glad I’m finally out. I tried so hard to fight back but at the same time, being in constant fear of having a roof over my head kept me from taking more serious action. Myself and other tenants were all having some sort of financial difficulty whether that being on OAS, ODSP, new to the country or just simply young with two jobs and not being a high earner yet. I didn’t get to the part about the centipede infestation (yes, falling from the ceilings and finding them in my freaking bed. I had to sleep with the lights on for so many weeks till the basement was cold enough that they didn’t hang around till the spring). I guess that was the benefit of the heating system always being broken or turned off.