UPDATE – Check our other posts for updated information on safety:
Safety and Security In Apartment Buildings (This particular post dealt with a robbery that took place at 165 Barrington Avenue, an apartment building owned by Ranee Management) .
Safety and Security in Apartment Buildings – Security Guards to be Eliminated. (This post addresses concerns about the impact on tenants’ safety resulting from removal security guards by Ranee Management.)
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Security for underground parking garages in apartment buildings is a topic that deserves closer scrutiny. There seems to be an increase in the number of break-ins in underground parking garages. This is costing tenants dearly.
While some tenants have been victims of auto theft, others have had their vehicles broken into or badly vandalized. This is certainly a cause for concern. Underground parking garages in residential apartment buildings are supposed to be equipped with an electronic entrance door and a special access key. This key allows legitimate access to tenants who park their vehicles in the underground parking. These garages should have functioning surveillance cameras to capture all activities and help keep the location safe. Apartment buildings also have security guards patrolling the entire premises. So we have to ask some troubling questions about how criminals manage to gain access to underground parking garages undetected.
There are obvious questions relating to: a) the quality of the surveillance cameras, b) precisely who has authorized access to the garage and, c) if there really is a security guard on patrol 24/7. Also, we must not exclude the possibility that these crimes could be an ‘inside job’. Even more important we need to raise questions regarding the content of the tenant lease agreement as it relates to safety and security and liability.
After a careful scrutiny of tenant lease agreements we found no reference to the landlord being required to provide a ‘safe environment’ for tenants. As a matter of fact, these tenancy agreements contain a section that completely absolves building management from any responsibility related to property loss or damage. The average lease agreement has an exclusion that relieves the landlord of any liability. Here is an example:
“The Landlord shall in no way whatsoever be liable or responsible for any damage, however caused to any property (including automobiles and contents thereof) belonging to or owned by the Tenant or any members of his family or to any other person while such property is located upon the rented premises or anywhere else on the property of the landlord;”
This exclusion sheds light on the indifference and uncaring attitude of building management when tenants report auto theft, and/or break-in or vandalism to their vehicle in underground parking garages. Is the reason for this attitude because landlords are fully aware that they probably have no liability in this instance? It should be obvious that a malfunctioning or inferior security camera would impede, not assist, police investigations. It is evident that responsibility and liability for security in underground parking garages is a grey area. This needs to be addressed by the Municipal Licensing and Standards department of the municipal government. We need to look at how liability related to inadequate security of parking garages, vehicle theft, and vandalism of vehicles can be included in tenant lease agreements.
The harsh reality is that tenants are on their own when dealing with auto theft or vandalism occurring in underground garages. We have to be diligent in seeking satisfactory answers with regard to liability and the absence of effective municipal regulations in apartment building security. Why is there this apparent absence of responsibility and liability when it comes to auto theft or vandalism in apartment parking lots? Being unable to assign liability, it is clear that tenants are required to carry some kind of insurance. It seems that the onus for safety in apartment buildings rests entirely on the tenant’s shoulders. Perhaps insurance companies should offer insurance coverage with preferential rates to tenants in buildings that have effective security measures in place. Yet some tenants have taken similar violations to the Landlord and Tenant Board and have had a measure of success.
Could this unpleasant incident experienced by tenants fall under ‘interfering with a tenant’s quality of life and their enjoyment in the building’? If tenants were allowed to seek compensation, would the landlord be more diligent in providing an adequate level of security for tenants?
We look forward to hearing your thoughts on this issue.
East York Tenants Group 
The city is considering gutting much of the Tenant Defense fund the only thing preventing many poor tenants from homelessness.
We all need to be calling our city councillors today to demand no cuts to this and other essential tenant programs.
You need to call today. Call 311 and demand to talk to your city councillor personally. Don’t talk to a secretary demand to talk to your councillor as is our right! Also call up Rob Ford 416-397-FORD (3673) mayor_ford@toronto.ca Let them know we will be protesting at city hall and if they force us at their homes before they make these cuts that will leave thousands of poor helped every year become homeless
The mean spirited landlord group the Greater Torotno Apartmnt Association takes the money they extort from our overpriced rents and uses our own money to lobby against us. This is from there June 2010 magazine Building Blocks.
Tenant Defence Fund. In 2000, City Council created the “Tenant Defence Fund” of $150,000 per year to fund tenant disputes on above the guideline (AGI) rent increase applications and $150,000 a year to the Federation of Metro Tenants’ Associations (FMTA) to advocate. Despite the original concept of the program it has morphed into whatever the politicians serving on the Committee want it to be. This is a very “political” fund and needs to be reigned in.
Recommendation: commit to a full review of this program and possibly ending it
We need to be protesting any cuts to these essential tenant programs at City Hall. We should also protest the
Greater Toronto Apartment Association
20 Upjohn Road, Suite 103 Toronto, ON M3B 2V9
Phone: 416 385 3435 Fax: 416 385 8096
E-mail: samw@gtaaonline.com
It is the lowest of the low to take money out of our mouths and then use it to try to put us all into the poorhouse.
This question of liability needs to be revisited, and reviewed thoroughly and changes made to protect tenants. Sadly security is much too lax in many buildings. Some tenants in my building doubt whether the cameras in contain any tape.That will not be helpful to police investigations if the cameras don’t work or are not strategically placed to record illicit activites. It was good that the tenant won the case and received compensaiton but that must have been a stressful experience to get justice. The fact that landlords are in no way liable when robbery, vandalism etc occur should be pointed out to tenants when signing the lease agreement.
The East York Tenants Group was notified of yet another break-in occuring in the underground garage at 165 Barrington Avenue. Vehicles were damaged in this latest break-in. It is clear that the security currently in place is woefully inadequate…. hence the building management (Ranee Management) recent major upgrade of their security system. But that is much to late for those tenants who have had their vehicles violated !
Landlords don’t seem to care about tenants who go through this ordeal. Their ads boast of security cameras & security guards but it is all false advertising. The cameras don’t work and I don’t know when last I saw a security guard patrolling. So the tenant is left to on their own to deal with the incovenience and stress of having their car stolen or damaged and get no satisfaction from the landlord. The tenant is so angry that they move out…..and the landlord has an opportunity to raise the rent for the next tenant that moves in. All they are about is MONEY! Landlords must have a very active vampire gene.
The entrance to the underground parking in my buildng can only open with the garage door key.The door closes automatically but it takes such a long time to close after I drive in. Other tenants in my building complain about this too. That could allow someone wiht no good intention to sneak in just before that door closes. There should be a a camera at the entrance to record the comings and goings at the garage entrance.
How do these vandals get access to the garage. Nowadays with all the overcrowding in apartments there are people who are not on the lease but live in a unit. These people do not hvae keys to the building and always want you to let them in. Maybe many of these robberies are ‘inside jobs’.
These car thefts and vandalism raise an important question with regard to security. Just how can the police investigate auto theft in parking garages if cameras don’t function properly? If these cameras as ‘shams’, or don’t capture ALL activity (legitimate or not) then tenants don’t stand a chance when they report these crimes to police. The police won’t have very much to go on when investigating these crimes if there is no record on camera. Tenants should have insurance but these landlords should be held accountable if the cameras don’t furnction and if there is little or no security guard presence. Isn’t there be a municipal code to deal with landlord’s liability if security is inadequate or non-existent? That link in your article indicates that a tenant was able to win compensation at the LTB.
That is a pertinent isisue you raised about liability. How come landlords are not liable when these crimes occur? Tenant leases have been designed to give the landlord more protection than tenants. Landlords should be required to provide adequate security for the entire premises and that means functioning security cameras and security guards on patrol and vetting tenants when leases are signed. Also there should be proper lighting too as some of these garages have very poor lighting. At times it feels downright scary down there. I wonder why there are unused cars that are full of dust that seem to be parked there forever. Are tenants paying fees to keep those dusty cars in the parking garage or are they getting free parking?