Landlords provide a variety of services to tenants in residential apartment buildings. One of the major services provided is ‘repairs and maintenance’. This particular service is defined in the lease document, which is a contractual agreement between the landlord and the tenant and is covered by the regulations of the Landlord and Tenant Board.
While a variety services are provided by landlords, the one most frequently used by tenants tends to be ‘repairs and maintenance’. These services are provided by onsite staff except in unusual situations where major repairs would have to be done by licensed tradespeople. Other necessary services such as lawn care and snow removal are provided in compliance with municipal standards and bylaws whereas services such as ‘laundry facilities’ are outsourced by the landlord.
The inclusion of ‘laundry facilities’ is an essential service for most tenants. Tenants in residential apartment buildings expect to have laundry equipment available on site. For several years there has been a trend for laundromat services to be outsourced to outside contractors, not managed by the landlord. The outsourcer/contractor is allocated a space to set up the laundry equipment and is responsible for collection of monies and maintenance of the equipment. This is where some bothersome issues have surfaced for tenants using the laundry facilities. The laundry facility is not free as the machines are equipped for coin collection. Alas, these washers and dryers malfunction fairly frequently and tenants are unable to receive the services for which they have paid.
Posters in laundry rooms display contact information in the event a tenant encounters problems with the machines. Tenants can also report that loss of service to their property manager or superintendent to obtain refunds for the money lost. It should be a simple matter to obtain a refund. Yet some tenants are finding it challenging to be reimbursed for the money lost on malfunctioning washers and dryers when they follow up with the property management. Tenants’ requests for reimbursement of lost money are not always dealt with promptly.
There appears to be an issue related to accountability and oversight. The laundry equipment should be approved for continuous use in residential apartment buildings. It is not for occasional use hence there is more wear and tear to the equipment due to the large number of users. Tenants have to pay for the use of the washers and dryers. The laundry equipment provided to tenants should meet a required level of performance and not be faulty and sub-standard.
Dissatisfaction with the faulty laundry machines, loss of money, overcrowding and wait times has driven some tenants to purchase their own laundry equipment without the knowledge or approval of the landlord. As a result some landlords have notified tenants who wish to install laundry appliances that their rental cost will increase due to increased hydro/utility costs for the entire building. Landlords have also attempted to apply similar rules to those who install air conditioning appliances.
Ultimately those tenants who install laundry appliances or air conditioners without approval are being subsidized by the other tenants in the building who have not installed that type of equipment in their units. For those tenants dependent on the laundry facilities and have lost money the outstanding issue would be for the landlord to address the lack of accountability and oversight for the services provided by the outsourcer/contractor.
We would very much like to hear about experiences you have had with the laundry facilities in your building.
East York Tenants Group 
Usages of utilities is directly related to number of people living in a unit. Some living with a family of 2, 3, 4…in a unit and no doubt that their usage of the utilities is much more higher than a single person such as I living in a unit. As the number of people living in a unit vary it becomes hard to monitor the usage of utilities in order to charge the unit for their usage. Usage of utilities is hard to define, it is not like occupying a space such as an underground parking spot, which is allocated to you and you pay a monthly fee for using it or for having it standby. Usage of the utilities vary on people needs and wants…some people need to cook every day for their family and wash every week, some people want to take shower every day or make coffee every morning, some people are environmental conscious and are very careful of their usage. As people needs and wants vary it becomes very difficult to monitor usage and charge units according. For instance, I have an air conditioner that I use in the month of July and August When the heat is unbearable. I don’t use it everyday in those months because it is not unbearable everyday. In my building their are some other tenants doing the same thing but we don’t pay extra rent. However, their are units that have washer and dryer in their unit year round and they don’t pay extra rent either. That appears to be unfair when you consider the heavy usages of power by the washer and dryer units; and when you consider that the more recent rental leases include sections, where tenants have to confirm that they will install a washer and dryer in their unit. The result is that new tenants with laundry equipment have to pay rent that is above what’s advertised.
There were rumblings that my landlord would find a way for tenants to pay extra for hydro but nothing came of that. These were long term tenants and had leases that didn’t require them to pay extra. So the rest of us were paying for the increased hydro costs for those tenant who installed their own washer/dryer!!! And why doesn’t the landlord require these outsourcers provide a proper maintenance of the equipment? Whatever happened to the idea of smart meters?
I had a problem with 3 dryers in the laundry facilities in my building at 165 Barrington Ave. I called the phone number from the notice by Sparkles Solutions posted on the wall and all I got was recorded messages telling me to hold and someone would take my call. The message repeated and then I was instructed to ‘leave a message’ and my call would be returned. I called a few more days then realized that it was all automated as there was no one to return my call. I pasted ‘out-of-order’ notes on the 3 machines but they were removed within 24 hours. I contacted the superintendent who was very helpful but there were no funds in the kitty to reimburse me. So I contacted the property manager who directed me back to the superintendent. It took about 6 weeks to eventually get back the money I lost. If I wasn’t persistent I probably would still be waiting to be reimbursed by Sparkles Solutions.