Last Saturday, Vicky Stimach was one of about 20 tenants who gathered at a community centre in Rexdale to speak out on allegations of inappropriate charges, poor upkeep and pest problems at a group of buildings on Bergamot Avenue owned by Pinedale Properties.
For more than 40 years, Stimach told TorontoToday she has lived at 11 Bergamot Avenue.
She claimed the company has failed to upkeep the building for years, and she alleged that she was pushed to her breaking point in 2021, after a pipe burst behind her kitchen, leaving her without appliance use and a damaged kitchen for more than seven months.
The longtime tenant said she tried everything to get her landlord to fix the problem. “I tried arguing. I tried yelling. I tried screaming. I tried crying. I did it all,” she said.
Yet the necessary repairs only occurred, Stimach alleged, after she telephoned her property manager, threatening that she would end her life if the issue was not fixed.
Stimach told TorontoToday she had no intention of doing so — but that she felt she had no other choice to try and get the company to take the problem seriously.
Within a month and a half, the tenant said the kitchen had been replaced.
Reached on Monday, Pinedale Properties’ senior property manager Lesly Herrera denied that the company was neglecting repairs, saying fixes are done in a timely manner.
She said she did not work for the company in 2021, so could not comment directly on Stimach’s account, however.
TorontoToday emailed additional questions to Herrera and Pinedale Properties’ president about the tenant’s allegations of pest issues and inappropriate fees for repairs, but did not receive a response prior to publication.
Pinedale Properties, a private landlord with more than a dozen rental properties across Toronto, was invited by tenants to attend the town hall, but did not send a representative.
Inappropriate charges for repairs?
Stimach was also one of several tenants at last Saturday's town hall who alleged the company improperly requested payment for necessary maintenance and repairs.
Stimach said she spoke with Pinedale Properties director, Brian Moore in 2021 about her kitchen. She alleged that Moore asked her to pay $1,000 toward new cabinets to replace the ones that had been water-damaged.
The tenant said she agreed, because by that point she’d been eating out for months and had begun feeling like she was imposing on her mother, whose home she was frequently eating at.
“I just wanted my s— done,” she said.
Stimach said soon after the cabinets were repaired, a property manager asked her to start paying installments toward the $1,000 bill, inquiring whether $50 per month was possible.
She refused. “I’m a single mother,” Stimach said. “I don’t have an extra $50 per month.”
As recently as about six weeks ago, the tenant alleged the property manager reminded her about the $1,000 bill. Stimach said she ripped up the piece of paper the reminder was on.
“I’ll never give a penny towards it,” she said. “I’ll go to court before I do that.”
TorontoToday requested comment from Pinedale Properties about the allegations, but did not receive a response by publication time.
Tenant lawyer Samuel Mason said that under the Residential Tenancies Act landlords must pay the full cost of repairs necessary for proper upkeep.
Even if a tenant agrees to contribute toward needed maintenance, he said such an agreement is “unenforceable” by law.
‘Illegal charges’ for appliances?
Another Pinedale Properties tenant, Alice Sutton, told TorontoToday she was asked by the company to pay to replace old appliances.
The nearly 16-year tenant of 11 Bergamot Ave. alleged that in 2023, she asked her landlord to replace the stove and fridge in her unit, which she claimed were very old and rusting.
In response, the property manager asked her to pay $200 for a new stove and $200 for a new fridge, Sutton claimed. Sutton said she refused.
“I told them ‘No, I’m not gonna do that. Why [would I] do that? This is your place. I’m just renting,’” she said.
Sutton said that rather than paying the landlord, she found a used stove and fridge on Facebook marketplace that were in better condition than her own, purchasing those instead for $200 total.
Mason said a landlord asking a tenant to contribute toward appliance replacement is an “illegal charge.”
“It’s a means by which the landlord [is] trying to extract more money from the tenant beyond her legal rent,” he said.
There was further documentation to support the claims that the landlord had engaged in illegal charges.
A 2024 letter on Pinedale Properties letterhead, reviewed by TorontoToday, appears to show a different Bergamot Avenue tenant agreeing to pay about $400 for an “upgrade” on a fridge. The letter was shared with TorontoToday by ACORN, the organization that hosted the town hall.
“I understand the appliances will remain the property of Pinedale Properties Ltd. and at such time I vacate my apartment, I understand that the Fridge will be left with Pinedale Properties,” the signed letter states.
TorontoToday inquired with Pinedale Properties about Sutton’s allegations and the signed letter, but did not receive a response prior to publication.
Concern over roaches, bed bugs
At last Saturday’s town hall, residents also raised concerns about pests at the company’s rental properties.
A resident of 27 Bergamot Avenue said she had moved from the building at 11 Bergamot Avenue because of the significant cockroach issues. During the town hall, she alleged that she used to spend about five or ten minutes every morning looking for and then killing cockroaches before showering.
“Everywhere had roaches,” said the tenant, who spoke at the town hall but did not provide her name. “You just finished [cooking] food, and not even a minute after [there] were roaches already in the pot.”
The tenant alleged she raised the issue with property management and was told she needed to throw out her garbage every night. The tenant said she already did.
Other tenants have been taking extreme steps to ensure pests don’t enter their units.
Last Saturday, when TorontoToday visited Stimach’s apartment, most of her clothes were contained to clear plastic bins and bags. She said she feels forced to live this way because neighbours have had bed bugs, and she’s terrified they will come to her unit.
Everyday, Stimach said she also sprinkles natural cleaner Borax along the hallway and entrance to her unit to try to protect from bugs.
“If you come on the fifth floor, you’ll think there’s Pablo Escobar in our buildings, because there’s white s— all over,” she said at the town hall. “I don’t give a s—. I don’t care. I don’t want those things crawling in my house.”
In an interview with TorontoToday, Pinedale Properties’ Lesly Herrera said the company has done a “full pest control clean out” at 11 Bergamot Ave. She additionally noted that property achieved a 90 per cent score on its latest RentSafe TO audit.
To help ensure landlords remain in compliance with the Residential Tenancies Act, the City of Toronto completes RentSafe TO audits on large properties at least every two years. The scores are largely based on a day-of evaluation of areas auditors can access easily, such as the lobby, hallways and grounds.
A review of past audits shows the building performed significantly worse prior to 2024 — in four inspections completed between 2017 and 2022, 11 Bergamot Avenue received scores of between 60 and 76 per cent.
Herrera said she’s been working with landlords for 21 years. She said she knows what it’s like to work with landlords who don’t want to do repairs or keep up with maintenance, and she said Pinedale Properties is not one of them.
“We can’t please everybody, but we’re trying our best,” she said.
City encourages tenants to call 311
In 2024 and so far in 2025, the City of Toronto has received 51 service requests across four of the Pinedale Properties buildings on Bergamot Ave., according to city data.
33 of those requests were for 11 Bergamot Avenue.
At last Saturday’s town hall, a City of Toronto RentSafeTO staff member who had been invited to attend said a resolution has been achieved with the landlord on the vast majority of these issues.
But another City of Toronto staff member acknowledged that the number and severity of the concerns from tenants suggested the city may not have full visibility on all challenges at these properties.
She encouraged tenants to submit service requests to 311 when issues arise and are not promptly dealt with by the landlord.
“We need you to tell us what’s going on,” she said. “Let us be able to help you and support you.”
Stimach said she’s hopeful things improve.
On Saturday, when TorontoToday visited the tenant’s apartment, there was a hole in the drywall behind a light in the bathroom that had been recently installed by the landlord. A broken hinge prevented the front door to the unit from opening freely.
The tenant said she has asked for both to be fixed, to no avail.
