Tenants in apartment without heat for nearly one year to have 5 months of hydro costs covered

Jorden Arsenualt, a tenant living inside 524 Pitt St. W., says Marda Management supplied him with these heaters after the heat went out in March 2022. He says they were not adequate and wants Marda to cover the costs of a separate heater he paid for out of pocket. (Sanjay Maru/CTV News Windsor)

The company which manages a downtown Windsor, Ont. apartment building — where tenants have gone nearly a full year without heat — has promised to cover five months of increased hydro costs for tenants who had to plug in electric heaters to stay warm.

CTV News Windsor spoke with two tenants on Feb. 4 at 524 Pitt St. W. who said heat had stopped coming into their units in March of 2022. Marda Management, which attributes the outage to a faulty boiler, covered tenants’ hydro costs for the first two months of the outage.

According to the tenants, the lack of heat became a non-issue from May to September since the weather became warmer. By October, as the weather started to cool down, the heat still had not been restored and Marda had not offered to provide any further compensation, tenants added.

Instead, Marda provided supplemental heaters but tenants told CTV News Windsor they were inadequate and they were forced to buy electric heaters out-of-pocket to stay warm. One tenant, Jorden Arsenualt, added he would be turning to the Landlord and Tenant Board to recoup 100 per cent of his hydro costs from the full duration of the outage.

Following the story’s publication over the weekend, Marda Management issued a new notice to tenants Monday.

“We realize through this time you may have been using alternative measures to heat your home during this time,” the notice from Marda Management’s Tenant Services Division reads.

“To that end, we ask you to submit hydro bills you have received between October 2022 and February 2023. We will be evaluating each bill and issuing credits accordingly to compensate you for the increased usage expenses you may have incurred due to using alternative heating solutions,” it reads.

In a phone call with CTV News Windsor, Arsenualt said he is happy to see things “moving in the right direction” but he wants further compensation from Marda.

“My tenant board pursuits still likely stand. I still have my [application filing] fee that I paid for … as well as my personal heater that I had to purchase to create any sort of livable environment,” he said.

In a separate notice issued to tenants Wednesday, Marda Management said the boiler needs to cycle for 48 hours to evacuate any trapped air.

That means tenants will need to wait until Friday to find out if heat has been successfully restored to the entire building.