Windsor family stuck in unsafe apartment amid costly rents, slow repairs

As water leaks into both his child's bedroom and the family room of his west-end apartment unit, Daniel Banner says his family is stuck in a precarious housing situation they can’t escape.

Banner and his wife moved from a one-bedroom unit in Windsor's west end to a two-bedroom apartment on an upper floor of the same building in August 2020 after his wife became pregnant.

Within five months, Banner said the problems began.

"The kitchen started to leak a little bit, so we put a bucket underneath and I told the landlord about it," said Banner. "Later, that same night, my wife and I are in bed. She gets up to go to the fridge and then a couple seconds later, I just hear a massive slam. A good chunk of the ceiling came down. It narrowly missed her."

According to Banner, his landlord who lives in Peterborough, visits the unit a few times a year to fix leaks by applying putty and membrane.

While the kitchen leak has stopped, new leaks have emerged.

"It's my son's bedroom. There are four different buckets below his bedroom window because it's leaking in several places," said Banner, comparing his landlord's repair attempts to "a band-aid on a broken bone."

"He applies some putty but it obviously doesn't solve the problem. He just refuses to fix the ceiling properly."

This past weekend, the ceiling above the family room also began leaking.

Leaks are seen around a bedroom window in the Banner home on Aug. 19, 2024. (Sanjary Maru/CTV News Windsor)While most people in this situation would likely have tried moving out, Banner said that is not an option for him.

Banner's wife stays at home to care for their two children, so Banner is the sole earner.

When his family began occupying their two-bedroom unit in 2020, they agreed to pay $840 a month (all-inclusive).

Finding a two-bedroom unit for the same amount in 2024, he said, is nearly impossible, and moving in with other family members is not feasible.

"So I'm stuck here because this is the most I can afford. If I look into the housing market now to find the cheapest two-bedroom unit, I'm probably going to pay double what I'm paying now," said Banner.

"My family has also reached out to the city to try and get into a fixed-income home. We were put on the list but it's been over a year now and we haven't heard anything."

There are 8,823 "households" — defined as singles, couples, or families — on the city's affordable housing waitlist, as of Jul. 31, 2024. 

The situation faced by the Banner family is far from unique, according to a paralegal who specializes in landlord-tenant matters.

Chris Hall, owner of Hall Paralegal Services, said one option available to people in these situations is to file a T6 application with Ontario's Landlord and Tenant Board.

T6 applications are used when a tenant believes their landlord has not met their obligations to maintain the rental property in good repair as required by the Residential Tenancies Act.

However, Hall added, pursuing this route requires considerable patience.

"Because of the backlogs at the Landlord and Tenant Board, it's probably a year-and-a-half to two years before applications are actually heard," said Hall.

Leaks are seen in the family room area of the Banner home in Windsor, Ont. on Aug. 19, 2024. (Sanjary Maru/CTV News Winsdor)In the meantime, tenants can request to pay their rent to the board rather than the landlord, so the landlord understands the importance of completing repairs.

"That way, the tenant is not behind on the rent. After the repairs are completed, the board would determine how much money gets returned to the landlord," said Hall.

The City of Windsor also has a property standards bylaw that sets minimum maintenance standards for plumbing, electrical, heating and ventilation systems.

According to the city's website, if a tenant feels the unit they occupy is unsafe, a building inspector can perform an inspection to determine compliance with the bylaw.

But Hall said many of his clients find enforcement of bylaw orders slow and ineffective.

"It's aggravating because you've got to wait for the city bylaw officers. You've got to wait for the order to comply. You've got to wait for the landlord to comply with it," said Hall.

"So bylaw enforcement is not the most efficient. Just looking at the stats of how many times they actually go out is quite interesting."

Daniel Banner's three-year-old son watches a window sill leak which has emerged on the opposite side of his bedroom. (Sanjay Maru/CTV News Windsor)As for Banner, who suspects his landlord is purposely delaying major repairs to bring in new tenants at a higher rental rate, he worries about the possibility of another ceiling collapse, similar to how the kitchen caved in years ago.

"It's just this never-ending mental anguish of wondering if this is the day that it comes down and hoping it doesn't fall on my wife or two children," he said. "I'm terrified to go to work, especially during rain. It's just a never-ending spree of anxiety."

CTV News reached out to Banner's landlord for an interview but did not receive a response.

One day after CTV News sent the interview request, Banner said his landlord contacted him with a temporary solution: to move the family of four into a one-bedroom apartment on a lower level while repairs take place on their upper-level unit.