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Dozens of tenants in a Parkdale low-rise are withholding rent this month in protest of conditions they say are below standard, at the same time as their landlord is seeking to raise their rent by 5.5 per cent.
While rent increases are capped at 2.1 per cent provincewide for 2026, MetCap Living, which manages the building at 75 Spencer Ave., has gone before the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) seeking an above guideline rent increase, also known as an AGI.
Mahmoud Abdellatif lives in one of the 38 units that have signed on to the rent strike, which is being supported by Parkdale Organize. He recently walked On The Record through the space, showing off scraped-off ceilings, chipping concrete on accessibility ramps, damaged floors throughout the building and rat traps in the shared laundry to deal with an infestation.
“[The strike] is a justified step that is taken for my hygiene, my safety, my family’s safety,” Abdellatif said.
Tenants say they’ve made numerous efforts to speak with MetCap Living, including visiting its Richmond Street E. headquarters twice last year and sending a follow-up email in November.
Abdellatif said many of his neighbours are struggling. In particular, he said, he has one neighbour who can’t keep her unit at an appropriate temperature. As a result, he said, “She has a one-year-old son who keeps getting sick, and she doesn’t know what to do.”
When asked if the company has spoken to tenants and heard their grievances, CEO Brent Merrill said in an email statement that MetCap has a process for a resident to submit a work order, which is available on-site and on their website.
“We are unaware of any work orders being received from residents that are not in the process of being completed. At present, we have four outstanding work orders… which our contractors are working to complete,” he said.
Climbing rents a concern across Parkdale, advocate says
Bryan Doherty, a member of Parkdale Organize, said he wants to continue living in the neighbourhood with his family for years to come, and that is why he supports the tenants at 75 Spencer Ave.
“I know that if landlords are able to continue forcing rent increases on us, my daughter won’t be able to go to school here and my wife and I will lose the lives and friendships we’ve spent years learning from and enjoying,” he said in an email interview.
Parkdale Organize noted in a news release that during one of the tenants’ visits to MetCap Living’s headquarters, they delivered a petition that the group says was “ignored.”
“We have staff that live onsite, and they are in the building every day,” Merrill said in an email.
Douglas Kwan, director of legal advocacy and legal services at the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario (ACTO), said he “completely” understands tenants feeling like they need to strike.
“Through working together, they can collect stories and collectively tell the landlord,” Kwan said in an interview.
Antonio Morales, another tenant who signed on for the strike said, “he’s not happy.”
“A lot of people here, they probably don’t have too much money to live… it’s a lot of older people living here,” he said.
In the 18 years MetCap Living has managed the property, Merrill said this is the first time it has applied for an AGI.
Data shows more landlords filing for AGIs
A spokesperson for the Landlord and Tenant Board confirmed to OTR that an AGI was filed for 75 Spencer Ave. on Aug. 6, 2024.
But whether it will be approved or rejected “cannot be readily categorized,” the spokesperson said, as only certain portions of an application may be granted or the full increase sought by the landlord may not be granted.”
In an LTB data report concerning the annual number of AGI requests filed by landlords in Ontario, a total of 1,028 applications were received in the year 2024-2025, up from 613 applications filed in 2021-2022. However, it’s not clear from the report how many were approved.
“The increase in rent strikes is a consequence of tenants losing faith in the legal system after seeing so many AGIs approved,” said Mason Fitzpatrick, director of communications at the Federation of Metro Tenants Association (FMTA) in an email.
However, in his email, Merrill said: “Metcap does not understand the concept of a rent strike.” He said MetCap Living has not received a decision on its AGI request, meaning tenants have not yet had to pay an additional 5.5 per cent.
Rent strikes are extremely rare, Fitzpatrick said, because there is no collective bargaining framework for tenants that sets out the rules for a strike, so tenants operate outside of the law in most cases.
“In Toronto, rent strikes have generally only been staged when a credible, resourced organization with deep ties to the community gets behind it,” he said. In this case, Parkdale Organize is helping. The group says it more recently helped tenants at 1251 King S. W. who had gone on a rent strike avoid an ensuing eviction attempt.
By working together, Kwan said tenants at 75 Spencer Ave. can collect stories to gather evidence to argue their case against the above guideline rent increase before the Landlord and Tenant Board by documenting the before and after of the work MetCap Living does.
“It’s a powerful message,” Kwan said. “I hope the landlord listens to them.”
No AI tools were used in the production of this piece.
