'They just see these tenants as a profits': Guelph residents fighting back against renoviction

It’s a story that’s become all too familiar in Ontario.

A new owner swoops in, buys an apartment building and, soon enough, tenants are evicted so their unit can be renovated.

That’s what’s happening at three Guelph, Ont. apartment buildings.

And if the story sounds familiar, it’s because the new owner is the same one Kitchener tenants have been battling for months.

Brant Avenue

In January, tenants found out an entity named BRANT APTS INC. purchased the three mid-rise building on Brant Avenue.

Not long after, residents started receiving N-13 eviction notices stating they would need to move out of their homes so the new owner could renovate the units.

Some residents felt their situation seemed very similar to other buildings where tenants claimed a renovation turned into renoviction.

A dig through public records found that Ludmila Karakulov was listed as the business director for BRANT APTS INC. and 250 FREDERICK INC., a Kitchener, Ont. apartment building where dozens of tenants received N-13 eviction notices shortly after the building was purchased last year.

“I’ve been angry, more than anything, because the owners, you can tell that they have a track record of doing this, of buying low income buildings and kicking everybody out,” claimed Nathan Davison.

He has lived at the Brant Avenue apartments for a decade and pays just over $1,000 a month in rent.

Davison said many of the residents can’t afford to pay the current rental market rate of $2,000 or more.

“A lot of these tenants in these buildings have been here for 10, 20, 30 years. A lot of them are seniors, many are on disability or on a pension plan,” Davison said. “They just see these tenants as a profit, they don't see them as human beings.”

Tenants unite

Davison started the Brant Avenue Tenants Association to help his neighbours who want to stay in their homes.

The association held a meeting Thursday night with the Wellington Guelph Legal Aid Clinic

“Tenants need to know and understand that they don't necessarily have to move out just because they received an N-13,” explained Stephanie Clendenning a lawyer and director of the Guelph Wellington Legal Aid Clinic. “They do have rights and they're allowed to ask questions and challenge those notices.”

Her organization is working to connect resident with social services, because if they are forced out, some may have no place to go.

“When we think about what is going to happen to these people, many of them are on social assistance,” Clendenning added.

Impact on residents

Kerry Litchy lives in one of the Brant Avenue buildings and also received an eviction notice.

She told CTV News the last year had been very difficult.

“I'm visually impaired and then, not even a year ago, my son was diagnosed with a brain tumor,” Litchy explained. “Then all of a sudden I get an N-13 and I don’t know what to do.”

Kerry Litchy (left) and her mother Kathy (right) on Sept. 7, 2024. (Jeff Pickel/CTV News)

Concerned she and her son might end up homeless, Litchy’s mother Kathy, who also lives in the building, reached out to the new owner.

“Asking him face-to-face, look at me and look at my [grandson], and can you honestly say we deserve to be on the street? Do you honestly feel that the money that you're going to make is worthwhile?” Kathy Litchy described.

Many of the residents of the Brant Avenue apartments are vowing to take the eviction notice to the Ontario Land and Tenant Board.

CTV News reached out to management of the building but did not receive comment by our deadline.