May 5th, 2013
After a terrible experience with Winnipeg’s rental market, a Nunavut woman who just moved in to Manitoba as a tenant said she’ll move back north.
According to a report on CBC News, tenant Madelaine Napayok said in March 2013 she had paid a total of $1,900 for rental payments and damage deposits to Property 1 Management since she moved to Winnipeg from Whale Cove, Nunavut.
Sadly the different property the company has moved her into has a lot of issues such as a broken window, walls with holes and a kitchen without a stove.
“Unbelievable,” she said. “The province of Manitoba and their tenancies? My goodness galore! I lived in Nunavut and I never saw anything like this” she added.
On March 1, Napayok has paid $800 for the rent and $400 as a damage deposit for the apartment in Selkirk Avenue however she was told the apartment was not yet ready.
“So they moved us to a house on Valour Road which had no stove,” she pointed out.
Then Property 1 Management offered her a suite in a house at Pritchard Avenue.
She moved in on the 12th of April and the suite had mould, windows broken, dirty walls with holes, bathroom fixtures with cracks and leaks.
“This is horrendous. It’s like Halloween III,” Napayok said as she refers to the horror movie.
“I was expecting a nice fancy place for 800 bucks — like, proper running water and [a] proper door and clean house.”
Roger Seyforth, the owner of the Pritchard Avenue house told CBC News he’s paying Property 1 to manage his rental unit. Seyforth lives in British Columbia and had no idea someone was living in his unit.
The house was previously trashed by crack cocaine dealers and was evicted with the assistance of Manitoba Justice. “No one was going to go into that suite until we completed the repairs,” Seyforth mentioned. We’ve heard these types of stories all over Canada, especially in BC and in Ontario.
One of the Property 1 officials told CBC News that they are trying their best to help Napayok. The official said she chose the suite in Pritchard Avenue and did not pay the rent for April.
As of the moment the suite is under repair and Napayok is staying with friends. While we hear many landlords are leaving the market, in this case the tenant is planning to move back to Whale Cove by the end of the month.
The North End Tenant-Landlord Cooperation Program believes that Property 1 owes Napayok and has filed the papers with Manitoba’s Residential Tenancies Branch to recover the $1,900.
To discuss this and other landlord issues go to the Manitoba Landlord Forum
