You may or may not have noticed that I have not written many blogs lately. I have been having landlord problems, which may end up with the Russian Mafia coming and throwing all my possessions into the street. So you may hear even less from me. I will now put down a timeline of the events of the last 8 months, so you'll know what I've been facing:
Jack Nathanson
E-mail: nathanson1947@yahoo.com
Friday, April 11, 2008 – My father passed away at about 10:40 PM in the Jewish General Hospital.
Monday, April 14, 2008 – the funeral took place.
April 14 – 16 – The Shiva (mourning period) took place.
Monday, April 21 – Some workmen came to my apartment to upgrade the electrical wiring. They worked mainly on the kitchen, leaving holes in the wall after they had finished (as of December 6, the holes were never repaired). I stayed away from the apartment most of the day because of the noise and commotion. I got back in the late afternoon just as they were finishing up. The workmen said goodbye and left.
I was about to lie down and rest, when there was a knock at the back balcony door and the landlord, Igor Ezril, came in. He said that this was the first time that he had seen the apartment since he had bought the building and he was dissatisfied as to how dirty it was. He said that it was in such bad shape that it could not be cleaned and that it would have to be gutted and renovated. He wanted me to move out as soon as possible. He said that since I was Jewish and he was Jewish, he did not want to make trouble and preferred that I would move out voluntarily. He said that all the people in the building were complaining about all the cockroaches in the building and that I was causing them. When I suggested cleaning up the apartment instead of moving out, he said it was in too bad shape to clean up. He eventually left.
April – June 2008 – The landlord would come knocking on my door, usually around 8 or 9 AM on Monday or Friday morning, asking me either when I was moving out or whether the apartment had been cleaned. I was starting to have trouble sleeping because of this. At times, I didn’t bother answering the door. Eventually, there came a time when I answered the door and found no one there. Either the landlord had already left, or I had mistaken a random noise for a knock at the door. I stopped answering the door.
I started to try and clean up the apartment at this time, but I was still primarily occupied with settling my father’s estate.
June – August 2008 – Things quieted down. I was primarily occupied with settling my father’s estate.
Friday, September 12, 2008 – There was a knock on my door in the late morning or early afternoon. It was the landlord. He said that he wanted me to move out but did not want to make trouble. He said that if I found a place to move to by October 1, he would provide me with some men to help me move. This happened two days before the unveiling of my father’s tombstone. I told the landlord that for me to be able to move out within two weeks was impossible.
Sunday, September 14, 2008 – the unveiling of my father’s tombstone at de la Savane cemetery.
Around September 19 or 20 – I checked my mailbox, and found a notice telling me to go pick up a letter at the Jean Coutu pharmacy at Queen Mary and Westbury.
September 22 or 23 – I picked up the letter at the Jean Coutu pharmacy. It was a registered letter from the landlord telling me that they had given me the last verbal warning and from now on, if there was any more trouble, they would take legal action.
September 29 – October 1 – Rosh Hashanah
October 9 – Yom Kippur
Tuesday, October 14, 2008 – There was a knock at the door. A man came in, identifying himself as a City of Montreal Inspector. He examined the apartment, took some photographs, and left.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008 – A bailiff came to the door and handed me a letter. It was from a city inspector named Lounes Adi, commanding me to clean up my apartment or else.
Thursday, October 23, 2008 - A second bailiff came to the door and handed me a letter. This letter indicated that the landlord had made a demande at the rental board, based on the letter from the city inspector which I had received on October 21.
October 25, 2008 – Three women came in and cleaned the apartment at a cost of $250.00.
Monday, October 27, 2008 – I went to project Genesis. There, I received 3 pieces of advice:
1. Get the City Inspector to come back and certify that the place had been cleaned.
2. Take photographs to show that the place had been cleaned.
3. Go back to Project Genesis when I get notification that a trial date has been set so that they can help me with my case.
Friday, October 31, 2008 – At about 2:30 PM, I phoned the number at the bottom of the letter from the City Inspector (514) 872-5160. I asked the woman who answered to speak to Lounes Adi. She said that he had finished work for the week, and that I should leave my name and the notice number, and that he would call me back on Monday, November 3.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008 – In the morning, I received a call from a man who said he was a City Inspector. I told him that the place had been cleaned, and he seemed surprised. He said that he would come and look. When I asked when he would come, he said maybe Thursday, November 6, but he would phone before coming.
November 6th and 7th – I spent almost all day at home both these days, but there was no word from the City Inspector. (As of Sunday, December 7, 2008, I still have not heard from him).
October 27th until December 7th, 2008 – On my October 7th visit to Project Genesis, I had been told that I would receive a notice telling me when my trial at the Rental Board would be held. I never received such a notice.
Saturday, November 8, 2008 - At approximately 7 AM, I was awakened by a knock at my door. It was the janitor, who apologized for disturbing me, and told me that they would be spraying for cockroaches at 10:30 AM.
At 12:30 PM, one exterminator showed up, and proceeded to saturate my apartment with a white powder, presumably boric acid. After a while, he said he was finished, and he left.
I managed to get things back in order, and assumed that the extermination was finished.
I stayed up fairly late on Saturday night, which turned out to be a mistake. Because on approximately 10:30 AM, Sunday, November 9, 2008, I was awakened by the sound of two men having a loud conversation in my apartment. The front door of the apartment had been left unlocked, but there wasn’t anything of value outside my bedroom where I was situated. I assumed that it must be some workmen sent by the landlord to repair a hole left in the kitchen wall in April 2008, when the electrical wiring in the building had been upgraded.
All of a sudden, the bedroom door was opened, and in came an exterminator ready to spray my bedroom. He told me to get out. This time, I HAD RECEIVED NO ADVANCE WARNING WHATSOEVER! And I would never have expected a second exterminator to show up ONE DAY after an exterminator had just shown up.
After a while, he told me to get out and stay out of the apartment for five hours. I told him that I had a cat who was hiding under my bed or elsewhere in the apartment, and that the cat would not come out until the exterminator had left. His response was to yell “Ferme ta guele!” at me.
By this point, I was on the back balcony of my apartment, from which a fire escape leads four steps to the ground in back of the building. I was trying to figure out how to call the police, when the janitor came out of the apartment onto the back balcony. He had presumably just come into the apartment from the front door. He told me to stay calm. Eventually, it seemed as if the exterminator had gone, and the janitor told me to go in and retrieve the cat. The janitor then left.
The balcony door opens into the kitchen, and when I went in, the cat came out from one of the lower kitchen cabinets. I picked up the cat, and brought him onto the back balcony, closing the kitchen door while I did so. The cat and I were now both on the back balcony. The cat was meowing to be let in to the apartment. I looked in through the window on the door and saw the exterminator spraying the kitchen floor.
I climbed down the fire escape and walked over to a friend’s apartment. The cat was still on the balcony, meowing to be let in. A couple of hours later, I came back with a cat carrier which I had borrowed from my friend, managed with some difficulty to get the cat in, and brought him over to my friend’s apartment, where both the cat and I remained until 10:00 PM.
At 10:00 PM, I came back to the apartment, to find that it had been sprayed to such an extent that a lot of the posters and papers taped to the wall had been destroyed and had to be thrown out. Maybe the number of cockroaches was such that it had been necessary to do so. I don’t know.
From that point on, the front door of the apartment has been kept locked, but I think the janitor may have keys for it.
On Friday evening, November 14, 2008, at about 8:30 PM, there was a knock on the door. It was the janitor, coming to tell me that the exterminators were coming to spray again at 9:30 AM on Saturday morning.
November 15, 2008 - At about 9:20 AM, there was a knock at the door. It was the landlord, the janitor, and two exterminators. One of the exterminators checked the drawers of the bureau in my bedroom for evidence of cockroach infestation. He found cockroaches in there.
They left for a few minutes to get the supplies, and one of the exterminators returned and proceeded to spray the inside of my bedroom bureau drawers with a white powder – presumably boric acid.
I went onto the kitchen balcony for a while to get out of the way, while the exterminator continued to spray the apartment. I saw him spraying in the kitchen for a while.
I waited outside for about 10 or 15 minutes longer and went back inside. The exterminator had already gone. On checking my bedroom, I found that the floor was wet, meaning that the exterminator had sprayed it with the liquid spray. The total damage was that one poster, partly damaged in the second extermination on November 9, had to be thrown out, and one book, “Commune with the Angels”, had fallen on the floor and come out of the plastic bag it was in. As it may have absorbed some of the liquid pesticide, I threw it out as well.
I removed the cat’s bowls from the bedroom, cleaned them thoroughly, refilled them with food and water, and left them in a hallway where the floor was dry. I then heard a sound that sounded like the exterminator, but soon realized that he was not coming back to my apartment. So I went out for a few hours.
Saturday, November 22, 2008 - I went to the Dorshei Emet (Reconstructionist Synagogue, 18 Cleve Road) at about 10:30 AM, as I had not been notified about any exterminators coming. When I got back home around 4 PM, it was obvious that someone had been in my apartment. Two lights that had been left on were turned off, and a chair in my bedroom and my bed had both been moved. I don’t know if they actually sprayed or just checked for cockroaches and then left.
After this, there was no evidence of any exterminators coming into my apartment. The number of cockroaches seems to have dropped to close to zero.
Saturday, November 29, 2008 – I went out for a few hours, but there was no evidence of anyone having been in my apartment when I returned.
Friday, December 5, 2008 – I went out for the evening, and had returned home by about 10:30 PM. A few hours later, I decided my mailbox downstairs for any mail. Among the letters, was one which purported to have come from the Rental Board. It said that a trial of the case concerning me at the Rental Board had been held on November 21, two weeks earlier, and, in my absence, judgment had been made against me. I had never received prior notice of such a trial, so I have no way of knowing whether there had been a trial, or whether the letter was a forgery.
After a night of not sleeping much, I managed to drag myself out of bed and was down at the Rental Board (Regie du Logement) at 8:45 AM. There I found out, to my surprise, that it was quite common for the slips announcing the hearing dates to get lost in the mail. For a fee of $65.00, I was able to get a Revocation of Judgment, which essentially puts an end to all proceedings until a new hearing can be held, which probably won't be until after the Rental Board re-opens on January 3, 2009 after the holidays.