It was early August when a notice was slid under the front door of Yumna and Khadeja Farooqs’ Toronto apartment, indicating a $7,000 increase in their monthly rent.
The sisters felt as though the rug had been pulled out from under them.
“There were just so many emotions,” Yumna said in an interview with Now Toronto. “It was a little bit hysterical in the sense that it was so outrageous, part of me also wanted to laugh.”
Khadeja, 25, a social media marketer, and Yumna, 28, who works in health and wellness marketing, have been living in the two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit for three years, most recently paying $2,500 a month.
While the Farooq sisters had faced rent increases over the years—the building was built after Nov. 15. 2018, making it exempt from rent control—nothing came close to the $9,500 they were now being asked to pay.
It all started when their landlord gave them a conditional offer—their rent would increase by a “low” rate of $1,000 more a month, but only if they commit to a one-year agreement.
According to the sisters, the landlord had only sent messages by text or phone, never proper legal documents, so they were unclear on what all this meant.
“Something didn’t sit right with us,” Khadeja said. “So, we called the Federation of Metro Tenant’s Associations (FMTA), and a very kind woman there helped us to understand that our landlord has been sending us void agreements, so he actually wasn’t using the proper legal form for rental agreements.”
The FMTA advised the Farooqs to ask their landlord for a written form, giving 90 days notice of the rent increase, which is required by law.
Following this request, the sisters said that a form was slipped under their front door, stating a $7,000 monthly rent increase to begin on Nov. 1, 2023.
Following the shock of the price hike, the sisters have started looking for a new home, but they’ve also decided to use their experience to amplify the larger issue of rent control, and fight for improved regulation across the province.
“We’ve realized that we’re actually not the only ones,” Yumna said. “There’s a lot of people who feel like they’re being priced out of their neighborhoods, or who can’t afford to stay in their buildings because of how much the rent is being increased. This is part of that larger issue—not having rent control, and it just goes back to the basic human right of feeling safe and having a roof over your head.”
The Farooq sisters have started a petition calling for rental control for all rental units in Ontario, and have already received 15,000 signatures since its creation last week.
“We just want to let other people know who are in similar situations that you’re not alone. And we’re really hoping to use this issue in this story to amplify the larger issue, and to hopefully put rent control into effect for all buildings in Ontario, post 2018,” Yumna said.
The petition calls on the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to take immediate action by implementing several changes, including rent control for all buildings built after Nov. 15, 2018 in Ontario, and urges all concerned citizens, tenants, and advocates for fair housing, to sign the petition.
