'This is egregious': Sisters shocked when Toronto landlord raises rent to $9,500 a month

Two sisters were shocked when a Toronto landlord raised their rent by $7,000 per month.

“At first we thought he can’t be serious when we received this notice and we were just very shocked,” Khadeja Farooq said.

The landlord had told them he wanted to raise the rent to $3,500 and when they complained he decided to raise it to $9,500.

“We know that our building is not rent controlled and this was something we were always worried about happening and there is no way we can afford $9,500 per month," Yumna Farooq said.

The sisters have lived in the building for three years and the unit has two bedrooms and two bathrooms, but they feel the landlord is raising the rent to $114,000 a year to get them to move out because they requested changes to their lease.

While landlords can only raise the rent 2.5 per cent this year and 2.5 per cent next year, that's not the case in newer buildings.

Buildings built after Nov. 15, 2018 are exempt from rent controls. Meaning, landlords can raise the rent by any amount they want. The Ford government scrapped rent control for these units to incentivize developers and increase the province’s housing supply.

Sisters Khadeja and Yumna Farooq say a Toronto landlord is raising their rent by $7,000 per month. “This is egregious, horrible and thanks to the government," said Geordie Dent, Executive director of the Federation of Metro Tenants’ Associations.

Dent said some buildings without rent controls are having their rents hiked to astronomical levels.

“This is what we warned the government would happen when they brought in this legislation” said Dent who added, “The simplest solution is to bring back rent controls on all units."

At Queen's Park, both the NDP and the Liberal parties are calling on the Ford Government to bring back rent controls.

"To make rent more affordable and to help renters Ontario needs to bring in strong rent controls again. We had strong rent control in the ‘90s and it is time to return it,” said Jessica Bell, MPP for University Rosedale, and housing critic for the NDP.

John Fraser, MPP for Ottawa South and Interim Leader for the Ontario Liberal Party, agreed and said, “We do have to have some form of rental controls on all properties."

The Farooq sisters now have to move out and find another place to stay and they worry they'll also have to pay more for rent.

“The rental market is so crazy right now and the rents they've gone up, so everything is just a big question mark for us right now,” said Yumna Farooq.

When you move into a building you should always ask how old it is, because if it's been built after November 2018 the landlord has the right to raise the rent by as much as they want.