Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - On Nov. 18, the heaters in Jessica Chaykowski's Ptarmigan Apartments unit stopped working.

"Tuesday night it got really cold ... and when we got up in the morning it was ice cold," she said.

Jon Chaykowski, left, and Jessica Chaykowski, right, sit huddled underneath their comforter, which they've been using to keep warm over the past two weeks. Their apartment has been without heat for 14 days. - Andrew Livingstone/NNSL photo

"I contacted our landlord and he said he would get somebody in here to fix (the heat) right away."

It wasn't until late Monday night, 14 days later, that it turned back on.

Chaykowski lives in the apartment with her husband, Jon, their five-year-old son and two dogs. They moved into the apartment in September and according to Chaykowski never had any problems until now.

On the eve of that first cold night the maintenance man for the apartment complex "showed up at our door just as we were on our way to bed," said Chaykowski. He told her the problem was caused by a broken part that could take a few days to arrive, she said.

"We were like, OK, what can you do for us - and they weren't willing to do anything for us," she said.

"Our son ... woke up that morning and he was just sick. We were all so sick because we had no heat. We all had bad colds."

Over the past two weeks overnight temperatures outside have dipped anywhere from -11 to -23 C.

Chaykowski moved her son to her mother-in-law's as soon as he got sick. She and her husband have stayed in the apartment, as they are unable to find any place which will accept their dogs and are unwilling to leave the animals to suffer alone in the cold.

"We couldn't afford to go and stay at a hotel for this many days," she said.

Heat is included as part of Chaykowski's rent. According to Aleem Shiv, property manager for Yellowknife Apartments, the slow fix stems from scheduling problems - and Chaykowski's dogs.

"They have dogs. They're not supposed to have dogs in there," said Shiv. "We can't let our maintenance crew go in with dogs in there because it's a safety hazard."

Shiv said he did give permission for the Chaykowskis to own at least one dog when they moved in.

"We allowed them to have one dog, but now they have two dogs," he said.

He also said the maintenance manager has made several attempts to fix the heat.

"They're never home," he said. "My maintenance manager has gone there many times and they're not home."

Shiv added it is not normal practice for the company to put tenants without heat up in an hotel.

"(Tenants) never don't have heat for that long. If they don't have heat, we fix it right away," he said.

Shiv, who said other tenants have said they've had no heat for shorter periods over the past weeks, also said the heat was fixed at least once.

"My maintenance manager went in and fixed the problem, and (the Chaykowskis) still complained of no heat," he said.

Chaykowski said she was asked to ensure her dogs were out of the apartment so the maintenance man could come in to fix her heat, she said. Twice she took her dogs to work with her and twice she returned home to discover nobody had even set foot in her apartment, she said.

"I was livid," she said.

On Friday, Nov. 21 she was assured her heat would be fixed soon. Later that day she bought another space heater, but soon discovered she couldn't run two without tripping the breakers in the apartment.

According to Chaykowski, maintenance did not arrive until Tuesday evening, Nov. 25, as she was on her way to her nephew's first birthday party.

This time she wasn't willing to cancel her plans.

"We've changed so many plans, we've cancelled so many dates that we've had ... so (he) can come to our house and fix our heat," she said. "My nephew's birthday we weren't going to miss. It's my first nephew and it's his first birthday."

By the end of the week, she had yet to see the maintenance man again, she said.

"We had to leave our bathroom tap running in our sink so our pipes didn't freeze because we woke up a few mornings and it sputtered."

Chaykowski said she knows things don't always happen quickly in Yellowknife, but 14 days with no heat was too much.

Before the heat was turned back on, Hal Logsdon, rental officer for the NWT, said there were options available for the family. And there are still options now that the heat is back on.

Under the NWT Residential Tenancy Act, said Logsdon, "it's clearly an obligation of a landlord to provide vital services. There are remedies in the act for tenants who suffer the restriction on vital services but they do need to make an application."

He added there isn't much he can do until an application is filed. Once one is filed, however, Logsdon can order the tenant be compensated.

He added the no heat situation was "difficult" though because the landlord does not own the building and may not have the resources to fix the problem if it is an extensive one.

While Yellowknife Apartments manages the building and rents out the units, the complex is actually owned by Edmonton-based Bond Street Properties, which also owns the long-unfinished Bayview Estates property on Niven Lake.