Hours after an 18-year-old Chinese international student died in a fire at a Scarborough property, a landlord told tenants at other connected properties to gather their belongings and leave.Weisong Zhou and his wife, Yu Jing, own six properties near the University of Toronto’s Scarborough campus, according to Ontario property records. On Wednesday, tenants at two properties told the Star Zhou was evicting them without notice.“He said his house had a fire and I had to move out,” said Vivian Meng, 18, who lived at 27 Challenger Court, a two-minute drive from the house at 10 Haida Court, where her close friend Helen Guo died in the fire. Meng said she and her four roommates, all international students who were living in the basement, were told to leave mere hours after the fire that also injured three others.“I don’t understand why,” Meng said. “He said that it was because of ‘some rules’ but I don’t know what they are.”The Star visited six rental properties owned by Zhou and Jing on Wednesday and Thursday — all were large, detached, single-family homes within minutes of each other and the three universities and colleges in the neighbourhood. Jing is listed as the sole owner of 10 Haida Court, and a co-owner on one other property; Zhou is listed as a sole or co-owner of five of the properties. At 3321 Ellesmere Rd. the Star entered and saw a basement apartment home to eight international students with shared facilities and apparent safety hazards, including two mould-filled bathrooms, two kitchens — one of which did not have running water — and at least two broken or expired smoke detectors.At 3346 Ellesmere Rd., four men were observed moving the contents of the home into a dumpster.The Star presented Zhou with a detailed list of questions outlining allegations that include apparent violations at his properties, and his decision to evict the tenants. “All the information is no ...
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