As he points to various corners of a tiny bathroom he shares with three other people, Zoltan Turok says he doesn’t understand how this Roncesvalles building can be considered as a hotel. “Look, it’s dirty as hell,” he says. “You think a bathroom hotel will look like this? Even the kitchen, the hallways, it is all like this.”The 68-year-old says he and other tenants were told last month they had to vacate 320 Roncesvalles Ave., a four-storey lowrise building, by Oct. 14 as it had been sold. The Residential Tenancies Act requires 120 days notice for a purchaser to evict an entire building and only if they are planning to tear down the building or use it for another purpose. But the owner claims the lowrise is a “tourist” property, and as such is exempt from the RTA.Turok and other tenants, some of whom have lived there for more than a year, and the city say otherwise.Turok has lived in a small bachelor room on the third floor of the building since last May, he says, a room he saw advertised in a newspaper for a $180 weekly rent. Turok, who kept the newspaper and showed the Star the ad, says he has since taken the habit of paying $900 for five weeks in a row in an effort to reduce the costs.“I am stressed. You know the rent situation in this city,” he said, sitting in a chair sandwiched between his small bed and a cupboard where he keeps his toiletries and medications. Across from him, a small TV is set atop a table, with a few books strewn around.“I have maybe $1,100 altogether as my money. Where can I find a place?”Samuel Lewkowicz, who is listed as the property owner, says he does not have to abide by the rules of the RTA because his building, known as Windsor House, has operated as a tourist home since 1985. As such, he argues, the occupants of the rooms there are not tenants, but guests.“In defiance of reality, and legal precedent, the Toronto Municipal Licensing and Standards Depart ...
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