Tenants at three co-operative apartment buildings in Scarborough say they’ve endured more than three months without hot water, suffering through shivering showers while building management sat on their hands.

“They told us they were going to look into it for the last three months,” fumed long-time resident, Bill McDougal. “Most times it’s a cold shower, I’m shivering in it. It’s unreasonable and they can’t give us an answer as to why … it’s ridiculous.”

Thirty units at buildings 2, 4, and 6 on Pell Street, near Kingston Road and Midland Avenue, are affected.

Scarborough Bluffs Co-operative Inc., sent residents a letter on December 12, saying it had hired an engineering firm to apply for the necessary city permits to install new boilers and storage tanks, and separate the domestic hot water system from the heating hot water system.

The company maintains there is still hot water at the buildings, but it’s in short supply because of the shared boiler system.

“There is currently a supply of hot water but between the buildings that share a boiler there is a capacity issue due to system design,” Scarborough Bluffs Co-operative told CityNews on Wednesday. “When the radiators are turned on for the winter season it appears to affect the hot water in three of the nine buildings.

McDougal said he has to wake up at 4 a.m. to get a shower that’s barely luke warm. “This is 2019, it’s not 1819,” he said. “In a city this size there’s no reason why they can’t get a company in here and fix this in no time.

“We are all freezing, everybody is complaining.”

Councillor Gary Crawford said the city’s Municipal Licensing and Standards division inspected the buildings and issued management a notice of violation — requiring the hot water to be fixed by December 31st.

It didn’t happen.

On Wednesday, tenants received another memo from management, saying the permits will be applied for on Friday, and that “the work will be done as soon as possible.”

Crawford called the delays unacceptable and said the company could face fines for missing the December 31st deadline.

“If they are waiting for a permit and waiting for the city I will expedite that to get that done as quickly as possible,” he vowed. “And I’m hoping they are not using that as a stalling tactic. We need to get this done as quickly as possible.”

Janet Youkhana has lived at one of the affected buildings for the last six years. The single mother of two young children is running out of patience.

“It’s a nightmare, it’s really, really disgusting,” she said. “It’s cold, icy water … Try waking up at 6 a.m. to go to work and get ready and what do we get? Cold water.”

“We pay our rent, we expect hot water and heat.”