It's been eight days and counting without central heating for Danica Criss and her partner Emily Fagan.

Last Wednesday, Criss heard the chirp of a carbon monoxide detector in the small, one-room apartment the couple share at No. 22 The Ridgeway, a once grand but now badly dilapidated century-old home divided into six small apartments.

The Technical Standards Safety Authority ordered the boiler shut off and it won't go back on until it's fixed or replaced.

Criss and Emily spent that night in the emergency room, getting tests for carbon monoxide poisoning. The ordeal is the latest chapter of a tenancy that began last May and has been marked ever since by ongoing heat and maintenance problems, and fears the building where they live is in an unsafe state of disrepair.

After the heat was shut off, the landlord delivered electric space heaters to the six units in the building. Criss said they're not enough keep off the chill and she's worried they might lead to a bigger problem.

There are only three working electrical outlets in Criss's unit, and they appear to be decades old. Extension cords snake across the floor as the space heaters run constantly.

"I'm concerned for the people who live in this building," said Criss. "If something sparks something, we're gonna burn up."

Criss and Segan pay $695 a month for the room they share. It was the best they could afford in London's tight rental market.

"The price was right, we love old structures and we were in a shelter at the time," said Criss.

A walk around the exterior of 22 The Ridgeway shows obvious signs of lapsed maintenance and outright neglect.

Signs of neglect are everywhere at No. 22 The Ridgeway. This is the beam that holds up the roof over the front porch. (Andrew Lupton/CBC)

Rain streams down exterior walls, past broken or missing rain gutters and downspouts. The porch sags and one of its support beams is splintered. Cracked windows sit loose in rotted wood frames. Animals come and go through broken fascia boards with holes the size of dinner plates.

Even before the gas was shut off, Criss said the heating system barely kept the temperature inside a few degrees above zero during winter.

"The entire building was freezing," she said. "You wanted your winter coat on."

One of the landlord's solutions was to jam batts of fiber glass insulation into the apartment's bay window.

"I believe it's a total disregard to the people he's renting to," said Criss.

With the building unable to properly heat the apartment during winter, tenant Danica Criss says her landlord put batts of fibre glass insulation in the window. (Andrew Lupton/CBC)

Landlord says he has a plan

The building at 22 The Ridgeway is one of 30 rental properties owned by David Russell through his rental agency The Apartment Shoppe. He owns five properties on The Ridgeway alone.

Russell admits the building, and an adjacent one at 26 The Ridgeway, are "pretty rough for sure."

But Russell says he's working with the city's planning department to completely renovate the two buildings and tie them together into a 35-unit rental complex that will preserve the heritage features of both buildings and bring them up to today's building codes.

"It's far more practical for me to let the building empty out and close it up than to start trying to put new roofs on buildings that are hopefully going to be changed and developed by the end of summer," he said.

Russell said his plans have been slowed by red tape at City Hall, but that he's confident a plan can be hammered out soon. Russell's expertise is in renovating neglected old London homes and turning them into rental units that maintain their heritage character. He's been praised by the city on other restoration projects and isn't keen on selling the properties on The Ridgeway to a developer who may demolish the old houses and replace them with a modern, multi-storey structure.

Apartments aren't registered with city

The apartments are not licensed with the city as legal suites. Russell applied to licence the apartments in both buildings but was turned down years ago. Also, he says he's reluctant to evict existing tenants, including some who've been there for years and would struggle to afford rent elsewhere.

Landlord David Russell admits he's only doing minimal maintenance at two rental properties he owns on The Ridgeway. He says he has plans to gut both buildings and tie them together in a new development that will preserve their heritage character. (Andrew Lupton/CBC)

Though tenants who spoke to CBC News deny it, Russell said he responds to requests for maintenance quickly.

Orest Katolyk heads the city's bylaw enforcement department and says the city has "active files" on both properties. He said in cases where basic services are cut off in rental units, the city can make the repairs and stick the landlord with the bill. Russell says he's working on getting a new furnace in No. 22, but couldn't say how soon it will happen.

She fought the landlord ... and won

So while the future of the two buildings hangs in limbo, tenants are complaining about the squalor and in some cases fighting back.

Dymond-Skie Graves, who lives with her roommate next door at No. 26 The Ridgeway, took Russell to the Landlord and Tenant Board after dealing with a leaky roof, ants, mold, a lack of heat and frozen pipes in her small apartment.

Dymond-Skie Graves and her roommate Brandon Millard are moving out after winning at battle with landlord David Russell at the Landlord and Tenant Board. They were refunded one month of rent ($895) and allowed out of their lease.

She kept a detailed file of photos, and all email correspondence with Russell. Her work paid off. Graves and her roommate were let out of their lease, and Russell had to pay them one month's rent ($895).

While it's not a massive windfall, Graves said it's enough to help fund a move.

"We found another place our plan is to get out," said Graves. "Move on with our lives because we're tired of fighting. We should be able to have the minimal living standards."

This shot shows bare spots on the roof at 26 The Ridgeway. A tenant said the water would show up in her apartment after heavy rains. (Submitted by Dymond-Skie Graves)

Katolyk says anyone with concerns about the safety of their rental suite should call the city at 519-661-4660 or email at enforcement@london.ca