In Parkdale’s red-hot rental market, four units in a seven-unit residential building at King Street West and Cowan Avenue sit empty.

And they’ve been vacant for months — collateral in a dispute between tenants who don’t want to leave and a landlord who wants to renovate.

The building is owned by Paval Kanagathurai, who according to property records, purchased it in August 2017 for $2.85 million. Three remaining tenants — occupying a two-bedroom and two bachelors — have received notice to end their tenancies, so the landlord can begin major renovations.

The tenants told the Star they don’t intend to leave.

Kanagathurai showed the Star the ground level and basement of the building, pointing out things he called unsafe — rotting pipes, cables to nowhere, wet walls. Repairmen and pest control were present when the Star visited, and construction and repairs are underway.

He declined to speak further, while his tenants have been adamant about their determination to stay.

“I don’t want to leave,” said Brandon Kennedy, who’s lived in the building for three years. “Right now we are organizing together and we’ve already held one demonstration against the landlord.”

On Oct. 13, the tenants delivered a letter to their landlord’s store, stating that they don’t plan to vacate by the requested date of Dec. 31.

Kennedy occupies a two-bedroom unit, but signed a lease for only one of the rooms. He pays $575 a month in rent. The occupants of two bachelor apartments, Phil Mac Innis and Kelly Goldfeder, pay $700 and $750 each a month, respectively. All utilities, except internet and cable, are included.

Goldfeder said her unit’s heat didn’t turn on until March, and she’s encountered mice and roaches.

The tenants live on the upper two stories of the building. The ground floor is commercial, and tenants say a restaurant is being constructed there.

Toronto realtor April Williams called monthly rent payments at those rates very low, since a bachelor goes for $1,100 on average.

A nearby residential building’s ‘for lease’ sign on the front lawn advertised a bachelor from $900 and a one bedroom from $1,300.

Innis said he’s fighting the eviction because the apartment on King St. W. is his home.

“If I lose this place, I’m homeless,” he said. Innis is an Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) recipient, and estimates that if he’s forced to move, 85 to 90 per cent of his monthly income will go directly to rent.

Cole Webber, a legal worker at Parkdale Community Legal Services, is assisting the tenants.

“What we’ve been seeing a lot of in Parkdale is small investors coming in and buying up the smaller buildings and houses, and then pushing out the longtime tenants in order to renovate and raise the rents on units,” he said.

The N-13 eviction notice issued to the tenants and provided to the Star by Webber, outlines the planned renovations: replace electric panels and cables, replace smoke and fire alarms, replace the roof and windows, separate the hydro meters, construct a laundry facility accessible to tenants and completely renovate all the units, including the bathroom and kitchen.

Major repairs or renovations — if they require a building permit and can’t be done unless the unit is empty — are a no-fault reason for ending a tenancy under the Residential Tenancies Act.

Tenants that are evicted for renovations have the right to move back in once renovations are complete.

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Steven Love, a volunteer with neighbourhood advocacy group Parkdale Organize, said Parkdale is being “rebranded.”

“We’re so close to Liberty Village that they’re trying to rebrand it as a Liberty Village West,” Love said.

“There are a lot of landlords that are starting these renovations, they’re starting to jack the rent, they’re trying to get a new clientele — a different demographic,” Love said. “Not the demographic that’s here, that exists in Parkdale and has historically existed in Parkdale. It’s always been a working class neighbourhood.”

Love said he’s paying $649 for a bachelor in a Parkdale apartment building he’s lived in for five years. Today, a renovated bachelor unit in his building is $1,049 a month.

“Parkdale is just the last stand,” he said. “Once you take over Parkdale, there’s really not another affordable neighbourhood in Toronto.”