A mother of two says she’s going to fight a renoviction from her duplex in Dartmouth.
Adele Martell tells our newsroom her new landlord is evicting tenants to usher in renovations and higher rent.
She says the move came right after the province lifted its renoviction ban on March 21st.
It had been tied to the state of an emergency order under the pandemic, which ended on that date.
“We have so many ties to this community, my kids go to school at Hawthorn, which is just down the street from where we live,” she says. “I’m a volunteer firefighter in the community as well, so I can’t leave the community, or I’d have to leave my fire station.”
Martell and her boys have lived at the duplex on Murray Hill Drive for two years now. The building came under new ownership based out of Toronto about three weeks ago.
She says a bailiff knocked on her door one night on behalf of the new owner to tell them they would need to leave soon but did not hand her official paperwork.
“So he came to our door, and he didn’t have any papers to serve us,” she says. “He just told us that we should all start getting ready to find another place. He came at 8 o’clock at night. A lot of people were really upset about it because some people have lived here for 37 years.”
She considers the community tight-knit and supportive.
Residents look after an elderly neighbour Martell explains, checking in on her and even delivering groceries. She says it will be hard for everyone to find new affordable places to live.
“I have an almost 12-year-old and a 7-year-old, so I’m trying to look for something that is big enough to accommodate my family,” Martell says. “The problem is the rent prices right now are absolutely outrageous. So we’re having a hard time because the price of everything has gone up, the price of groceries, the price of gas, but our incomes haven’t gone up.”
Martell adds eight flats are being impacted and the residents will protest the move once they get served official documents.
Under the Residential Tenancies Act, tenants must be given at least three months’ notice before a renoviction.
“I need to stay in this community,” Martell says. “It’s quite expensive where I want to live, in a safe neighbourhood in Dartmouth. It’s just unreasonably priced.”
**With files from Ryan “Sully” Sullivan.
