She complained about her Fredericton apartment. Then came the 21% rent increase
CBC
The kitchen counter in Barbara Blunston's apartment is so rotted, the area around the sink is drooping.
Because of moisture problems, mould consistently creeps up her walls. And three windows are broken, with one taped over with a garbage bag.
Blunston said after months of asking landlord Sunfield Rentals to fix the problems, she filed a complaint with New Brunswick's Tenant and Landlord Relations Office last November.
Then came a letter from Sunfield on May 30, notifying her the rent for her one-bedroom apartment would be going up from $888 to $1,074 — a 21 per cent increase — in December.
"I feel they don't care about their tenants at all," Blunston said. "They care about money and … if this was their family member, they wouldn't let their family members live in something like this."
Blunston said she moved into the three-unit building in September 2019, initially paying $800 per month, including utilities.
She said the apartment already had issues when she moved in, but the former owner didn't address them before selling the building to Sunfield in February 2020.
Blunston said she initially didn't hear from or meet the new owner or any of their staff, aside from a note informing her where to send her rent.
About a year later, Blunston said, an employee with Sunfield visited her apartment, giving her the first opportunity to discuss problems, such as a hole in the kitchen sink and low water pressure in the shower.
She said she also explained she was finding mould in the unit, and two windows were no longer working properly.
Someone came to replace the kitchen sink in 2022 and told her he'd likely be back to replace the entire counter, which was rotted and filled with mould. That never happened.
This past spring, Sunfield addressed the water pressure problem by installing new pipes.
Blunston said three of the unit's windows are now broken or no longer open and close properly, and the mould has spread to other parts of the apartment, including her bedroom.
With no response from Sunfield to those problems, she filed a complaint with the Tenant and Landlord Relations Office in November. She's still waiting for an agent to be assigned to her case.
