Enough is enough! 2255 Weston Tenants Negotiate with Firm Capital After THREE Consecutive AGIs!

ACORN members at 2255 Weston Road sat down face-to-face with their landlord, Firm Capital, to demand an end to relentless rent increases and action on longstanding building conditions.

Tenants came into the meeting with a clear message: enough is enough!

This is the third consecutive year Firm Capital has sought an Above-Guideline Rent Increase at 2255 Weston Road. Tenants have received different AGI amounts, with some as high as 7.5% — equivalent to more than $200 for some tenants. Meanwhile, tenants continue to report serious problems in the building, including pest infestations, mold, heating issues, broken elevators and unfinished renovations. 

As 2255 Weston ACORN leader Margaret Manning-Smith put it at the tenant speakout: “We are facing relentless rent hikes that threaten the stability of our community. After so many years of AGIs, many neighbours are struggling to make ends meet. We’re here to send a clear message to Firm Capital: enough is enough!”

And tenants didn’t come to the table empty-handed! After organizing together over the past several months, members arrived with six clear areas of demands for Firm Capital.

First and foremost: a rent freeze for at least a year, and until repairs are done, and a cancellation of the AGI. Members made clear that tenants should not have to keep paying higher rents while major building problems remain unresolved. Their starting position was a rent freeze; if Firm Capital refused, tenants were prepared to negotiate a lower AGI only in exchange for concrete commitments to address outstanding building-wide problems. 

Tenants also demanded building-wide action on health and safety. Instead of treating cockroaches, rats, mold and heating problems as isolated complaints from individual tenants, members demanded that Firm Capital recognize them as systemic problems requiring building-wide solutions, with clear timelines for getting the work done. 

Next up: repairs and maintenance! Members demanded reliable elevators, cleaner garages and common areas, better lighting, improved building security and a maintenance system that actually responds to tenants and completes work orders in a timely way. They also demanded that outstanding flooring and renovation work be completed by December 2026 at the latest. 

Tenants also brought Firm Capital demands around parking and rent payments, calling for free parking — or, at minimum, a nominal fee of no more than $45 — and the ability for tenants to pay their rent using payment methods convenient to them rather than being restricted to one method. 

But members weren’t interested in walking away with another list of promises. When Firm Capital tried to walk away with no concrete commitments and only empty promises to “look into things”, tenants insisted on a hard timeline and follow-up on all of their demands. 

The negotiations went on for 1.5 hours, with ACORN Weston Chair Marcia Stone going through demands section-by-section, giving Firm Capital an opportunity to respond to each one, and tenants an opportunity to call them out on building mismanagement!  With tenants coming together to fight this AGI, asking “what’s it for?”, Firm Capital orally agreed to revisit the AGI. When Firm Capital refused to put anything in writing, ACORN demanded the director take out her calendar to schedule a meeting right now: no more “we’ll email you a follow-up date”! And they won a negotiating meeting! Firm Capital will be reviewing the details of the AGI, to see whether cancellation or reduction is possible, and will be negotiating with tenants at a meeting in the second week of October! And tenants made sure to let them know that we will pursue our legal rights on the chronic repair issues in the building, should the AGI persist. 

In the meantime, Firm Capital has agreed to immediately address the chronic health and safety issues — like mold, pests and heating — and maintenance and security issues — like the elevators and floor renovations — and reviewing parking costs, and alternative convenient payment methods for tenants. They also agreed to run advanced tests on the new boiler to ensure the heating works before winter, to purchase new washing machines, and that the hallway flooring on all floors be completed by December 2026. When property management tried to gaslight tenants on how long flooring construction has been going on for (“under a year”), tenants insisted that it’s been years! Some residents gave impassioned speeches about how the tenants pay rent, and the point of management is to make tenants’ lives better. And Tenants insisted on getting things done: they made sure to meet individually with the director and property manager after negotiations, to fill out individualized repair forms to ensure repairs are done promptly. 

What happened inside that negotiating room did not happen overnight. Tenants at 2255 Weston have been organizing for months. And only when tenants organized, did Firm Capital come to the table!

The fight at 2255 Weston isn’t over. ACORN will continue organizing until Firm Capital concedes. We will be watching closely to see that ALL these things get done for tenants by the meeting with Firm Capital on October 13th, and that tenants win their well-earned rent freeze and AGI cancellation! 

Because tenants at 2255 Weston are showing that when landlords try to make tenants deal with problems individually, tenants can organize and respond collectively.

The people, united, will never be defeated!

ACORN strong, all day long!