The heat had tenants at 1300 and 1310 Pinecrest Rd. in Ottawa boiling in more ways than one.
Temperatures in their apartment units reached more than 30 C and their frustration with it all was just as high.
"I'm caught in hell," said Barby Clement who suffers from asthma and is confined to a wheelchair.
Tenants say they were told air conditioning cannot be turned on until June 1. The landlord says that is not case; it is all a misunderstanding.
"The June 1 date has come from the installation of a new chiller that we're installing in one of the towers," said Malcolm Potvin of Homestead Land Holdings Ltd.
However, that only applied to one of the buildings. The 1300 complex is ready to go, but still suffered from stifling temperatures and no air conditioning.
"The conundrum we find ourselves in as landlords," said Potvin, "is there's a regulation stating…we have to provide heat until June 15."
Potvin says with Ottawa's unpredictable weather and not wanting to break the law, it's a gamble every year to decide when to turn off and on the heat. He also said, it takes up to four or five days to switch from heating to cooling.
"We're certainly not in the business to toast our tenants or freeze them in the wintertime."
