83-year-old tenant fighting for air conditioning for nearly a year

Cote-St-Luc resident Phyllis Lazar, 83, is fighting her landlord to turn the air conditioning back on after suffering through Montreal's summer humid heat.

An elderly woman is dreading another humid Montreal summer without being able to cool down her place.

Eighty-three-year-old Phyllis Lazar has been living in her apartment for 20 years.

She says her rent always included air conditioning, but last June that changed.

“June 15th, I turned my air conditioner on and it did not work,” Lazard said.

Her air conditioner still doesn’t work. When it was too hot last summer, she had to live elsewhere.

“I couldn’t sleep here,” Lazar said. “I have three sons. I slept at one of their houses. I slept at a friend’s house because it was impossible.”

She’s opened a file at the housing tribunal to try to get her air conditioning restored and once again included in her rent payment.

Arnold Bennett, director of the Housing Hotline, says Lazar has a strong case.

“It doesn’t sound reasonable on the part of the landlord,” Bennett said. “She has a reasonably good chance. In the general principle, if something is taken away that exists in a lease by the court, then the landlord has to give a rent reduction.”

The building owner, Gestion Zagora, did not respond to repeated CTV News requests for comment.

Bennett says air conditioning is becoming essential to make it through a Quebec summer.

“Just like you’ve got a right to heating, because of all the reasons that go with that. People should have the right to air conditioning,” Bennett said. “Because of the climate situation and the impacts on health, especially for seniors.”

One month away from the start of summer, and Lazar says her apartment is already hot, hitting the high 20s.

“I took a picture. Okay, because the thermostat showed 84 degrees in the apartment and we’re not even in the summer,” Lazar said. “It was very hot.”