Lachine condo residents without hot water for 20 days and counting

Residents at a Lachine condo say they have been without hot water for 20 days, but building management is promising relief is on the way.

Residents of a Lachine building say they have spent 20 days without hot water but building management says relief is on the way.

A kettle, a bucket, and lots of patience — that’s how Amanda Savoy has been showering for the past three weeks.

“We’re trying our best to see if we can go to different family’s houses to shower from time to time when we’re kind of fed up with having a bucket shower,” she told CTV News.

Savoy says it all started on May 1 when she heard a noise in the hallway.

“I opened the door and that’s when I saw it. Just so much water just pouring down from the ceiling. At that point, I immediately called 911,” she recalled.

Since then, residents in the condo building have been without hot and potable water. Savoy has been getting through by constantly boiling water and drinking from plastic bottles.

Outside in the hallway, walls have been gutted and insulation has been stripped while work is being done to find the cause of the break.

Residents were given the option to turn the hot water back on but were told that if they do, there could be another leak. So savoy says she decided to keep it off.

But what has frustrated her the most is the lack of communication.

“We’re not taken seriously at all. Like, honestly, we’re left in the complete dark,” she said.

However, the building’s property management company disagrees, saying they have been in communication with owners.

“The transparency and the reactivity of my team was pretty on the ball,” said Marc Morin, CEO of Gestion Immobilière Provision.

Morin says given the scope of the problem the timeline is not out of the ordinary. He says two pipes in the building collapsed but the cause is still under investigation.

“They’re trying their best to do it as fast as possible, but they also have fiduciary duties to make sure that the building is repaired properly and addressed in the proper way,” he said.

Morin says it will likely take three to four months for everything to go back to normal.