2 cities, 2 buildings and 1 fugitive landlord leaves tenants in unlivable conditions

CBC

6 days ago

A wanted fugitive accused of being the ringleader of a grandparent scam has left tenants in two southwestern Ontario cities with a host of maintenance issues and no one to turn to for help.
Gareth West, 45, owns two apartment buildings in London and St. Thomas, according to property records obtained by CBC News. He's been at large since U.S. authorities issued an arrest warrant for him in February for the alleged scam call centre he operated out of Montreal, defrauding American seniors out of more than $21 million US.
Tenants at both of his buildings say they haven't been able to get a hold of West in months. In that time, they've dealt with sporadic power and water outages, garbage piling up, their units in need of significant repairs and now, without a landlord, they're unsure of what comes next.
"We're kind of left in limbo. Gareth is missing in action and nobody knows where he is," Audrey Knight said, who lives at 14 Holland Street, a three-storey walk-up in St. Thomas where she pays $1,900 in rent each month.
"We have one email [contact] and it doesn't get replies, so we're just trying to navigate where we go next and unfortunately nobody really has great answers for us," Knight said.
Despite residents keeping up with their monthly rent, power was cut off for several hours on Tuesday because their landlord hasn't paid the hydro bills. Garbage also hasn't been collected since April and some residents have taken it upon themselves to do lawn care and clean the building, Knight said.
"It's very stressful when you don't know from one day to the next if I'm going to have water or electricity because we paid all our bills," said Wendy Nichols, 70, who has lived at the building for almost six years.
The residents said they won't be paying rent until the situation is resolved, with some saying efforts to make their payments have been unsuccessful. A handful of residents said their deposits weren't accepted, though others said the money was withdrawn from their accounts.
The City of St. Thomas has issued property standards orders, which allows bylaw to enforce the Residential Tenancies Act. Tenants believe the next step will be the bank seizing the property and it going on sale again.
Property records show West purchased in the building in 2022 and Nichols said she is among the few residents who have met him. She said he offered her a $20,000 buyout to move elsewhere, so he could renovate the property and raise rent, which she declined.
West has branded himself on social media as a real estate builder and health enthusiast, and made several Instagram videos standing outside his properties, including in St. Thomas, where he'd give tips on flipping properties and using the "cash for keys" model to renovict tenants.
He and 25 others are facing wire fraud charges in the U.S. for the alleged grandparent scam, and if West is convicted, he could spend 40 years in jail.
West's London, Ont. property
It's a similar situation for tenants over at his other rental on 308 Egerton Street in London.
Residents at the apartment have banded together in efforts to fix their water heater but are told they might have to incur those costs out of pocket, which most people can't afford, said Cheyenne Lamieux, who has lived there since September.
"We've been without hot water for about a-week-and-half now, our garbage hasn't been taken out in over a month. There's garbage everywhere, some of us have been keeping it in our units because we don't know what to do with it. We're drowning in it," said tenant Andrew Foster.
"It's been a pretty rough situation, especially since I have two young kids."
The tenants said they're frustrated because they've been forced to take on responsibilities they didn't sign up for.
"We're just supposed to pay rent and that's why somebody moves into an apartment, so they don't have to deal with the other stuff with having a house but we're worrying about the garbage, grass and cleaning the building. It would be nice to worry about my own apartment and not all the other things that have come with it," said Knight.
City officials in London and St. Thomas didn't respond to requests for comment in time for publication.