Some Sunnydale residents living in dirty conditions, neglected by landlords

A handful of residents living in the Sunnydale area of Waterloo are unhappy with their landlords' lack of attention to their property.

Residents say there is a long list of issues with some of the homes that have yet to properly be dealt with.

Councillor Angela Vieth says she has a hard-time accepting landlords who don't take care of their property.

“They're not taking care of their properties and other people are…it mars the whole area — the whole neighborhood,” she told The Mike Farwell Show on 570 NEWS.

Vieth says after visiting the affected complexes, she is convinced they are unlivable.

Waterloo Director of Bylaw Enforcement, Shayne Turner, says the city could go in, do the maintenance work, and then bill the owner.

“But we can't do that unless we give them [the landlord] time to comply first. So we always have to issue an order before we can actually go in and do the work,” he says.

Turner says the whole process could take about 7-10 days.

Residents living in that area say their landlords are often hard to reach and are very often negligent of regular maintenance needs.

Vieth says she has seen and heard of a variety of complaints such as cockroach infestations, mould and broken plumbing — all a part of a long list of several maintenance issues that Sunnydale residents are living with.