Landlord no longer paying for hotels as hundreds of tenants displaced from Calgary apartment building

CALGARY -

It's been a nightmarish holiday season for residents living in the Westview Heights apartment building.

Since last week, there have been multiple pipe bursts, which left 297 units without electricity, water, or heat from Wednesday night to late Friday afternoon.

Water flooded the stairs and multiple floors, and with the heat not working correctly, it didn't take long for ice to form, coating parts of the building's interior.

After being evacuated from their homes on Boxing Day, most tenants have been staying in nearby hotels where Mayflower Ventures, the property management company, has been paying for accommodations.

But now residents tell CTV News that the company is no longer covering those costs, and tenants will now have to pay for themselves.

The building is still vacant and tenants say it's not considered safe to move back in, but still, residents say they've been told that they will still need to pay rent at the end of the month despite there being no clear timeline as to when they can return home.

"All of our rent comes out automatically and it's really stressful for people," said Crystal Keyowski.

"A lot of people are students, low-income, there are people who are going through cancer treatment, there are people on disability. They don't have money for this."

Rent in the building ranges from around $900 to over $1,300 per month and tenants say filing an insurance claim is also a costly option with a deductible of up to $1,000.

Residents have since set up a GoFundMe page to hopefully cover some of the added costs they’ve been dealt during the holidays.

NO TIMELINE FOR RETURN

"We are working diligently around the clock to get this happening. Over the holidays, the hardest part was trying to get some parts to finalize everything," said Don Habib, leasing manager for Mayflower Ventures.

There is still no clear timeline for when residents will be able to return home.

All three service elevators in the building are down, and a thick layer of ice blankets the stairs.

Still, tenants were climbing the dozens of flights of stairs to retrieve their pets and valuable items before being told no one was allowed to access the stairs because of how slippery they had become.

The building flooded when the pool overflowed

"I'm not going to live here any longer. Not for a moment longer. As soon as the elevators are up and running, I'm taking my family, and we're leaving," said Ayesha Ali, who lives in the building with her husband and one-and-a-half-year-old daughter.

Other tenants like Crystal Keyowski, who had only lived in the building for about three weeks, said the situation was overwhelming.

"Every day, we come back and hoping to get help, and something else has happened. This is just beyond building management's control," she said.

All three service elevators in the building are down, and a thick layer of ice blankets the stairs. Still, tenants were climbing the dozens of flights of stairs to retrieve their pets and valuable items before being told no one was allowed to access the stairs because of how slippery they had become.

One common complaint from residents who call Westview Heights home is a lack of clear communication from management.

"It's just been word of mouth, sadly. Updates from the company have been late and sometimes misleading, I've found," said Deval Garvey.

Tenants tell CTV News they've received just two emails since Christmas day, neither of which provided any clear indication of when they can return home.

They say the building has had several power outages and water problems in the past, but the latest handful of issues is on another level.