So, it would seem, that my neighbor and I are at a stalemate. He keeps trying to push my buttons to get me to react, but I refuse to take the bait.
As it stands right now, since the thermostat is at the center of the controversy, we’ve each taken a stance and refuse to budge. For those who need a refresher, here where things stand:
Where I live, it is a tri-level house that has been split into 3 apartments: mine, which is in the basement, the family upstairs and the single fellow in the back. The ONLY one with access to the thermostat is the family that lives above us and it was determined that the father likes to keep things cold (he leaves the heat off in the winter during the day and has the AC blasting full tilt all day during the summer). The landlord was notified of what he was doing (and provided with evidence to back up the claim), but the father keeps lying to the landlord about it. As a result, the government agency that governs the landlord/tenant relationship has been brought in to help rectify the situation. Since there’s a backlog, it’ll be a few months before my case is heard about the illegal activity of the neighbor upstairs interfering with the heat.
In the meantime, even though a locked thermostat was installed to keep the upstairs neighbors from turning off the heat, it’s still being turned off by them placing a portable heater near the thermostat to throw off the sensor. It is now being done with the explicit intention of ‘setting us off’. Since everyone in our apartment now refuses to react and acknowledge what the neighbors are doing, they have now changed their tactics. They used to leave the heat off when the new guy in the back was at work but have it cycle on once he returns home. Now, they’re leaving it off even when he is home for multiple hours at a time. We suspect it’s because the neighbors are trying to elicit a reaction while the new guy is home so they can make it look like we’re the crazy ones for reacting to being denied heat. They’ve also resorted to having the heat run continuously (by opening a window) to try to ‘fry us’ (the heat has run for over 2 hours without cycling on or off). To verify that it’s not an HVAC issue, we’ve also applied to the LTB (Landlord Tenant Board) to have the HVAC system inspected for any maintenance issues, like with the HVAV unit itself or the air ducts).
Today, the games started early and the heat had stopped cycling by 8:40am, despite it being 1°C outside. The heat finally did start cycling again at 1:18pm, but it should not have have taken over 4 hours for the heat to cycle on.
This is a daily thing. There are city bylaws that state the heat cannot dip below 20°C, but it has on multiple occasions. We do have the option of calling in a bylaw officer and he can fine the landlord for it, but the last time we did that, the landlord got notified he was coming and the landlord notified the neighbors upstairs, resulting in them turning the heat back on.
At this point, it feels like a whacked version of chess: whose going to make the next move and win. At this point, it’s anybody’s guess.
Island of Misfit Mamas 