(Photo credit: Bloomberg | James MacDonald)

Common areas cluttered with debris and units with broken appliances suffocating from poor ventilation, these are just some of the complaints renters have made against buildings in Toronto. Recently LandlordWatch.com took stock of the conditions and assembled a list of the “100 worst landlords in the city,” along with the buildings they manage.

The data was compiled from complaint-driven Municipal Licensing and Standards inspections. “We didn’t see too much seasonality, there are complaints going on throughout the year,” said Yale Fox, creator of the website.

“They’re slightly more skewed to heat, mold, bed bugs, and roaches.”

So far in 2016, the apartments at 104 – 105 West Lodge Avenue, owned by the Bnai Fishel Corporation, have been hit with the most violations: 119. But the worst building since 2014 is the 15-story apartment at 500 Dawes Rd. Inside, common areas were soiled with mold and flooring tiles in some units were breaking apart like puzzle pieces.

Many of the run-down, broken buildings are clustered in the downtown core and east end, but it’s believed there are many more tenants suffering in silence elsewhere. “We only have data from wards of proactive city councillors who push the city to investigate buildings,” said Natalie Hundt, with ACORN Institute Canada.

But when it comes to landlords—as opposed to buildings—the worst in the city is the City. Toronto Community Housing (TCH) was hit with 452 violations since 2014. The TCH, however, is the largest landlord in Canada. Having the highest number of complaints in aggregate isn’t unusual by virtue of that fact. “TCH has 2,100 buildings, just under 60,000 units, 50 million square feet of residential space, and most of our buildings are over 50 years old,” said spokesperson Lisa Murray. Rounding out the top five are Havcare Investments Inc. (174 violations), Bnai Fishel Corporation (170 violations), Arsandco Investments (145 violations), and Q REIT SUB LP (134 violations).

Relief may soon be coming for tenants living with substandard conditions. Toronto’s Municipal Licensing and Standards Committee recently pushed ahead a preliminary licensing framework that would force landlords to comply with bylaws or have their licenses revoked.

“We need to look at more tools that can provide more teeth and enforcement to make these landlords comply,” said Councillor Janet Davis. Backers of the move say they have a broad base of support at city council and are hopeful that licensing landlords will address the pattern of neglect in many of these buildings.