A version of this article was first published by CambridgeToday, a Village Media publication.
Kerry Lichty has had a tough year.
Her declining eyesight has been getting worse and her son, who she lives with in her Guelph apartment, is going through chemotherapy following a cancer diagnosis.Now she wonders where they will live.
Over the summer, an N13 notice was delivered to her door. A harbinger of the struggles to come, it will eventually force her and her son out of their home, and it is pushing her over the edge.
“I’m on anxiety pills because I’ve been having panic attacks,” she said. “Can we work something out so I don’t have to live on the street with my sick son?”
She said she doesn't have a history of panic attacks or anxiety, and this is the first time she's been on medication. Said she was able to brush things off but the N13 on top of everything was just too much to handle.
An N13 is a legal notice to end the tenancy for renovation purposes, though many legal experts and tenant advocates argue it is often used as a loophole for bad actor landlords to turn over tenants, often resulting in new tenants who will pay a significantly higher rent.
Dubbed a 'renoviction,' the practice of people being forced out of their apartments by landlords who often end up doing minor renovations to the property is becoming more commonplace.
It has become so prevalent that some municipalities, have or are looking at instituting bylaws to police the practice.
Lichty and her neighbours aren’t the only ones in trouble.
Many tenants across Ontario in certain rent-controlled buildings are being told they have to leave for extensive renovations, and fear when they return, their unit will be rented out.
While many of the buildings where this is happening to this group are owned by different corporations, there is one thing tying these particular tenants together: Michael Klein.
Dubbed “Ontario’s biggest renovictor” by the prominent tenant advocacy group ACORN, Klein-linked companies and corporations have been systematically buying and renovating properties at the expense of their tenants.
According to a report from ACORN, Klein is linked to 21 buildings across Ontario that house an estimated 1,750 tenants. Each of these buildings is owned by a corporation in which Klein or one of his associates is listed as a director and/or officer.
Though his name is now notorious, even synonymous with renovictions, the man himself remains elusive.
Finding Michael Klein or his numerous corporations and associates is not an easy task, as lawyers and tenant advocates from all over Ontario have learned.
The uncertainty of what will happen next is unsettling for Lichty, who has lived in her three-bedroom unit since 2017.
Her rent-controlled unit is $1,150 a month, an extremely low price for vacancy-strapped Guelph, where even one bedroom apartments can fetch $2,000. Renovating her apartment, and potentially bringing in new tenants in the process, would allow ownership to raise Lichty’s rent significantly.
Lichty loved the previous owners.
“And then they sold. And now all of a sudden, all this stuff is being thrown at us, and I’m regretting moving into this building,” she said.
Lichty is legally blind. She only makes $2,100 a month at her customer service job to care for herself and her 18-year-old son Josh.
“What am I supposed to do?” she said. “I’m worried that once my N13 expires Nov. 30, he will do anything to get us out.”
Property records show Brant Apts Inc. purchased 4, 6 and 8 Brant Ave. in Guelph for just over $10 million on Jan. 9, 2024. Klein is currently listed as the sole director and officer of the corporation.
Lichty received her N13 legal notice to end the tenancy for renovation purposes in July; residents of the other two buildings in the complex, totalling 45 units, have since received N13s as well, stating they have to be out by the end of December. Tenants were offered $6,000 ‘cash for keys’ if they left by Aug. 31.
Tenants of Klein-controlled buildings in Cambridge, London, Kitchener, Hamilton and beyond are also facing renoviction, even though many of them have lived in their units for decades.
The fear is that when tenants leave for renovations, they will return to a unit that is already rented out for a much higher price. The Landlord Tenant Board can’t evict the new tenant, and it’s often cheaper for the landlord to just pay the fine — up to a year of rent — for each tenant.
None of these tenants have ever met Klein and have no way of contacting him directly. One of his property managers is Rahul Brahmbhatt, though tenants report that they rarely hear from him. Brahmbhatt declined comment for this article.
According to Stephanie Clendenning, the executive director of the Legal Clinic of Guelph and Wellington County, Klein’s approach is systematic.
“They do the same thing with every building,” she said. “They give the N13 and then wait and see who drops off and takes the initial offer, and then as things escalate and people get more and more nervous, they turn the pressure on, maybe offer more, and there’s people who accept settlements, cash for keys offers, and there’s people who don’t.”
Often these buildings are affordable, rent-controlled, and all-inclusive. But tenants in various buildings say that once it was bought by a Klein-linked corporation, additional fees were added for utilities and/or parking.
At the Brant Avenue apartments, storage lockers included in the rent were ripped out.
“He’s essentially double-dipping, because he was not deducting it from rent,” said Waterloo Region ACORN leader Jacquie Wells.
In Kitchener, where tenants had to be out by the end of August, Wells said those who didn’t agree to pay the parking fee (which was supposed to be included in their rent) were locked out of the parking garage.
The uncertainty of what will happen next has exacerbated Lichty’s stress so much that she’s on anxiety medication for panic attacks.
“I’m scared,” she said. “I’m setting up a camera at the end of November and putting it in my apartment because I’m afraid they’re going to come in when I’m not home. It’s just nerve wracking.”
A similar tale is playing out at another Klein building in Cambridge, where residents are past their move-out date and have already installed cameras, afraid for themselves and their pets.
“My twin doesn't want to leave the house because we don't know if somebody's gonna come into our unit and lock the door on us,” said 94 Beck St. resident Paige Pires. “You don't feel safe in your own home. You have to sleep clearly with one eye open, because what's next?”
Pires has been living at her Beck Street apartment in Cambridge for over 15 years and was given her N13 to move out by Sept. 30. The building is owned by 94 Beck Inc., which lists Klein as its director.
Earlier this month, the remaining residents of the building received a $3,000 cheque slid under their doors. According to resident Kristie Syvret, the tenants were urged to deposit the money by a legal team they have retained to help them through this process.
“That was the amount they legally had to give us for the three months rent,” she said. “Our lawyer Mitchell Kent kept saying: ‘Cash it, you need to put it in the bank because this is the only cheque they're going to give you.’ ”
They are now awaiting an L2 document from the landlord, a form given to residents after the N13. According to the LTB it is an “application to end a tenancy and evict a tenant.”
Syvret describes getting the cheque with no other paperwork, information or notices attached to it. They have also not heard from the management, she said.
“There's a lot of pressure, everybody is on edge because you don't know what's gonna happen,” said Pries.
She said the contact between residents and management has been so rare that even during emergencies they can’t get anyone on the phone.
She recalls scrambling to try and find someone to call after a flood from the utility room sent water into her unit. Pries only had two phone numbers to call; she said one didn’t work and one was for a woman in Montreal.
Multiple attempts to reach building management and ownership for comments were unsuccessful.
Tenants are frustrated they don’t know the face behind the corporation that owns their building and has control over their living spaces. They say that lack of contact leaves them relying mostly on rumours, which only feed the fear and confusion.
“He's a ghost,” Pries said of Klein.
Besides property records, which show 94 Beck Inc. purchased the Cambridge building for over $4 million, one of the only traces of Klein-linked corporations are frequent legal battles in Hamilton to Toronto, often by vendors who’ve done work for him.
The Toronto-based Klein has been accused by at least one contractor in Waterloo of non-payment to the tune of $80,000. The contractor, who asked not to be named, was working on a commercial property on King Street for Klein.
When Klein stopped making payments and taking his calls, he said he spent a great deal of time trying to track him down.
“He was ignoring me completely until I took him to the Ontario Dispute Adjudication,” the contractor wrote in an email to GuelphToday.
“I wasted more time than I should have trying to chase him for that. I probably would have wrote it off if the guy wasn’t such an asshole,” he said.
Lawyers at Riverview Legal Services representing the band of 10 units at the Cambridge apartments have had no luck finding or contacting Klein or his associates to send the first right-to-refusal paperwork. The legal team wants to make sure that whoever owns the property has the documents that show intent to return if they are forced to leave for renovations.
Since 94 Beck Inc. has taken over the building, Syvret and the other tenants report they have been given three separate addresses to send rent payments to via mail.
According to Syvret, she had a representative from the property owner refuse to confirm if the address listed on the N13, 140 Tycos Dr. was the correct address to send documentation.
“I had a representative literally sit in my living room, I showed him the address and he would not confirm that is the address we’re supposed to send our information to,” she said. “They want us to mail our rent in and our cheques have been lost in the mail, I can’t tell how many times.”
Having gotten the runaround from management and previously having their rent cheques lost in the mail, the validity of these addresses continues to confuse her lawyers who want to confirm their notices are being received.
“In terms of what Michael Klein has been doing, I think when people say he is currently the biggest renovictor in the province of Ontario, I don’t think that’s an exaggeration,” said Clendenning.
Clendenning said that using new corporations for each purchase is a tactic often used by companies or individuals “doing this a little more systematically.”
“It’s definitely a structure that some people try to use, because you can obviously hide behind the numbered corporation, and it can make it more difficult for tenants to link the properties together.”
On the other hand, Cambridge real estate and business lawyer Bill Schwarz said owning dozens of corporations isn’t necessarily nefarious; it might just be a way of self-preservation.
“This is a prudent way to protect your investment,” said Schwarz.
He noted if an individual is interested in securing investors or loans to buy a property, a separate corporation could insulate investors from other dealings with failed properties elsewhere.
“The thing is, you wouldn’t want one tenant at one building contaminating the business record going forward,” said Schwarz. “This is done to limit personal liability.”
This is also a way to avoid responsibility for failed investments in the past and would limit what would have to be reported to other financial institutions or lenders.
Still, it concerns Clendenning, who said the Residential Tenancies Act was updated a few years ago to require landlords to disclose any previous N13s issued within the last two years.
“The challenge is that when the person doesn’t personally own each building, the question becomes, is he still required to name all of the corporations, when he’s probably the one who’s acting behind them?”
In her view, Klein is ultimately acting in bad faith, and that it’s important for him to come out of hiding “so this doesn’t continue to happen. Because otherwise, we’re just putting out fires as they keep popping up.”
“When you look at what he’s been doing and how long he’s been doing it, it’s so widespread that I think we really need to shut this practice down once and for all.”
Klein is 62. The Waterloo contractor said he interacted primarily with Shaya, Klein’s 29-year-old son, who “seemed like a pretty good guy, and the project was going fairly well for the most part.”
From his perspective, it seemed like Shaya was taking over, as Klein was rarely around, though he’s listed as the director and officer of the corporation 622 King Holdings Inc.
“Then Michael Klein showed up to a couple of site meetings. I haven’t got anything nice to say about the guy.”
He was actually considering working on another project with Shaya until Klein stepped in.
“After meeting Michael, I closed that door pretty quick.”
When payments fell through, he said Klein stopped answering his emails. The contractor said he hasn’t heard from him in six months. Eventually Shaya stopped answering too.
He said they’ve stopped maintaining the site altogether.
“The site just looks all overgrown, it looks like crap,” he said.
The address the contractor had on file for Klein was 2929 Bathurst St. in North York. The owner of the property, Vivian Murphy, told Village Media that Klein hadn’t been a tenant at the building for nearly two years.
“He took off on us and I’ll tell you right now I’ve had numerous people call me about him, but I don't know where he went, he left,” said Murphy. “We tried to get a hold of him, none of the numbers were connected that we had.”
Murphy noted that after two months of non-payment for rent, she decided to go down and check in on Klein. When she arrived, the unit was empty, with no trace of Klein.
“He didn’t end his tenancy, he just left without paying,” she said.
Corporations linked to Klein at 2929 Bathurst date back to 2000, the most recent being 622 King Holdings Inc., the same building the contractor from Waterloo worked on. Murphy adds that though Klein is gone, his businesses still receive mail and visits from people trying to find him.
The warehouse at 140 Tycos Dr. in North York is another longtime Klein-affiliated building, with incorporations naming Klein as director dating back to 1986.
The three-building apartment complex on Brant Avenue in Guelph currently facing renovictions is one of 16 Klein-related corporations tied to 140 Tycos Dr.; at least four more are facing renovictions.
The main driving force behind these corporations is Family Properties, which was incorporated in 2016 with Michael Klein as the sole officer and director. Its registered address is at 2929 Bathurst St., along with 21 other active corporations, some of which also own buildings where tenants have faced, or are facing, renovictions.
Its website lists apartments for rent in many buildings owned by Klein corporations. Further confusing things, the website states Family Properties is also known as the Blazin Group, which was incorporated in 2007 with a 2929 Bathurst St. address.
The Family Properties office is located at 140 Tycos, confirmed by someone who said they were an employee when reporters visited the office. Only one business is advertised on the side of the building, a large sign for Artetex Fashions, which is no longer in business according to Google.
Reporters from Village Media went to the offices located at 140 Tycos to try and make contact with Family Properties, Klein or anyone associated with the business.
The Family Properties employee confirmed it was the right office, but that Michael and Shaya Klein were not in.
Other employees could be seen moving behind the frosted glass of the office and refused to come to the door.
The phone number listed on the Family Properties website goes to a voicemail for “Diamond.”
Diamond International Management Inc. was incorporated in 1994 with a Michael Klein listed as the director. Its registered address is a home on Glengrove Avenue; the man who lived there claimed to have never heard of Klein. A “Diamond Internationa” is listed in Yellow Pages as 140 Tycos Dr.
Meanwhile, “Diamond International” is listed at 508 Dawes Rd. in East York, another Klein-affiliated building. Klein, Shaya and Brahmbhatt all use “diamond” email addresses – but with common domains like Rogers and MSN.
Beyond that, information about Diamond and Family Properties is slim.
Village Media visited a number of these business offices in an attempt to contact Klein, all to no avail.
After numerous attempts to contact Klein through various email addresses, phone calls, and office visits, Village Media decided to go knock on his door.
He appears to live at a North York address in the upscale Forest Hill North neighbourhood, which is also listed as the mailing address for another property Klein is tied to: a lavish multi-million dollar property in sunny Miami.
There were three cars in the Forest Hill home’s driveway and someone who resembled Klein was seen inside sitting on a couch by the front window. When he heard the reporters knocking, he looked right at them, got up and walked out of sight. But no one answered the door.
When reporters stuffed a business card in the mailbox and walked back to their car, a man who looked to be a scowling Shaya Klein, Michael Klein’s son, appeared on the sidewalk wearing tinted glasses, a ball cap, white shoes and a Nike shirt and track pants.
He was upset.
Claiming to be a concerned neighbour, he wanted to know what the reporters were doing in front of the house.
When told they were looking for Klein, he said “he doesn’t live on this street,” and asked repeatedly where the reporters obtained their information from.
Property records show the address belongs to Klein, purchased in the early 2000s.
“Where’d you see that?” the man asked.
When reporters explained the address was found on documents available to the public, he changed his tune, questioning why they would show up at someone’s house, claiming it was harassment.
He refused to give his name. Reporters told the man he looked like Klein’s son and he became defensive, asking how they knew what Shaya looked like.
When shown a photo, he didn’t respond, but continued to pepper reporters with questions about their sources, asking where the pictures and documents came from, wanting specific names of the people who confirmed the people in the photos were the Kleins.
“I’m just curious,” the “neighbour” repeatedly said.
He finally walked back up the driveway of the house next door (which does not belong to Klein), though reporters did not see him go inside before driving off.
Numerous attempts through various means to contact Michael Klein, Shaya Klein and their business associates have so far gone unanswered.
Before her building was sold and the new owners took over, Beck Street resident Wendy Spittal had never heard the word ‘renoviction’ until it happened at her apartment.
“I just feel like he's more than wealthy enough to need it that bad to throw people out on the street. Why?” asked Spittal.
“I don't know how this is legal. It really makes me mad at the government, everything like how? Why would they let this happen,” she said.
Like many residents, Spittal is refusing to leave after building a life in her unit. She sees no reason why she should have to give that up.
“I love it the way it is. My place,” she said.
Thomas Kaufman, who lives at 8 Brant Ave. in Guelph, feels the same.
He’s spent the last 10 years making his house a home with unique and custom pieces designed to fit the space, and doesn’t want to move, or to be separated from his son Daniel.
“I’m sure I’ll be okay, but I won’t have a home anymore. Whatever I have left from our family … because what we’re paying her for rent, I’ll barely get a room somewhere. We’ll probably be separated.”
He said the renovations are unnecessary and nothing more than “candy coating,” and intends to fight the renoviction alongside other tenants.
“We need to make an example out of somebody like him. If we don’t, we’re really just letting it happen,” Kaufman said. “If we don’t stand for our rights, what rights do we have in the end? What are other people going to have to go through too?”
Lichty agrees.
“Just hang in there. There’s got to be something good to come out of this. Fight, don’t back down.”
