Jack Steinman

Jack Steinman is the Landlord, as his signature alone appears on the Lease in the Landlord space. Also, when the Lessee (Francois) took his Notice of Termination to the Superintendent James and asked him to sign it, the latter read it, folded it and said he is not signing anything, everything goes to Jack.

I have never met with or spoken directly with Jack Steinman, the Landlord, and neither seems to have Francois Deribere, the acquaintance who held the original lease. I only met the Superintendent, James, and overheard the other person who may or may not be a Landlord, Beverly Epstein.

Later Edit: On closer inspection, it appears that the lease lists in the footer both Landlords, as well as the fax number previously used, a phone: 416-565-9008, an email: epstein-steinman@hotmail.com and in ads (VT #106182) James is listed at: (416) 841-1665. It does not appear that the lease is signed by Beverly Epstein, only by Francois Deribere and the person with whom he was sharing the apartment, as well as the Landlord, Jack Steinman.

A search for Steinman on Canada 411 results in three Business listed under that name (screen capture above), each with a different phone number, as follows:

28 Balmoral

Listed phone 416-944-2011

This is where I currently live and there do not appear to be bed bugs, just massive insecticide spraying without prior warning, without having had a chance to collect and protect my belongings and without any request. Considering the Superintendent's lack of qualms in entering apartments without notice when the Tenant is away, the infestation from the building nearby (see below) is likely to spread. Additionally, iVerify seems to report 3 previous grow-up operations (though I haven't purchased their package).

The bed bugs registry currently lists nothing for this location. This may be because this is where the Superintendent lives (and possibly the Landlord's family), in unit 307 or 309, and as such, they might be placing more emphasis on prevention via unannounced fumigation. The absence of reports on the website does not necessarily imply the absence of bed bugs. It is possible that the reports got lost (the reports for 1592 below are found in two different locations) or were simply removed via legal action.

26 Balmoral

Listed phone 647-435-8758; selected reports from its Bed Bugs page:

• Anonymous on 01/09/2013

• It's Hell.

• I wish I'd done the research before moving here. The cheap rent and the sketchy residents should have been a dead tip-off. Instead, I eagerly moved in. That was last April.

• I'm about two months from the end of my lease, and I can't wait to get the hell out of here.

• I was lied to when I moved in; I asked the question, repeatedly, and was told there wasn't any pest problem in this building.

• I will try to warn anyone I know: do your homework! A simple Google search would have saved me from this nightmare. I will have to discard all my furniture.

• Good luck to the next unlucky person :(

• helpless on 10/04/2011

• My friend currently resides at this address. The unit is absolutely infested with bedbugs. The problem is so bad that all clothing was washed and bagged (living out of garbage bags for now)... I took suits to the cleaners... and when I placed them on the counter, a few adult bedbugs fell out. All furniture (which by the way, constructed of wood) needs to be disposed of. They have nothing left. Even without a bloodmeal for almost a month (they had to spend nights out of the home), and two fumigations later, the problem has intensified. We will see what the outcome is once a permission to break the lease has been entered. (..)

• Emily Hampshire on 02/15/2011

• My name is Emily Hampshire. I moved out last month after living almost a year of hell. James the super, told me that there were no bugs of any kind when I moved in last year. After 1 month, I found bites on me and yes after checking the baseboards there were bedbugs. I didn't want to break the lease, else be charged by the Landlord and Tenant Act. The owners Jack Steinman and Beverley Epstein should be held accountable for renting units they know have these malicious creatures. The whole building should be condemned. The provincial and municipal governments have enabled these owners to continuing to renting these units. Thanks Jack and Beverly for ruining my life for one year. And James is not to be trusted in whatever he says.

1592 Bathurst

Listed phone: 416-784-3314; selected reports from its Bed Bugs page (also 1582):

• Anonymous on 06/21/2012

• I've been living here for 3 years and every year there are recurrences of bed bugs in spite of the multiple sprayings. I would not recommend moving here as you may be fine for a while and then it comes back again. It's just not worth the risk. Also there are multiple renovations that need to be done and it appears the landlord has neglected the building for decades.

• Anonymous on 05/18/2012

• I'm pretty sure this is for 1592 Bathurst st, and I used to live here in December 2010 - April 2011. At first there were no issues but by January I was being eaten alive. My mom and I told management and they told us it was a PERSONAL PROBLEM!!! We did NOT and NEVER had bed bugs before moving into this apartment complex. It is not a personal problem when you live in an apartment building with cracks in your floor 2 inches wide. No. They brought in an exterminator to MY APARTMENT and that is all.

• Even the exterminator said in order to get rid of a bed bug problem in an apartment complex, each and every room in the building needs to be sprayed. They failed to realize this. And the bed bugs did not leave.

• And because we lived there during the winter months and moved out just as the weather was getting better, we noticed as we were leaving the insane rat infestation they had. It was disgusting and I am glad I left.

• Worst building ever.

• Anonymous on 11/03/2010

• 1592 Bathurst Street

• We've been battling bed bugs for a while now and have been sprayed multiple times but nothing seems to matter because the entire building is infested. every week we see them coming in to spray a different apartment... which inevitably, because the entire building is infested, doesn't work.

• the building is old and dingy and not well maintained. they have no plans on trying to put an end to this - they say it's not "the building's problem". it's terrible.

• the only solution is to start new in a new apartment - throwing out furniture and belongings you may think are infested. you name it, we've already tried it. nothing works.

• whatever you do, please do not move into this building. this problem will never go away because the landlord isn't putting in any effort at all, and has no plans to.

• Anonymous on 10/31/2011

• We have bed bugs.

• When we first viewed our new apartment, we asked the current tenants if they had ever had bed bugs and they said no.

• They lied.

• The superintendent informed us that they had them, only after we moved in. Thanks.

• We saw a number of couches and mattresses left by the back door, with signs labelled "bed bugs", during our first couple of months living here.

• We've heard so many stories from our neighbours.

• Now we have them.

• We've now had to throw away all of our furniture (couches, shelves, chairs, tables). We've had to basically pack everything into bags and put them in our kitchen. We've had to clean all of our laundry, spending at least $60 in total, and countless trips up and down the stairs.

• This is terrible.

• We've never had bedbugs until now, and they definitely came from the building.

I do not know if the Bathurst location is owned by the same Jack Steinman.

In any event, in this text I might refer to my interactions with the Landlord or his agents as simply "the Landlord."