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UPDATE Hot water returning at west end property

A group of tenants in Ottawa are upset after they say their natural gas was shut off last week because their landlord hasn't paid the bills.
A group of tenants in Ottawa are upset after they say their natural gas was shut off last week because their landlord hasn't paid the bills.A group of tenants in Ottawa are upset after they say their natural gas was shut off last week because their landlord hasn't paid the bills. (CTV Ottawa)
Frustrated tenants say their utilities had been cut off.

Hot water is being turned back on at 5 Majestic.

The west end Chi Suites property has been a centre of controversy after tenants lost their gas and the ability to take warm showers at home last week.

Nepean-Carleton MPP Lisa MacLeod revealed through Twitter late Thursday morning that RBC will be covering arrears for Enbridge and Hydro Ottawa.

 

Thank you @kaylafernet @RBC @enbridgegas @hydroottawa for working non stop to get gas restored & avoiding hydro disconnection b/c of Chi.

— Lisa MacLeod (@MacLeodLisa) June 8, 2017

 

The hope is to have hot water restored by Saturday.

There were concerns hydro would be next, which led to Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson contacting a high-ranking official.

“I met with Bryce Conrad, the president of Hydro [Ottawa] and I told him not to cut off the hydro,” Watson told CFRA's Ottawa Now with Evan Solomon Wednesday. “That was going to be the next thing that was going to be cut off, because that money’s been withheld from this landlord.”

Watson didn’t mince words when referring to Chi.

“He seems to epitomize slum landlord, this guy,” says Watson. “He’s got these properties all over the city and it’s disgraceful the way he’s been treating his tenants. They’ve been, in good faith, paying their rent to him, and their rent includes the utilities.”

Late Tuesday afternoon, MacLeod had told CTV News she had been contacted by the landlord, who is presently in Vietnam and believed to be visiting an ill relative. MacLeod says the landlord told her the Royal Bank of Canada would pay the bills in arrears. But MacLeod followed up Wednesday to say that the note was premature, and while the Royal Bank of Canada says the bank paying the bills is an option, nothing had been decided yet.

She learned the arrears would be covered Thursday morning.