Can your landlord charge you hundreds of dollars more for using AC? Toronto tenants outraged by extra bills

For the more than a decade that Grace Mitchell has lived in her apartment, the 68-year-old weathered Toronto’s stifling summers with her window air conditioning unit.

When her building’s management company posted a notice informing tenants of a $400 “seasonal AC charge,” Mitchell was confused. She’d been using her unit for years with the permission of the former property manager and the temperature in her apartment was unbearable without it.