P.E.I. woman says she’s scared to return to her apartment after safety concerns

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CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — A P.E.I. woman says she’s scared to return to her apartment after someone tied a phone to a string and lowered it down her room window.

It was at around 11 p.m. and Jessica was just about to go to bed when her boyfriend, whom she shares the room with, noticed the phone and screamed.

They got up and the first thing on her mind was to close the curtain and act later, she said.

She quickly phoned 911 and told her roommate who lived in the other room of the three-bed apartment building she lives in.

The police came around but couldn’t find traces of the person, she said.

Jessica, who asked not to be identified because of concerns for her safety, concluded whoever did it must have climbed the barbecue outside the apartment up to the roof top, since she resides on the top floor.

She sent an email to her landlord about the situation, requesting security cameras be installed around the building, but he didn’t address it, she said.

“We asked for security cameras to be installed. All they said was ‘sorry about that.’ I guess ‘when would you like to leave? Please let us know when you want to end your lease and we’ll agree.’ That’s it. No, no help at all.”

“We said that the cops came and immediately the next day, the entire property is up for sale.”

Jessica lives in a three-bedroom apartment, one room rented by her now roommate and the other still empty pending when the landlord is ready to rent it out.

She said the landlord comes into the apartment on different occasions with an average of five people who come in to view the room without giving her a notice.

“We didn’t know at all. So, we have, as you can see, my personal things there. There are times where we’re late. So, we forget our keys, our wallet out in the open here.”

Rental rules

Rowen Gallant with Renting P.E.I. said landlords aren’t allowed into rental apartments without giving notice.

“For a landlord to access a unit, they need to give the tenant 24 hours’ written notice. So that can be a text or whatever, but it needs to be 24 hours’ time they need to state the date and the time that they’re coming into the unit.”

As for the security cameras and safety concerns, Gallant said tenants can request that a security camera gets put in.

But a landlord doesn’t need to put a security camera in his building, if he doesn’t want to.

“A landlord is required to make sure that the building that a tenant is living in, if it’s an apartment building, is secured. But there is no requirement that the landlord needs to put up security cameras. And the other thing is, is that when a landlord does put security cameras up in a building, there are all sorts of things that the landlord needs to make sure that they do in order for (it) not to be illegal or not to breach (privacy laws).”

Jessica said she has left her apartment for a hotel building because she doesn’t feel safe. She’s gotten a security camera and says she will return to the apartment when it’s set up.

Vivian Ulinwa is a reporter with SaltWire in Prince Edward Island. She can be reached at [email protected].