Medallion
Medallion Corporation is a property management and real estate company founded by Abraham Bleeman over 60 years ago, now headed by his grandson, Aaron Bleeman. They develop and manage multi-family residential apartments in Toronto.
The Medallion website claims “We are committed to the highest standard in maintaining and caring for our assets. The property management team combines training experience and pride to achieve the ultimate in tenant satisfaction”... “we continue to build on our reputation that it has achieved as one of Toronto’s premier developers and property owners.” But Medallion Corporation’s reputation with tenants isn’t quite what Medallion claims.
In January 2016 a burst pipe flooded out the bottom 6 floors of a Medallion property in Hamilton. Tenants in 60 units were given 2 days notice from Medallion that they had to get their things and get out, find somewhere else to live and come back when the repairs were done. This was all Medallion had to say to their tenants. Thankfully those tenants organized together and forced Medallion to provide more adequate compensation.
Then in August of 2018, a massive electrical fire due to the catastrophic failure of Medallion’s aging electrical infrastructure displaced over 1500 tenants from 650 Parliament, Toronto. After over 20 months all displaced tenants have yet to be allowed back in their homes.
Throughout that time tenants had to repeatedly fight Medallion Corporation to live up to even basic legal obligations, including paying for tenants’ emergency relocation. There is currently a class action lawsuit filed against Minto on behalf of over 1,000 tenants.
But it isn’t just fires and floods in apartments. In early July of 2019 a Medallion owned pedestrian bridge used by students in Crescent Town to get to and from the local elementary school collapsed after multiple notices of the deteriorating and dangerous condition of the bridge went unaddressed.
Abraham Bleeman
Founder
Abraham Bleeman, founder of Medallion and president of Bleeman Holdings, is best known as the owner of 650 Parliament St. Approximately 1500 tenants including approximately 300 children were displaced from their homes after a six-alarm electrical fire on August 21, 2018. Though tenants were provided temporary housing for a few months, many tenants claimed that they were provided no long-term solutions by Abraham Bleeman and Bleeman Holdings. Tenants were only allowed to move back into their homes in March of 2020.
Aaron Bleeman
President
Aaron Bleeman inherited his position from his grandfather, Medallion Corporation founder, Abraham Bleeman.
“The elevator breaks so often with so many people [using] it, and management does a bad job of fixing it,” he said, adding that he has sometimes had to walk up and down 33 flights of stairs. There have also been prolonged periods without hot water, and times when the water has been shut off without notice, he said.
Buildings Owned by Medallion in Toronto
7-9 Glen Road
79 Jameson Avenue
145 Jameson Avenue
45 Lisgar Street
55 Lisgar Street
276 St. Clair Avenue West
110 Marlee Avenue
32 Carluke Crescent
236 Vaughan Road
481 Vaughan Road
670 Parliament Street
99 Howard Street
135 Rose Avenue
1 Dean Park Road
26 Carluke Crescent
38 Carluke Crescent
544 Birchmount Road
550 Birchmount Road
552 Birchmount Road
560 Birchmount Road
61-67 Havenbrook Boulevard
75 Havenbrook Boulevard
650 Parliament Street
Tenant Testimonials
“Medallion is a horrible corporation that doesn’t care about their tenants. All they care about is their bottom line. I lived at 650 Parliament St. Found a bed bug in my apartment and contacted management about it twice. They ignored me both times and never addressed the issue. My apartment was always full of cockroaches (even though I do my dishes and take out the trash every day in order to avoid this). If you email management about repairs that need to be done, they ignore you. Their staff are consistently rude and unhelpful. And all this was BEFORE the horrible electrical fire that left 1500 of us homeless. Now things are even worse than before. Management constantly gives us the run around, and makes promises that they later break. Their negligence in upkeep led to a massive electrical fire that put all of our lives in danger. Stay away from them. Renting from them will lead to heartbreak and depression.”
“The Apartments themselves can be nice if you look after them and are bigger in size. However the management is absolutely horrible. They are rude, unprofessional and complicate everything for no reason. The office obviously has a toxic environment but they force the bad attitude and incompetent work habits onto their paying tenants. You don’t get greeted with a ‘hello’ but rather a ‘what?’ and refuse to conduct basic simple landlord duties without causing you a lot of grief first. Given the high rents, these places are not worth it. The only pro is that all the tenants dislike and are frustrated with them so it’s an easy elevator conversation starter.”
In The News
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Tenants across the city are organizing together against rent increases, disrepair and disrespect. Tell us about your experiences as a Medallion tenant and join your neighbours.
