Heat fixed for Dartmouth tenants after weeks of problems

Residents of a Dartmouth apartment building, fed up with their landlord after they say they spent about a month making due with a lack of hot water and very little heat, finally got their heat back Monday afternoon.

The tenants said it wasa problem for weeks, but Patrick Johnston, the president and CEO of Atlantic Living, said they were onlywithout heat for a few days.

He blames a frozen pipe and a defective boiler.

He said Fridays storm complicated matters.

"Im a happy camper now, Ive got hot water,tenant Wayne Hall told CBC News after his heat and hot water came back Monday.

Hall had been heating his apartment with his oven, a safety hazard that he says is jacking up his power bill.

Tenants spoke outagainst Atlantic Living, saying enough wasnt being done for them.

Daisy Sexton, the mother of two teenagers, saidthe temperature in her apartment was 10 degrees on Sunday.

"My 15-year-old took it upon herself to email the company. If my 15-year-old can do that and she can stand up for what's right, then I think everyone in this building should, pardon the expression, grow a pair, and stand up, she said.

Kim Naugle's mother-in-law lives in her apartment and has Alzheimers.

"She takes blood thinners too so that makes her colder than you or I would be. When she has a bath she gets a lot colder, Naugle said.

Tenants pay between $600 and $900 a month to live in the building.