After mice and cockroach nightmare, NDG family relieved landlord patches hole in ceiling

A family in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce that had mice and cockroaches falling through a hole in their bathroom ceiling says the ordeal finally appears to be over, but the pressure isn't off the landlord just yet.

As CTV News reported last Thursday, an enormous hole opened up above Adil El-abbar's shower about a month ago and despite repeated attempts to have his landlord fix it nothing was done.

Last week, the city said it planned to intervene by doing the work itself and sending the owner the bill. But on Sunday morning, Adil El-abbar says the landlord sent a plumber, and by Monday morning, the hole was patched.

"I think it happened thanks to the intervention of the media and the city," he said. "He does this in less than two days. So, I wonder why he didn't intervene much earlier as the situation was urgent."

The city wonders the same and even though the work in Adil El-abbar's bathroom is done, next month a team of inspectors is going to do a sweep of the entire building to look for violations.

"We brought it to a higher level to the housing department at the city to do a door-to-door, kind of. A really, really in-depth inspection. He still is obliged to do the extermination work because that was not completed," said Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough city councillor Despina Sourias.

The owner of the building, Jean Onel d'Haiti, did not respond to a request for comment Monday from CTV News. Last week, he said he has invested a lot of money trying to address the mouse problem and said it's an issue in all the buildings on Walkley Avenue, but insisted he will keep trying to address it.

"It's something to follow very closely and to see what the plans are when he books the exterminator," Sourias told CTV News. "So if there's a real, real health risk, we could intervene."

El-abbar insists there already is a risk — his three-year-old daughter has Leukemia and chemotherapy treatments have weakened her immune system. Mice continue to find ways into his apartment and every morning he is forced to disinfect everything.

He says his family cannot afford to move and have asked the rental board to lower their rent.