Several NDG businesses were forced to close their doors temporarily after the heating system in their buildings broke and owners said the landlord hasn’t made a strong enough effort to fix it.

Ambrose Hilton, who operates the Flyoff Barbershop on Fielding, said for the past 10 days his shop has been too cold to open. He said the problem has cost him hundreds of dollars in lost revenue.

“We can’t make no money from a business that we put so much time and effort into to get it up and running,” he said.

Next door, at Jamaican restaurant Island Pride, the situation is similar. Owner George Guillaume said the radiator froze and his business also has no running water.

“It’s bad, because yesterday people were in and out looking for their food but they couldn’t get it,” he said.

A spokesperson for the building’s ownership would not give CTV Montreal a timeline for when the heating would be fixed. The landlord did fix one heater in each shop after almost two weeks of complaints and blamed the holidays for the delay.

For the store owners, that’s no excuse.

“They tell us to get a heater,” said Hilton. “I got about four or five heaters and it was no match. Since that day to this day, I can’t get someone who’s going to come directly tell me what’s going on.”

Guillaume said he’s also received little communication from his landlord.

“I feel left out because at least he could have come to us and said, ‘Well, look, we will do that or try that or something to get the problem solved,” he said.

Ted Wright, a tenant’s rights advocate and founder of the Westmount Legal Clinic, said the responsibility lies with the landlord and tenants would be within their rights to seek legal action if the problem isn’t fixed.

“The law says they have to have heating… That’s safety, security and habitability of a dwelling,” he said.