High Park Village

I’ve lived in the building for a long time. The management have been helpful when I wanted to move units. They have a useful app to help schedule repairs. The super is very friendly, knowledgeable and great with repairs. The building is well maintained and in a good location.

I have lived in High Park Village since 2009. Initially, we had management that genuinely cared about the community. However, recent years have witnessed significant staff turnover, most notably to upper management positions. The quality of management and care of both the property and residents has since shifted…

• In June 2022, residents of 255 Glenlake were abruptly given a 19-day notice requiring them to vacate their personal belongings from their balconies for up to 3 months, coinciding with the onset of summer, for maintenance work. This notice also came with the information that residents would be denied access to their balconies for the duration of this period. Many health-related queries regarding air quality, dust, chemical applications and mental health went unaddressed at the beginning, amplifying residents' concerns. For more in-depth information you can search for ‘Residents of High Park Village’ and read their open letter.

• There's a concerning trend where management has begun demanding payment for what appears to be routine wear and tear of rental fixtures and appliances. Examples include: multiple residents being charged in excess of $3,000+ for replacing entire countertops due to single occurrences of minor cosmetic chips and $270 for a cracked plastic fridge drawer, with the latter even including a truck delivery fee.

• Elevator and automatic door malfunctions have become a persistent issue, with management consistently struggling to address the underlying causes.

• On occasion, Minto has dispatched emails claiming to have activated or restored essential services like heating but failed to ensure their proper functioning of these essential services before closing their office. Notably, in October 2023, residents of all three high-rise buildings in High Park Village were left without heat over a long weekend with outside temperatures dropping to 7 degrees, despite being informed that it had been activated on the preceding Friday. Due to the following Monday being the Thanksgiving holiday, after-hours security informed multiple residents that the issue would not be resolved until Tuesday of the following week. It took a collective effort of residents, interventions from Toronto bylaw officers and the attention of the High Park Tenants’ Association to force Minto’s serious attention to this urgent situation prior to that Tuesday.

• Recent rent increases have seen Minto maximizing AGI applications, combined with the provincial guideline resulting in a 5% hike for many residents.

• In 2022, rental payments were transitioned online to RentCafe, where several instances of inaccurate rent balances emerged. Some residents, whose accounts were otherwise in good standing, found themselves having to dispute large, inexplicable outstanding amounts.

• Minto ambiguously lists unapproved Above Guideline Increases in RentCafe as merely “AGIs”, neglecting to clarify that these amounts are still pending approval by the Landlord Tenant Board and that residents do not have a legal obligation to pay for them prior to their approval. Moreover, these unapproved AGIs are misleadingly integrated into the “Amount Due” on the online payment screen with no disclosure, which appears like an attempt to persuade residents into paying these unapproved AGIs, leading them to believe they are part of their legally required rent.

• Residents have long been aware of the proposed demolition of the barbeque, patio, community garden, green space and pool areas for a forthcoming development. Some reports suggest that 2023 may be the last accessible year for these well-loved amenities which residents fairly consider to be a feature of their rent. Management remains elusive about the pending closure and plans for replacement of these amenities. Interestingly, as recently as August 2023, these amenities are still being showcased by leasing agents to prospective residents.

My hope is that, with a return to better management, High Park Village could reclaim its former good reputation and be a place residents are proud to call home.

I was initially hesitant about entrusting Minto with our items for storage.but Kishoth managed the storage and return of our belonging without any issues. Thanks again!

Daniel from Leasing helped me find this apartment a couple of years ago. The office staff (Emily, Kishoth, Karen), and the supers (Marcus) at High Park Village are always cheerful, helpful, and open to answering questions. The in-person communication is great. Thank you!

Best place I’ve ever lived, Dimitra Aligiannis is by the most pleasant building manager to work with. I’ve never been as happy with service as I have with her.

As a tenant at Minto High Park for 17 years, I want to recognize our amazing superintendent, Dado.
He is always so personable, has a positive attitude, and is very responsive to our service requests. We always enjoy chatting with him as he takes the time to connect with the residents in our building.
Kudos to you, Dado! Thank you for your exceptional service and hard work. It is truly recognized, valued, and appreciated!

Sincerely,
Wade

I had the pleasure of working with Angela as my leasing consultant, and had a wonderful experience. From the moment I reached out to inquire about the property to the day I signed the lease, her attentiveness went above and beyond, allowing me to see available apartments within 24 hours after first reaching out.
After finding the right fit for me, her communication never wavered, and I am happy to say I will be moving into 111 Pacific Ave.in August. I am very much looking forward to High Park dog walks and summer time swims! Thanks again!

I’ve lived here for two years and the service provided by the staff has been great. Kishoth in the customer service team, Karen at management and Georgi in maintenance have been invaluable support and super prompt in addressing my issues. Hoping for continued excellence by the team and excited to continue being a resident.

In general I have found this to be a well-run building. I've been here for 11 years. (66 Oakmount.) Sure there have been problems, but overall this building is a lot better than some other buildings that I've lived in. Some of the staff have gone above and beyond. Recently: Kishoth in particular.

Live here part time with my mom for a while and can say I am very impressed and happy to be here. The staff here is really good at engaging with tenants, keeping us informed and keeping up with maintenance. Although sometimes it takes a bit for them to get back to us but that’s expected with how big the property is. Love the team here Dimitras is really fast when sending tax receipts, Karen Jones is a wonderful property manager and special shout-out to the assistant property manager Emilie Menegotti, she is fantastic. Emilie is always so full of energy, always willing to help out with whatever troubles I have and even remembered my name after only meeting once! Very happy she was promoted, very well deserved.

Also love the little events the staff puts on for us tenants, especially the summer bbq and funnel cake day those were really fun! Overall it’s a great place to live highly recommend!

Minto makes a big effort to be a resident-friendly space, arranging many resident activities and information sessions. As a very longtime resident I have never had a negative experience. The staff are approachable, friendly and helpful. As an older building, the necessary maintenance is handled swiftly with very good communication about timelines etc.
Minto is a large rental builder and management company, and as such takes great care to maintain a positive relationship with its tenants.
In all our years here there have been several owners but Minto has been the best. And I want to give a special shout-out to Karen Jones, the current Property Manager. In a very busy job, with the inevitable occasional fractious tenants, she deals with everything and everyone with constant good humour and most importantly with great effectiveness.

We' ve been living here more than 10 years. Sometimes they are slow in service, sometimes they are fast. But they always happy to help! Always smile. Once I did not receive very important documents that were sent by express mail. And I came to the office to ask if they have it. A guy named Keigh (not sure in spelling) immediately called the employee to find out if the letter was lost somewhere in the lockers and promised to call back. And literally in 20 minutes he already knocked on my door and held my letter in his hands! Thank you!

There was a time when people moved from other buildings to Minto's because of that good reputation, but current management is undoing all of that.

Minto just notified residents of 255 Glenlake on June 1,2022 that in only 20 days we would need to clear our balconies and they will be locked from the outside to deny us access for up to approx. 3 months, on the day before the official start of summer.

Residents are not prepared for this and neither is Minto, based on how they are scrambling now to find storage solutions, which is not suitable for many. In addition to this they are not offering any compensation to renters, who pay every month for the square footage on our balconies. If we wanted a larger unit with a bigger balcony, they would certainly expect us to pay more for it, so if forcibly and quite suddenly I have a smaller space then I would expect a reduction for that time.

The building management used to be great a number of years ago but there has been a lot of turnover over the years, and so much that the current management doesn't seem to have a baseline for how it used to be, and how Minto used to put their residents happiness and well being first.

What they are doing now is cold, completely lacking empathy or understanding for their residents and they could do way better.

I am deeply saddened to give such a low review. I love the high park area and this complex has nicely updated units (albeit not all are fully updated, approx 1% was the number I was given by the agent when the unit I was given was not as updated as the unit I was shown with no mention of this at the time).

My grief is not necessarily with my unit but with the management. Minto year over year attempts above guideline increases with little to no consideration to what it is that they are increasing rent for. For example, residents have not had access or have had inconsistent access to most resident services and amenities (BBQ area, pool, laundry room, and car wash, elevators) in the 3 years I have lived here. Without notice the BBQs were turned off, the notice came over a week later saying it was a maintenance issue. The car wash is consistently malfunctioning. They will allow simultaneous services of 2 out of 3 elevators leaving only 1 elevator in use for the entire building residents. And recently, despite being a pet friendly building wherein MOST residents have pets, they reduced the number of washing machines and dryers for pet friendly household to 3, out of about 12-15 machines.

Another very topical concern at the moment is they gave residents less than 20 days (19 days) notice that they would be locking us out of our balconies until November starting June 20. Part of this balcony maintenance includes sanding of concrete so we are also not able to open our windows. And for anyone wondering, no this building is not air conditioned. Those with AC units are not allowed to run them during this maintenance. There is limited storage available for residents and this is compounded by the fact that there are also storage room maintenance/upgrades being completed at the same time. This is horrible planning, reduce in unit storage and force the removal of all balcony furnitures/items with no where for residents to move their items, and in less than 1 months time. They definitely did not consider the cost of this on residents access to space, mental and physical wellness when we have already set heat records in the city in May/June, and monetary costs (external storage units, rental vehicle to move items to and from storage, movers for our advanced age residence with limited mobility).

All this to say, its a clean apartment building in a beautiful area, but bad company spoils good character and its just not worth the headache. Rent elsewhere if you can. If you do chose to rent here, make sure to reach out to the high park tenants association (HPTA) and the Residents of High Park Village on Facebook.

I moved out of this apartment at the end of March this year. It’s June and I still haven’t got my elevator deposit back. I was told that my cheque was mailed to me 3 weeks ago via local standard mail since my new address is 10 mins away from them. I was told that there is no tracking info so I followed up couple times but there is no reply ever since.

When I first moved in, the apartment was pharaoh ants infested. There were armies of pharaoh ants. When I talked to them, they suggested that the previous tenant brought ants into that apartment. Later they scheduled a Whole building pharaoh ants treatments. I don’t think the previous tenant could have brought ants that ended up infesting the entire building that fast.

These experiences are very upsetting.

The apartment itself is spacious. The renovation is decent.

I hope Minto can improve the tenant experience.

If you are thinking about moving to a unit under Minto administration, think twice. They are shady, have awful communication and don’t really care about residents as much as you think. An example?
They will close our balconies for a waterproof project from June to November, that’s right, all summer months, where for an undefined time we will have to remove all our belongings from the balcony, and close our windows and turn off our air conditioning. Reasonable notice for the residents? Nope. Minto emailed a list of “projects” back in November, nothing else happened after it, then June first they said: hey everyone, hurry up to take your stuff from the balcony, where you’re gonna put them? Up to you, we have first come first serve lockers available, oh no wait, we do t have them anymore! ”
They are able to put irrelevant information on boards and inside the elevator such as “father day colouring contest” but from November to June, they did not think of raising awareness for why was about to come. We have lots of elderly residents and most of them didn’t even know that this is about to happen, or even people who are out of the country and won’t have enough time to remove their stuff from the balconies.
They don’t care if you will lose space inside your own house, if you are able to remove your outdoor furniture by yourself or if you will be able to enjoy you balcony, literally something we PAY for it during the hottest time of the year. Something I’m sure we all have been waiting for. Their communication is shady, they seem to not give a single sh*t about residents and are doing their very best to keep their waterproofing project on track, after all, contractors must be cheaper on summer eh?
Turning the residents life miserable during summer is tremendously disrespectful.

Cynthia is amazing! First viewing and leased from the spot. Couldn't expect better service. I was heard from the very beginning and was offered the beautiful appartment that I could have dreamed about. Everything ran smooth and with no hiccups except for the fact that I missed my move in day (However, they reached to me and we managed to arrange everything. Thank you High Park Village team and my lease agent Cynthia in particular. I will recommend you to my friends and family.

I have been living at Minto High Park Village for just over 1 year now and consider myself extremely fortunate. The apartment building / grounds are always meticulously well maintained by a kind and courteous staff who genuinely care about the residents' living experience. There is a beautiful BBQ / community garden area, a pool, and you cannot beat the location being so close to the biggest park in the city. Hope to stay here for many years to come! ADDED BONUS - lots of really cute dogs:)

They don't respond to your emails even though you send multiple for months regarding issues about your unit. If they respond to this; it just shows the lack of decency for current tenants because they care only securing new ones.

There is no sound insulation in these buildings. Upstairs neighbour drops a pin and you’ll hear it.

Minto Apartment is great in terms of the building, I had no problem.

But when it came to moving and communicating with the building management, I’ve never experienced anything like this before. I’ve worked in the customer service industry for years and I know how customers can be.

When I requested to leave the furnitures that came with building in the unit, they simply said “no” and told me this is how multi-million companies like Minto make money by charging extra fees. When I asked if they could make an exception since I didn’t ask for the furnitures they laughed and said “I have problems with other big companies too and I deal with it on my own”.

Not sure if all Minto Management is this bad but definitely could use some trainings on dealing with clients at this location.

Very clean and well maintained building. The tenants are respectful of one another. Lots of dogs - all of which seem to be remarkably well trained. Great location in the west-end of Toronto - lots of access to TTC and the UP Express line to Pearson Airport or Union Station downtown.

The renovations are constant and are used as justification for the annual (4 years running for me) Above Guideline Increases to rent. My rent has gone up $100 in 3 years and they are applying for an additional AGI this year.

I had to leave my apartment at 111 Pacific Avenue because there was a LOT OF MICE that would frequently invade my apartment. Management came to my unit and found a big hole that was hidden under the kitchen counter (picture is attached). How could I know that the space hidden by the counter and the dishwasher is not sealed? I spent almost a month waiting for them to completely close the hole, and they didn't. Mice would come to my apartment almost every day. It was hell. If something like this happens management should either give you alternate accommodation or solve the issue very very fast. That didn't happen. Do not live there - protect yourself.

(This review applies to 65 High Park Ave.)

On hot days, some corridors smell like garbage. On cold days, the car park doors stick. These two problems should be solvable.

Elevators are unreliable - a common scene is residents waiting in the lobby.

Old bicycles are left to rot in the bike racks rather than being culled every four months or so with signage posted on individual bikes.

Management are slow to respond to issues affecting the building (e.g. The lobby furniture) or individuals, and they make mistakes frequently when they do respond.

The views are great, and apartments in this building are spacious with good layouts.

It is hard to review Minto Rental Office service because there is no service at all. Even with very restrictive working hours (dont't open on weekends i.e.) I was able to go there twice. First time the 2 ladies there told me they simply don't work with new rentals and gave me the Minto broker card (there is only one guy that attends their multiple offices).

I tried to call him a dozen times, never successful. I sent 2 emails, both ignored. I returned to the office and the both ladies told me that they would contact him for finally responding to me, even this way, he didn't.

But I am in fact grateful that I was never attended by Minto, once I was able to find a rental apartment from a competitor just in the same High Park area, but this 2 bedroom place was 550 CAD cheaper with same standards, so it saved me a lot of money. Minto? Never in my life, thanks for doing nothing.

This failing high park apartment building is decidely low energy and is NOT the place you want to set up shop.

I'm going to be as unbiased as I possibly can, apartment reviews tend to be based around one instance that forever ruins or makes a tenant's experience there. This relates to 255 Glenlake.

The Units:
- Small, expensive for the size. They're currently renovating every old unit to a newer one with better everything but less space and higher prices.
- The constant construction, renovations and such are the biggest problem here. If you work a 9-5 job monday to friday this is fine, but if you work at home this absolutely will be an issue for you. The noise is brutal, constant, and only getting worse once they start putting up more buildings. This has been my biggest headache living here.
- It is not unusual to get 4-5 fliers a week from management with things that won't be available (internet, etc) or noise that will be carried out around you. This has been the case my entire time here unfortunately.

The Building:
- Clean, well kept.
- Well managed in the sense that everything that needs to be done by law, or by best practice, is done. This also means monthly fire alarm drills, garage cleanings sometimes (200+ cars must move out for 2-3 days).
- Everything works or has been fixed quickly.
- 3 elevators, pretty standard but can be a wait sometimes.
- Poorly managed scheduling / records keeping however. Been asked to assist them with their bike / car audits for the garage and storage areas. Why should your records become my problem? Is there also not a better way to schedule contractor visits to lessen the impact on units?
- Garage is fine. Never had my door dinged either so I can't complain.

The Grounds:
- Extremely well kept. Whoever is doing them deserves praise. Nice gardens, grass always cut, animals frolicking around, it's pretty great.
- Pool's great too. Same with the BBQ area.
- The area is fantastic. High park and everything else, but you already know this.

The People:
- Lots of dogs (A GOOD THING, unlike what Iris said).
- Lots of elderly, lots of young people.
- All in all fine, never had an issue and met some stand up people. Feels safe and secure too if that needs to be said.

Overall the real problem here is the constant interruptions to daily living that occur during the days. Working from home has been hell somedays. On Mondays they get this golf cart to haul full dumpsters from the garage to outside - it is impressively loud. Like I had no idea that much noise could come from a dumpster and a golf cart. Then people just start drilling above you, below you, your internet cuts off, you can't talk during a meeting cause someone is hammering or replacing flooring around you, etc. This isn't just Monday to be clear, that's only the screaming golf cart dumpster brigade.

If this place had less in the way of rennovations and general work going on it'd be nice really. To be fair, I think it's entirely within Minto's right to rennovate but just wish they'd find some balance so it wasn't so constant. A week, a month of this I could tolerate, but I am not joking when I say it's been going on for well over a year. Every single day. I should have kept all the notices put in my mailslot.

Conclusion: Do not rent here unless you can tolerate high-rise living and will be gone from 9-5 every day.

EDIT: I did reach out to Minto when they responded. Nothing back. They have put up flyers in the elevators going on about how professional they are and how every request / feedback will be replied to in 1 business day. I don't care, but the irony also isn't lost.

EDIT2: I had a conversation with Sarah Hicks, Regional Manager at Minto. She has just stated that some of these issues will go to a committee, however I am not the first to complain and have zero hope about this. This is lipservice at it's finest.

This review is for Minto. I tried and tried and tried and tried and tried to rent in one of their High Park buildings. They advertise apartments that aren't available, they don't have any sort of waiting list, when an apartment becomes available they will book you a viewing appointment a week away, then call you the next day to say the apartment is no longer available (gee, no kidding). How people ever manage to rent here I don't know. Do they book an appointment a week, and then just hope that something becomes available on the day they are there? It's ridiculous and extremely unprofessional. Good luck renting here, I gave up.

I have regret moving to High Park Village since day 1. The smells are horrible due to all the construction around, the elevators are always taken because somebody is moving in or moving out, or the workers needs them; and the other one available does strange things every time the other one is taken. The units have no AC and if you want to open the windows you won´t be able to talk or sleep at night because all of the noise from the outside (and I live in the 11th floor). Every other week somebody has to enter your apartment to check or fix something. Also every two weeks you need to leave the building if you don´t want to hear the fire alarm testing for 20 minutes (and I swear the noise is unbearable if you stay). Now we need to move out for one day because they want to replace the windows and nobody is going to clean after that but you. Not enough? Wait for it! Your rent will be increasing every single year and the new buildings construction will leave you deaf for the next 5 years; sometimes I can even hear from here the new buildings construction on Bloor, so I have a pretty good idea of what is going to be from now on living here. People is crazy moving into here knowing all this. I did not know ‘cause I made the mistake of not reading the reviews before. I’ll move out in two months and can't wait! Anybody wants some furniture? Oh, and the management is so rude because they are tired of so much complains. The swimming pool should be great but you can’t enter because it has not heat and the water is simply freezing.

DON-T MOVE TO HIGH PARK VILLAGE! I moved to 66, Oakmount Rd about 10 months ago and nobody told us that we will have this unbearable noise every single day! We should suit them together! Not only happy with the noise they are making, and entering the suits every other week, now they are increasing all the rents to pay all the money they have spent and to the future construction starting soon. All the neighbors are looking for a new place far away from here ‘cause the new construction starts soon and will take years for them to be finished. Insane! We’re moving out!

(66 Oakmount Rd or around) DON’T MOVE HERE! This is the NOISIEST building/area ever! And the worst thing is that you think this will be over soon but the construction will be going on for the next 5 years with these 3 more buildings they want to build. Insane! 9 months of noise now (since I moved here, every fu**ing single day). Only 2 elevators and they are always taken by the workers and I have to take the stairs or wait 30 minutes to get out of the building. I have regret every single day the decision to move here, I am only happy to say that I am moving out for good very soon! Can’t wait!

This is my seventh month at 255 Glenlake (Minto property office at 111 Pacific). During this short period of time, their contractor cut my Bell internet cable twice as they were renovating a unit in my rise.
Today, they called me that there was flooding from the unit above me that they are renovating, which caused water damage to my kitchen ceiling; they promised to fix it next week.
These accidents (as they called them), caused by contractor's negligence, cost me 3 times half-day off work.