Bar Orwell — a self-described DIY concert venue in Toronto's Dundas West neighbourhood — has shut its doors following ongoing disputes with its landlord.
The venue permanently closed on April 11 after the owners' "increasingly tenuous and hostile relationship" with their landlord's son — the acting property manager — took a turn for the worse. They claim their power was cut for a second time, leading them to call the situation a "constructive eviction," claiming they weren't legally evicted but that their landlord interfered with their use of the space.
"We simply could not, with any certain security, provide the safe and welcoming space we had worked so hard to create," the venue's co-founders wrote in a GoFundMe description.
The lengthy statement on the fundraiser's page details the issues the owners have had with their property manager, and their attempts to "resolve growing contention" by not misinterpreting their use of the space as a music venue, enforcing an 11 p.m. noise curfew and keeping the volume in the room below 100dB. Bar Orwell claims that they were hit with an in-term rent increase in January, and that the amount agreed upon was raised just before the agreement was to be drawn up.
"At this point, realizing it would never be enough to buy us our freedom, we choose to uphold and attempt to enforce the original lease," the owners continued.
The GoFundMe for Bar Orwell has a $30,000 goal, which, according to them, will go towards paying final bills, interim maintenance costs, legal fees and potentially aid in finding a new location for the venue.
