City of Toronto Satellite Dish Regulations

[jhawken]

Hello:

I live in a rental apartment in the city of Toronto. About 4 years ago I was granted permission by my building super to install a satellite dish.

Since that time the building has recently changed to another management company since the building was bought by a new owner.

Today I received a letter from my landlord indicating that I must remove my satellite dish. The letter states the following:

"In a recent building inspection don by the City of Toronto Property standard inspector, it was observed that many satellite dishes have been attached to balcony rails and/or building walls. It has been ordered by the City to have all satellite dishes removed."

When I look on the web for city of Toronto I cannot find anything about a regulation that says you cannot install a satellite dish on your rental apartment. The only information I can find is that you must be granted permission to install the satellite dish or it must be stated in the lease that a dish cannot be installed. Our lease is more then 15 years old and does not state that we cannot install a satellite dish.

I would like to know if there really is in fact a bylaw in the city of Toronto that is outlawing instalation of satellite dishes on multiple unit dewelings. We live on the 6th floor of a 14 floor apartment building. The dish is mounted to the wall of the unit and cannot be seen easily from the ground.

Any help or a link to an official policy website would be highly appreciated.

Thanks.

[Nemnoch]

I would actually call the city, they should have a department that deals with by-laws. That would be the best way to make sure you get the right answer.

As far as I know though, it is the company that leases the building that is in-charge. The only exception I could see is if they deemed the dishes as a safety hazard.


Nem, who is giving advice.

[hugh]

jhawken, you could call the city, but I suggest calling the landlord first and ask them what bylaw is being broken.

I wouldn't be surprised if it is bylaw. The reason is that if it's not properly installed then it could come crashing down on someones head and you have some serious lawsuits on your hands.

You may want to find out if you can place a satellite dish in a bucket on your balcony. (search for threads here on people who have done it)

[mac dude]

Originally Posted by Nemnoch

I would actually call the city, they should have a department that deals with by-laws. That would be the best way to make sure you get the right answer.

As far as I know though, it is the company that leases the building that is in-charge. The only exception I could see is if they deemed the dishes as a safety hazard.


Nem, who is giving advice.

Very true. If you have permission from your landlord (previous) in writing, you should be ok. With renting in T.O. it's always "Cover your butt" - some landlords are nice some aren't.

Try here: Federation of Metro Tenants Associations
http://www.torontotenants.org/
They have a free help line (416) 921-9494

They'll help you figure out what is law and not.... they're quite good.
If it is a bylaw, nothing can stop you from the "bucket" routine as Hugh described. (some posters even have pictures!)

[HDTV101]

The idea is to make your dish not look like a dish... here is how http://www.selkirkshire.demon.co.uk/...ingdishes.html

[CTVdude]

There's many ways to get around the bylaw (if there is one). One is to bolt it right to the floor of the balcony or use one of the many products to hide the dish...Here's another one

http://www.itbusa.net/

[jhawken]

Thanks everyone for all of your feedback.

I talked to the landlord this morning and the dish just has to be not mounted directly to the building. I have decided to use a 5 gallon bucket filled with concrete. I will put a 1.5" electrical conduit as the mount for the dish in the bucket. I will then screw a piece of plywood to the bottom of the bucket and then place some center line blocks on the plywood to hold everything down.

I also talked to the city and they told me that the dish should not be mounted to the building due to structural issues. As well I talked to the standards inspector for my area and he told me there was no order to remove the dish.

Rather then fight with my landlord, I just decided to comply with there request since I don't need to switch from BEV to Rogers as we had rogers before in our apartment with lots of problems. BEV has been much better for us then rogers.

Thanks again,

Jason

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by jhawken

I have decided to use a 5 gallon bucket filled with concrete.

I tried that once. Bad idea. Believe it or not that will move with a major wind.

For camping, I mounted mine to a small piece of plywood, then bought a couple of cinder (concrete) blocks to keep it down. When the wind blows, the plywood stays put.

My 2¢

[JohnnyG]

jhawken, consider a "non-penetrating roof mount" These have a base that's designed to accept 4 standard cinder blocks on top. They are usually used for flat commercial roof installations.

[jhawken]

Does anyone know where I can purchase one of these non-penetrating roof mount kits in Toronto?

Jason

[lisalovlee33]

I live in a highrise in Toronto. This iis how I go about putting a satellite dish in my balcony. No bolts are drills needed. Just 2 bags of cement, a garbage bag, and a metal rod or pole, milk cart.
1. Mix cement well, 2 bag preferably, from Home Depot or Rona.
2. Put garbage bag in empty milk carton and fill it with cement
3. While cement is wet, insert rod
4. Let it dry for a day
5. Attach Satellite onto rod

That's it. I've had it like that for 1 1/2 years and no problems with the signals from the shift of the milk carton because it just won't go anywhere.

Hope it helps

Lovely Lisa

[clinty23]

Lisa , what size garbage bag -what size milk carton ? Clinty23

[Jake]

I think she meant a milk crate. Like the red ones that can hold about nine 2 litre containers of milk. The centre of gravity will be lower than a 5 gallon (18 litre) bucket and have the same capacity. Plus the pressure from the concrete will bulge outwards the garbage bag creating even more capacity.

[jhawken]

Ok everyone, here is what I did and it is working.

I filled 3 Gallon bucket from Home depot with concrete with the Pole in the middle.

After the concrete was set, it was a little unstable, so I went back to Home depot and purchased a 2"X6" board and had it cut into 2 3-foot sections and 2 dek blocks which each weigh about 50 pounds.

I then attached the boards onto the bottom of the bucket with Tapcon concrete nails (4 nails per board) which helped to stabilize the bucket.

I then put a Concrete DEK block on each end of the wood.

The whole setup is very stable now, it takes a lot of force to move it.

I think that this will be very stable, but we will find out in the first major wind storm, but it feels more stable then it was when it was attached to the wall as the wall anchors were actually coming out of the wall and would have had to be fixed soon.

I was able to even peak the dish better with this setup, I got 98-100% on EV82 and 92-95% on EV91.

Jason

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by jhawken

After the concrete was set, it was a little unstable

Just to clarify; let me guess........ there was a slight bulge at the bottom of the 3 gallon bucket, right? That's the problem I had too.

Lisa's idea is brilliant. As the concrete sets, and the weight forces a bit of expansion, the slight holes in the milk crate will allow for said expansion.

One more side note, when putting the pole into the wet concrete, make it as level as possible. That will help with aiming.