Apartment tenants in the city of Toronto have questioned their living conditions, and a multi-residential landlord license might be their answer for improvement.
City councillors met with three members of the Municipal Licensing and Standards committee on Nov. 2. They were there to discuss the idea of a license that landlords renting out to multiple residents would be required to have. The program was approved.
The proposal outlined many topics, including the tenant concerns this license would address, how it would hold landlords accountable for living standards and how the program would be funded.
“Any changes we have proposed should have positive changes on the living conditions of rental apartments,” said Joanne Duarte Laudon, a senior policy and research officer for the committee.
Some issues this program aims to fix include broken elevators, lack of heating, poorly cleaned common areas, as well as mold and bed bugs to name a few. By requiring landlords of multi-residential apartments to have one of these licenses, they can be held more accountable.
The licensing program is designed to“give tenants more authority and bring landlords into compliance,” said Mark Sraga, director of investigative services for the committee.
The plan showed by the committee included multiple ways to increase the quality of living for tenants. Some major aspects of this included escalating fines for non-compliant landlords, a rating system for rental apartments as well as making information about the building more transparent.
While major problems are found amongst many apartments across the city, they came as a surprise to one city councillor in attendance.
“Our office was not being informed of these things,” said Mary Fragedakis, councillor of ward 29.
However, if the issues weren't apparent before, they were made quite clear by speakers giving depositions to councillors. One of those speakers was Geordie Dent, representing the Federation of Metro Tenants' Associations.
He has heard stories of tenants “waking up at 2 a.m. with their baby crying from bed bug bites.” frustrations were summed up by another speaker representing a tenant organization.
“Land lords are not making repairs. [Tenants are] paying full rent and not getting what they paid for,” said Kenn Hale, director of legal services for the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario.
Once living issues had been established, it was time to discuss how the program would be funded.
Carleton Grant, the director of policy and strategic support for the committee went over the funding plans going forward.
The current program put in place to combat landlord infractions and help tenants costs around $3.2 million, while the proposed one would cost $4.4 million. The increased funding would result in more auditing staff to check on building conditions, tenant notification boards and a data analyst.
20 per cent of the costs would be pulled from taxes, while the remaining 80 per cent would be from the proposed registration fees imposed on landlords.
This registration fee would be an annual cost of 13 dollars per building, per unit, according to the committee. For example, in a building of 100 units, the annual fee for that landlord would be 1300 dollars.
When it came down to voting on particular motions of the program, one council member still had criticism for the proposed license program.
As opposed to simply fining landlords and taking legal action, “it’s about providing decent, safe, clean, liveable units. I will support some motions, but not all,” said Anthony Peruzza, councillor of ward eight.
As far as future projects for the committee go, they plan to dedicate much of their time to this program, and determine other inclusions and exclusions from it going forward.
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