City councillor proposes license to hold landlords accountable

An Ottawa city councillor is proposing a landlord license with the goal of protecting students and low-income tenants in his ward.

Rideau-Vanier Councillor Mathieu Fleury said the proposed licensing would target companies and landlords that own more than two buildings.

Fleury said landlords would be required to pay for the license and renew it based on yearly unit inspections by the city, and inspectors would make sure landlords are following city standards and bylaws, as well as enforce fines and penalties if landlords aren’t doing their job. 

He said issues with units wouldn’t rest with the renter, but rather “with their compliances with the rental registry.”

Fleury brought up the idea following a survey done in early March by Ottawa ACORN, a group advocating for low-income tenants and students. Eighty-two per cent of respondents said they had problems in their unit, but only 20 per cent had made formal complaints. In their recommendations, ACORN listed landlord licensing as a way to protect tenants.

“There are issues and we have to recognize that as a community,” Fleury said. “There are vulnerable tenants, and at times the existing system isn’t favourable to the resolution we’d like to see.”

Currently, tenants can call City of Ottawa Property Standards or consult the Landlord and Tenant Board to complain about landlords or living conditions. But Ottawa ACORN member Declan Ingham said this system is broken.

Ingham said his landlord ignored his calls about a massive cockroach infestation in his apartment, and he and his girlfriend went to lawyers and city officials with their story, but nothing was done.

“When they say, ‘Well there are current avenues to fix that.’ Well, they’re not that great actually,” he said. “The current system is clearly failing tenants.”

With the help of ACORN, Ingham said he and his girlfriend were able to terminate their lease early. Since then, he has continued to support ACORN initiatives to educate students and license landlords. If landlords were required to hold a license—as Fleury is proposing—Ingham said the couple’s experience would have been different.

“It would be less on the backs of tenants to go about fixing their problems, and it would push the ball towards the landlord’s court,” he said.

But Fleury’s proposal is facing backlash from Ottawa landlords. John Dickie, the head of the Eastern Ontario Landlord Organization, said bad landlords are rare, and creating a license won’t fix tenants’ problems.

“[Tenants] think it’s a magic wand,” he said. “They think, ‘If we just make landlords apply to get a license, then they’ll all behave.’”

Dickie said he thinks councillor Fleury should improve the current system by increasing staff at the Landlord and Tenant Board and making sure the city properly enforces bylaws.

“I don’t see that we need a new system to make the old system work a little better,” Dickie said.

Licensing landlords could also mean fewer student homes and higher prices, according to Dickie. He said the cost of licensing every landlord could raise rent and deter people from renting out to low-income families or students.

That’s something that Connor Gentle, a third-year Carleton University economics student, said students need to keep in mind. He said his landlord often ignores his complaints, including an incident where the dishwasher in his unit broke, but he does not think landlord licensing is the answer.

“The price or even just the time cost of getting the license is going to shift the cost of being a landlord . . . that’s when the prices of housing are going to go up,” he said.

Toronto is planning to implement its own landlord license program this month, and the cost of a license would be around $10 for each unit, according to a report by the Toronto Star.

Ingham said the cost is small, and worth it for the protection.

“There’s a claim that there are always laws in the books,” Ingham said. “Well, they’re not working.”

– Photo by Angela Tilley