The plan will be debated at the Planning and Housing Committee next week and at Toronto City Council later in November.
Toronto intends to have a new bylaw in place by the end of next July, aiming to halt a predatory practice used by some landlords to force tenants out in the name of building upgrades by using regulations implemented elsewhere to great success.
Housing advocates and politicians alike have battled for years against a practice known as renovictions. It sees tenants kicked out of rental units under the auspices of construction or maintenance work, when that work doesn’t actually necessitate the displacement. In many cases, tenants have reported learning no work was actually done and their former landlord jacks up the rent for another tenant.
Coun. Paula Fletcher said at a Wednesday briefing on the new rules that landlords will now be held to a higher standard.“‘I’m changing your bathroom, I’m changing your kitchen cabinets and you need some new lights, I need this vacant in order to do that’ — well, that should be considered rule-breaking,” said Fletcher.If approved by council, the new bylaw would go into place at the end of next July.
But before a landlord can even apply for a rental renoviction licence, they’ll first be required to get a building permit and submit a report to the city, detailing why the planned work requires a vacant unit. On top of that, landlords will be required to pay for moving fees or severance compensation if a tenant chooses to find another home following the work.
“They started in New Westminster in British Columbia, they put in this massive program,” she said, “and they saw the amount of renoviction applications drop, I think, close to zero.”
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