New Landlord Licensing By-law Meaningless for All Tenants Except Students
Two years ago a reporter from A Channel interviewed me for a piece on Landlord Licensing. At that point I knew nothing about it and I told him so. I had just returned home from a trip to Windsor and this new tenant-landlord issue had hopped up on the radar screen.
I told him that I saw no need for it since there plenty of Provincial and Municipal laws already on the books. I told him that the problem was that few of them were reliably enforced. I don't think that was the answer he was looking for. So be it.
Two years later the City presented a by-law on landlord licensing and I dutifully ignored it as I had zero faith in their property standards and by-law enforcement departments. Two members of the Housing Advisory Committee urged me to make a presentation at the first public meeting. Reluctantly I agreed.
I studied the by-law. I came to the conclusion that its main purpose was really to control the out of control rental housing near Fanshawe College and UWO. I didn't think it was going to do anything for permanent tenants in London. Still I attended the raucous meeting at Centennial Hall and urged the Planning Committee to adopt the by-law. For my trouble I was sworn at by several geriatric tenants sitting behind me. There is always a first in life.
The Planning Committee tinkered with the by-law and then Council sent it back to staff. Staff finally sent it back to Planning and Council about a month or so ago and it passed. The by-law that passed is totally meaningless to London's permanent tenants.
The by-law that passed simply addressed the needs of homeowners living near UWO and Fanshawe. That's not a bad thing. But the Planning Committee and Council should have been honest about it. They have raised tenants' expectations and in the end tenants will find the bylaw has nothing in it for them.
The by-law only deals with rental dwellings that have been converted for this use since 1993. That rules out all the ramshackle houses in the core and elsewhere where poor tenants often rent rooms because their welfare cheques don't afford them the luxury of renting a real rental apartment.
By limiting the by-law to units converted since 1993 they will direct their inspectors squarely at conversions near Fanshawe College and UWO and leave out all the other run down 4 unit and lower rentals all over London that are much older. Again, if that was the goal, it should have been stated and tenants shouldn't have had their hopes raised that the City was doing something for them. I have fought for years for decent property standards inspection and by-law enforcement of any and all apartments in this City. It is an uphill climb to nowhere at 300 Dufferin.
The by-law allows landlord to be the primary inspectors of their dwellings although they are supposed to show the inspection checklist to their tenants. I will believe that will happen when Santa farts in my lap.
The $25 charge per building is meaningless. I pay $20 per cat to Animal Control to license each of my cats. How in the world to the fee go from $150 to $25 to cover the cost of new personnel and other costs? Are ratepayers subsidizing this service even though the landlords still complain it's too high?
At the very least this by-law should cover ALL 4 unit buildings in London REGARDLESS of when they were built. A lot of tenants have had their hopes built up by this entire debate that the City was finally cracking down on landlords who did not maintain their buildings to the City of London's standards and the Province's standards. They will be in for a rude surprise if they live in a high rise or any other building except a 4 unit conversion completed after 1993. The newspaper spoke of tenant advocates on council. In my opinion they did so mistakenly. I watched the debate.
I have met and spoken with most members of Council including the Mayor several times over the years and I don't really know of one member of Council who could be called a tenant advocate. It was business as usual while this disgusting by-law was passed last Monday night.
If this Council wanted to stand tall for the homeowners near Fanshawe College and UWO that is a noble cause. However they shouldn't have said that they were helping London's permanent Tenants at the same time. That was not the case.
Yes it does seem kind of sad that we hope and pray for something good to happen....and then pift it is gone.
I feel sad that 90% of all the renters in the city will continue to get the shaft. But as someone I know once said....if they licenced EVERY landlord in London, then they'd actually have to do something about their OWN slums. Does the city really wanna have to be bothered with that??? Not when there are so many new condos to be proud of right?
I think what really got to me was that these landlords were sitting in front of council telling us how they help the poor. IT was an INSULT.
