Local councillors among group calling for Toronto to follow Hamilton’s lead on “renoviction” bylaw
By AMARACHI AMADIKE, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Toronto Council is looking to follow the City of Hamilton’s lead in the battle against unlawful tenant evictions.
On Wednesday, Feb. 28, Councillors Paula Fletcher (Toronto-Danforth), Parthi Kandavel (Scarborough Southwest), Mike Colle (Eglinton-Lawrence), and Frances Nunziata (York South-Weston) submitted a joint request to the Planning and Housing Committee proposing that city staff look into Hamilton’s strategy for controlling “renovictions”.
“Profit-driven renovictions are reducing our already limited supply of affordable housing and impacting many tenants across the city,” Fletcher told Beach Metro Community News in an email statement. “Hamilton’s by-aw is a unique and innovative example of how the city can protect renters from this practice.”
According to the letter sent to the Chair of Toronto’s Planning and Housing Committee, Gordon Perks, landlords have been capitalizing on their freedom to distribute N-13 eviction notices at will. Although N-13s are supposed to be reserved for cases in which “substantial” renovations must be undertaken in an empty residence, landlords have instead been using it to force tenants out of their homes in order to increase rental costs for new tenants, said the letter.
In many cases, the letter said, “only cosmetic changes took place” but still rental costs significantly increased.
An ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) report said that there has been an about 300 per cent increase in the number of N-13s sent to tenants between 2017 and 2022 with “22,000 N12/N13 eviction notices filed at the LTB (Landlord Tenant Board)” in that same timeframe, further contributing to the already backlogged LTB.
“I strongly believe that we should do everything we legally can to deter bad faith evictions,” said Kandavel.
With many municipalities experiencing similar issues, Hamilton has taken a step towards tenant protection by requiring landlords to apply for a city renovation licence within seven days of issuing an N-13 eviction notice.
To ensure that substantial renovation is actually taking place once a tenant leaves, landlords in Hamilton will be mandated to provide building permits for their proposed renovations as well as an engineer’s report which insists on an empty residence for the work to progress.
The renovation licence will cost $715 per unit and can be renewed annually for an additional $125. This fee will cover 10 per cent of the costs of implementing this bylaw. The remaining $800,000 a year will be covered by taxpayers.
With Toronto’s finances over the next few years in a dire state, coupled with the cost of implementing such a bylaw in Canada’s most populous city, it is expected that the road to mirroring Hamilton’s progress here in Toronto could be rocky.
However, Kandavel is hopeful that his council colleagues will acknowledge how important passing a similar bylaw in Toronto is when city staff return with their report.
“I personally hope that we can move swiftly once we receive that report,” said Kandavel. “We will likely be receiving it in late spring. If we get the green light, it will then have to be approved by City Council after which a draft bylaw would have to be crafted and we would need to go through legislative approvals.”
Council expects the staff report on Toronto’s potential renoviction bylaw to be presented in the spring.
– Amarachi Amadike is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter for Beach Metro Community News. His reporting is funded by the Government of Canada through its Local Journalism Initiative.
