New landlord licensing could cost renters

A recent change to the Municipal Act by the provincial government has left the door open for cities to start requiring landlords to become licensed, a plan that is creating both negative and positive reaction.

The effects of such a licensing system is unknown at the point according to Glenn Matthews, Fanshawe's off-campus housing mediator.

“Until something's implemented you don't know which way things will go,” Matthews explained. “The potential benefits for students is that if the licensing system is brought in, and works effectively, it potentially will require landlords to ensure that all their properties are safe, fire-safe, meet property standards and building codes.

“So you don't necessarily have individuals living in situations that are potentially dangerous.”

And though there are already avenues a student can explore if their rental unit is under-code, few tenants use it, according to Matthews, for fear of being evicted.

However according to Richard Izawa, the director of the London Property Management Association, requiring landlords to become licensed would wind-up costing the tenants more in rent while not really solving any of the safety issues.

“The licensing law is raising expectations that it will solve these problems,” Izawa said. “LPMA believes that the majority of these problems, ones like the ones Fanshawe experienced last year, is a small number of landlords and tenants are really causing this problem.

“Licensing will never affect behaviour, it doesn't address the issues that are raised.”

Izawa stresses that these processes and regulations are already in place for tenants, the same roads that tenants can already take to lodge complaints with the city. But he believes that the problem isn't that of the tenants, it's the city itself which can't enforce its' own by-laws and codes.

“They have the laws in place, but the city's not using it,” Izawa said. “What they're saying is that licensing will solve all these problems, but that's not the case because the bad ones are still going to fly under the radar, they aren't going to get a license.”

He also believes that the fee will eventually trickle-down to the tenants.

“What they're proposing is something like $250 a suite,” Izawa continued. “Say you're a landlord with five units, it adds up. We see it as a form of tax they're trying to download on the landlords. If they go through with this, somewhere down the line it's going to get downloaded to the tenants, so that can about an extra $20 a month.”

Matthews agrees that the cost transfer is a definite downside, but explained that the legislation helps to protect the tenants to a certain extent.

“The potential for that to happen is there,” said Matthews. “Two things about that, the provincial government has mandated that any system the municipal government brings in has to be cost recovery, so it can't be something for the city to make extra money on.

“So they can only charge the amount that it costs them to administer the program in the first place.”

While Izawa disagrees with the license, he and LPMA assert that it all comes down to the city to enforce their own by-laws by being proactive.

“The point is the city has the enforcement rules, they just have to do it.”