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Thousands of Toronto apartment buildings will soon be required to post signs at their doors, alerting tenants and passersby how well they score on city maintenance inspections.
It’s a rule that’s come out of almost 10 years of council discussions, votes, and city-run surveys and studies — and its critics aren’t convinced it will improve tenants’ conditions.
But first, the rankings: as of early June, 75 per cent of Toronto’s RentsafeTO buildings (any rental building with three or more storeys or 10 or more units) have qualified for the highest category, satisfactory, and will get a green sign to that effect.
That leaves 21 per cent of buildings getting a yellow for “needing improvement,” and three per cent “needing significant improvement,” getting a red. Buildings are required to post their ratings starting June 15.
“I encourage [landlords] to let everybody know that they got a green sign,” said Coun. Josh Matlow, one of the new policy’s biggest proponents.
“The only landlords that have anything to worry about are the worst landlords in our city.”
‘If they feel ashamed… good’
The new signs don’t actually add any new enforcement tools to the city’s toolbelt, says Matlow.
Instead, they’re meant to hold both landlords and the city’s inspection teams to account by triggering “targeted engagement” when a building holds a red ranking for more than two months in a row.
There’s no set timeline for how quickly improvements need to be made after that, Matlow explained, but Toronto is prepared to flex its powers to undertake remedial work, in which the city steps in to order the repairs itself and then sends building owners the bill.
“If they feel ashamed by having a red sign in their window, good,” Matlow said of landlords who get a low inspection grade.
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Some councillors and landlord representatives have argued that it’s tenants, not building owners, who will end up feeling ashamed by low ratings.
“So if you’re a child living in a building that’s red, which is beyond your control, what does that mean? How do your neighbours perceive it?,” said Daryl Chong, president of the Greater Toronto Apartment Association, in an interview with CBC Toronto.
Chong said city staff had raised the same concern over stigma in past reports, and also flagged potential confusion for people who may believe the building is closed or uninhabitable if they see a red sign.
Staff recommended that as an alternative, the coloured signs could be posted on tenant notification boards, clearly visible to residents and visitors to the building.
Prospective tenants must be notified
Instead of putting resources into inspections at all buildings, including ones that have a track record of being well maintained, Chong says the city should be “laser focused” on the worst of the worst.
“If they’d spend that much time on the bad operators, they would probably fix the problems,” he said.
Tenant’s groups, meanwhile, have consistently supported the measure over the years.
“[The signs] would increase transparency and accountability for tenants, and would incentivize landlords to maintain safe and healthy homes. There’s more to do, but let’s start here,” community group ACORN wrote in a letter to city council in 2020.
In addition to being required to post the signs, landlords will also have to tell tenants and prospective tenants how they’re ranked before leases are signed or renewed.
Failing to display the signs is a contravention of the bylaw, which could lead to ticketing and fines.