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A proposed bylaw could make it harder for landlords to use rental renovations to make bad faith evictions.<\/p>\n
The proposal will be voted on by the planning and housing committee on July 8, requiring landlords to apply for a City-issued renovation licence within seven days of handing a tenant an eviction notice for renovation or repairs.<\/p>\n
In addition to securing a building permit for the renovations, the landlord would need to submit\u00a0 general information about the tenancy, a copy of the eviction notice and certification that the City-produced \u201ceviction education guide” was delivered to the tenant.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to a report filed ahead of the committee meeting, bad faith evictions occur when landlords abuse renovations to increase rent, pricing out the current tenant.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn these situations, the rent is significantly lower than the market average and if the tenant cannot return, it results in the loss of affordable housing and can cause significant personal consequences,\u201d the report said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Investors discouraged?<\/p>\n
John Dickie, the chair of the Eastern Ontario Landlord Organization, believes the proposed bylaw could deter investors from Ottawa\u2019s rental market.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Councillors] tend to focus on the problem that’s staring them right in the face rather than the impact the changes they make could have on the rental market as a whole,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
There will be no licence application fee, with the report recommending potential costs to be \u201cshifted\u201d to ill-intentioned landlords in the form of fines.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In addition to obtaining building permits, Dickie says the additional paperwork would prolong renovations, affecting both the landlord and tenant.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat would normally be a four month process is turned into a six month process,\u201d he predicted.<\/p>\n
The bylaw review reports an average of 31 notices of eviction for renovations or repairs are filed with the Landlord and Tenant Board in Ottawa annually.<\/p>\n
While Dickie compares the proposal to using a sledgehammer to solve a small problem, lawyer and tenant rights advocate Christelle Azzi says the numbers don\u2019t tell the full story.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cLandlords will engage in buyouts and \u2018cash for keys\u2019 deals before issuing an eviction notice to a tenant,\u201d the lawyer with Community Legal Services of Ottawa said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be impossible to know what the actual numbers look like, but we suspect they are much higher than what the City found.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ballooning rentals<\/p>\n
The City of Ottawa\u2019s 2024 Housing Needs Assessment found that about 35 per cent of the city\u2019s households are rentals.\u00a0That number will balloon to 43 per cent by 2035, the study predicts.<\/p>\n
As a result, Azzi is pushing for stronger language in the bylaw.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe appreciate and understand the need for renovations in certain circumstances, but this is about ensuring that bad faith actors are deterred from proceeding with this process,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If approved, the bylaw could be introduced by 2027, with a total price tag of $55,500 that would be funded initially through current city budgets.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":775151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739],"class_list":["post-775150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ottawa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=775150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/775151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=775150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=775150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=775150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}