Ottawa tenants and housing advocates rallied outside City Hall on Tuesday, July 7, urging councillors to strengthen the city’s proposed rental renovation licence bylaw before it heads to committee this week.
Members of ACORN Ottawa — a nationwide grassroots network representing low-to-moderate income residents — gathered with signs and chants calling for stronger protections against renovictions.
A renoviction occurs when a landlord evicts a tenant for renovations — often through Ontario’s N13 notice mechanism — and then re-rents the unit at a significantly higher price rather than allowing the original tenant to return after the work is complete.
Housing advocates argue some landlords use renovation notices in bad faith to remove long-term tenants paying below-market rents.
The city’s planning and housing committee approved the Rental Renovation Licence Bylaw on Wednesday, July 8. The bylaw will now go to full city council for final approval on July 15. If approved by council, it will take effect Jan. 1, 2027, giving the city time to develop the licensing program and produce education materials for landlords and tenants.
Under the approved bylaw, landlords will be required to obtain any necessary building permits before issuing an N13 eviction notice. They must also provide tenants with a city-produced guide explaining their legal rights when serving the notice. Within seven days of issuing the notice, landlords must apply to the city for a rental renovation licence.
The city will not charge landlords a licence fee, saying keeping the program free is intended to encourage compliance while avoiding costs being passed on to tenants. Instead, enforcement will rely on fines for landlords who fail to comply with the bylaw.
Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper said the bylaw is designed to reduce bad-faith renovation evictions.
“What we hear is that frequently these eviction notices are going out for repairs or renovations that are really very cosmetic and not necessary and are being used as a tool by some landlords to evict tenants who have been paying very low rents with rent control and then replace them with tenants who are paying much higher rents,” Leiper said.
‘We need to take the profit out of renovictions. Otherwise, landlords will continue to find ways to push tenants out.’
— Gabrielle Fréchette, ACORN spokesperson, Ottawa
Leiper, who is campaigning to become Ottawa’s next mayor in October’s municipal elections, said renovictions disproportionately affect vulnerable residents.
“A lot of these are targeted at the most vulnerable residents in the city, residents who may not know their rights very well, residents who are already struggling with low income and some of the barriers that creates,” he said. “If we can undertake a measure that’s going to address that quality-of-life issue, the financial hardship and the stress, that strikes me as being well worth doing.”
The city conducted a survey about renovictions and the proposed bylaw. About 50 responses were received from landlords, property managers and developers. The document, presented at Tuesday’s committee meeting, summed up the views of landlords as resistant to municipal involvement in the issue.
“Landlords indicated that no additional clarity was required and that this was an area of
provincial jurisdiction,” a city summary stated. “If regulations were to be introduced, landlord feedback focused on ensuring the process was simple and efficient, that it include clear information about the provincial and municipal rules, that it be balanced and that it should distinguish good- and bad-faith actors.”
ACORN says the proposed bylaw is a positive first step but still lacks key protections.
“We need to take the profit out of renovictions. Otherwise, landlords will continue to find ways to push tenants out,” said Gabrielle Fréchette, an ACORN leader.
The organization is calling on the city to require landlords to submit a qualified professional’s report demonstrating tenants must vacate while renovations are completed, as well as provide temporary accommodations or rent top-ups if tenants cannot immediately return home.
“What happens a lot of the time is cosmetic work is used as an excuse,” said David Longchamps, chair of ACORN Ottawa West. “If there was an independent report proving the renovations actually require the unit to be vacant, it would stop a lot of bad-faith evictions.”
Fréchette said tenants often never return to their homes despite having that right under provincial legislation.
“ACORN has not heard of one single case where a tenant was evicted for renovation and was allowed to return afterwards, even though that’s the law,” she said.
Somerset Coun. Ariel Troster told the crowd the bylaw would bring new oversight to renovation-related evictions.
“This is the first time any sort of landlord licensing scheme will be coming into place in the City of Ottawa. It’s a really big deal,” Troster said. “It’s going to force landlords to get a licence before they issue an eviction notice for renovations, which means they’re going to have to prove that the work they’re doing justifies the eviction.”
Tom Ledgley, coordinator of Horizon Ottawa, said stronger municipal oversight is needed because provincial protections have not done enough to prevent renovictions.
“Many other cities have come to their senses and realized the province isn’t committed to protecting tenants,” Ledgley said. “We desperately need this increased oversight here in Ottawa.”
‘This is the first time any sort of landlord licensing scheme will be coming into place in the City of Ottawa. It’s a really big deal.’
— Somerset Coun. Ariel Troster
Under Ontario’s Residential Tenancies Act, tenants who receive an N13 notice generally have the right to return to their unit at the same rent once renovations are complete. Housing advocates argue many tenants are unaware of those rights or cannot afford temporary housing while waiting for renovations to finish.
For 74-year-old Ottawa resident Jane, the issue is personal. She told the crowd she was renovicted nearly two years ago and has struggled financially ever since.
“I’m not doing this for myself. I’m doing this for the next generation,” she said. “I had to get rid of my car to make it. I have to fight for seniors that don’t have money to put food on their table.”
ACORN points to municipalities including Hamilton, Toronto and Waterloo, where renoviction bylaws have already been implemented. Longchamps said Hamilton saw an approximately 80-per-cent drop in N13 eviction notices during the first year after introducing its bylaw.
Committee members also said the bylaw is intended to encourage landlords to follow Ontario’s Residential Tenancies Act by creating municipal oversight of renovation-related evictions while preserving affordable rental housing.
