City council’s community services committee will report back in June after consider a licensing regime for private landlords in areas like the downtown core, following a motion put forward by Bay Coun. Alex Cullen.
This does not sit well with members of the Ottawa Region Landlords Association. Gabby Horlan, member of the board and property manager in Centretown, says the plan is nothing more than a cash grab.
“For us it would be a whole lot more paperwork and a whole lot more money for our clients,” she says.
In an interview with CTV, Mayor Larry O’Brien called the licensing plan “ridiculous.”
“It doesn’t make any sense,” he said. “It’s bad for business, and it’s just a level of municipal interference in the market that does not need to occur.”
Horlan says the legal framework is already in place to protect tenants, including the provincial Residential Tenancies Act, Canadian Human Rights Act and the city’s Property Standards inspections.
“We already have all these people looking over our shoulder,” she says. “And any tenant can call Property Standards if they have a problem.”
But some tenants disagree. Kathy Fortin, tenant and member of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now’s chapter in Ottawa, says she thinks landlords should be licensed the same way businesses are. ACORN represents Canada’s largest community organization of low- and moderate-income earners.
“It is important to give tenants some sort of protection,” she says. “That way if maintenance has not been taken care of, we can refuse to pay rent.”
Cullen argues a licensing regime is needed to deal with negligent landlords because of the city’s limited means of dealing with problem landlords.
In an interview with the Ottawa Citizen, Cullen said, “People deserve to live in safe conditions and, unfortunately, some landlords don’t provide these for their tenants.”
The licensing regime would allow the city to revoke a landlord’s license if certain conditions are not met, Cullen says.
However, it would likely apply to parts of the city, such as the downtown core, including Centretown.
Somerset Ward Councillor Diane Holmes says she wants to see which parts of town have the most problems and whether the licensing would be worthwhile for these parts of town.
“Until the committee does the research and we get all the information I won’t decide,” she says.
Others say they feel the research is a waste of time. David Lyman, vice-president of the Easter Ontario Landlord Organization, says the city should not spend staff time or money to consider a licensing system.
He says the cost would ultimately be put onto the tenants.
“I can’t understand why tenants would want this,” he says. “It would just mean higher costs for them.”
He says the extra costs for property managers and landlords would be absorbed by an increase in rent.
Lyman says the city’s property standards bylaws and provincial legislation are enough to enforce regulations and keep buildings properly maintained.
“If the city is looking to fix problems this is not the best way,” he says.