North Bay City council has given unanimous approval to a motion requesting the province find ways to “protect basic important tenant rights, while investigating policies and regulations to help protect property, and penalize those who cause damage to property, and help recoup costs for those damages.”
Councillor Mike Anthony wants his motion to find its way onto the provincial radar. The deciding factor that sparked him into bringing the issue before council, was seeing what a good friend of his went through in July.
“He had very proudly done some prudent investing, had secured a rental property and was very proud of it. The tenant had issues it turned out, and there was rent owing, things like that,” said Anthony.
“But when the tenant left on July 31 my friend discovered that the place had basically been trashed. It looked like out of anger or spite for having to leave perhaps. Walls and mirrors were smashed, closet doors were smashed, even the toilet was smashed so there was water leaking into other units,” described Anthony.
“So seeing somebody go through that, and just watching his frustration, really got me thinking about it. I’m hoping to make it very clear that tenant rights are really important, we get that. But we have to see if there can be some kind of balance so that landlords feel that they can recoup costs, and penalize those who do these sorts of things,” said Anthony.
“If I walk into your home and kick in your TV, that will be a criminal matter. But apparently you can beat the living hell out of somebody’s unit and that’s more about the Landlord Tenant Act.”
Anthony was also motivated by media reports about a city couple who, as first-time landlords, are now facing roughly $40,000 in repairs and replacing stolen items.
See:First time landlords face minimum $40,000 bill to replace stolen items and repair property damage
“There’s a new government, so I think it’s an apt time. It’s one of our last meetings of the season before we head into the big vote. So if it’s one last thing we can get done before we head into that, that’s great. And also with the new government, I think it’s good to get things on their radar,” said Anthony.
The matter stirred some heated conversation among some councillors, about the underlying causes behind the destructive behaviour of bad tenants.
“I know there’s all kinds of bigger issues here. There’s income issues and social issues, and there’s health, and mental health and addictions. In the case of my friend, it was basically somebody who I don’t think had any of those issues, other than just a mean attitude. And when they weren’t happy they were leaving, they did damage. To me this is really, really just trying to say to the province, let’s get some balance so people who invest in rental properties and do it right, and they treat their tenants right, that they can recoup costs and the people who did damage can be penalized.”
Councillor Tanya Vrebosch wanted the motion to have more “meat” to it.
“I just think sometimes when we put these motions together for the province, it’s a very blanket statement, and I think what’s going to happen is we’re going to get a blanket letter back,” said Vreboch.
“If we have some actual tangible action items that we think could be something that could work for the landlords, then that’s what we need to actually ask the province for. If you give me something we can actually work towards, I think we’ll get further.”
Anthony says the motion has three specific solutions.
“We talk about ways to penalize people who do willful damage, we talk about ways for landlords to recoup the costs and we talk about policies that will help balance things because right now it seems there is no balance for landlords.”
The president of the Near North Landlords Association, John Wilson, believes the intentions are good, but points to the absence of the word “landlords” when talking about rights.
“It deals with tenancy rights, and what we’re trying to do is bring balance so there’s rights for both landlords and tenants. We think it’s important that both are protected, but I don’t see any mention in the motion of the landlord’s rights,” said Wilson.
“Right at the moment, there are very few rights that landlords have, and the process is extremely complicated to recover damages. But the intention is good and we certainly are in agreement with Mike putting it forward.”
Wilson says a meeting was held last week with a representative from Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli’s office, to discuss changes landlords would like to see made, both in the short term and long term.
Wilson says there is a plan in place among the various landlord associations to collectively submit a white paper to the provincial government.
“It’s to suggest a rewrite of the Residential Tenancy Act, so that is before them now. It is a work in progress.“
Council representatives attending the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference in Ottawa this weekend, plan to raise concerns pertaining to the Act with the appropriate ministries in attendance.
A copy of the motion passed by council will be forwarded to Premier Doug Ford, Minister of Finance Vic Fedeli, the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and leaders of the opposition, and various landlord and tenant groups.
