Rooming house rules backed

Even if you rent out just one room in your house, you’ll need a business licence from the city

New rules meant to make rooming houses safer for tenants were approved by city councillors Monday night, even after councillors heard from landlords that those rules could further reduce the number of affordable apartments in Peterborough.

Under the proposed new bylaw – which got preliminary approval from councillors, on Monday – a business license would be required of most landlords.

So if you have a house with four bedrooms or more, and you are renting even one room to a student or anyone else, you’d need a business licence.

There are many houses rented to students or to others in Peterborough and there’s currently no requirement for a business licence.

There’s also little opportunity for the city to track these rooming houses, let alone ensure that fire inspectors can gain access to the premises.

Deputy Fire Chief Chad Brown said there are only eight licensed rooming houses in the city – and at least 40 more that are unlicensed. All those 40 have some type of fire code infractions, he said.

Coun. Keith Riel said he was very concerned about the safety of tenants.

“I don’t want to see two or three students burnt to death,” he said.

But there’s a dire lack of affordable apartments in Peterborough at the moment, and one landlord said the proposed rules will make that problem worse.

Atul Swarup of the Peterborough and District Landlord Association said the cost of business licences will be passed onto tenants - which will drive up the cost of rent.

He also said it will cost money for the city to register and license rental housing in the city – and that increases taxes.

Swarup said he found it “flabbergasting” that city staff couldn’t tell him how much it’s going to cost to implement the new rules.

“You may not know the number, but it’s not zero,” he said.

The cost of the business licenses wasn’t discussed or debated on Monday, at the planning meeting – that’s expected to happen at a forthcoming committee of the whole meeting.

But Carolyn Kimble, a planner for the city, said the proposed cost of the licences will be “nominal”: $75 to register a four-bedroom rental house as a business, for instance, and $50 to renew that licence annually.

Swarup was one of three landlords who spoke Monday.

Syd Birrell, who owns a large renovated house that he rents to Trent University students, said said he made sure his house complied with all the fire code rules at the time he began renting, several years ago.

But as the fire code becomes more stringent, he’s concerned about the expense of retrofitting a 19th-century house.

What about the narrow staircases that are viewed as potentially unsafe in a fire? Do you have to rip those out and rebuild to meet the latest fire code requirements?

Andrew Rothfischer, another landlord, said it would be a shame to bring in so many rules that students could no longer rent a house together.

“Only the larger-scale, off campus ventures will survive,” he said.

Mayor Daryl Bennett said he doesn’t think the new rules would put landlords out of business. He said it would actually “legitimize” businesses.

He also said that good landlords who look after their properties and their businesses won’t find the new rules onerous.

“The restrictions are not onerous if they (landlords) are following the rules.”