Local advocates call for renoviction protections
Calls for Waterloo Region to adopt bylaw similar to one approved in Hamilton
WHEN HAMILTON BECAME THE FIRST city in Ontario to adopt a bylaw regulating renovictions, making it harder for landlords to evict tenants for the purpose of renovating their property, it brought changes to what is traditionally an unbalanced relationship, says a local planning expert. Local advocates have praised the bylaw and say a similar one is needed in Waterloo Region.
“One of the most, if not the most, unequal relationships that we have in our society is between landlord and tenants. Landlords and tenants complain about a system being in favour of the others, but it is an inherently unequal relationship. And what the Hamilton bylaw does is it says, ‘Okay, in these situations, we rearranged that relationship slightly so that the landlord still has an obligation to their tenant while their home is being renovated,” said Brian Doucet, Canada Research Chair in Urban Change and Social Inclusion at the University of Waterloo’s School of Planning.
The Hamilton bylaw requires any landlord who issues an N13 notice (indicating intent to evict for renovations) to obtain a license from the city at a cost of $715. Before a landlord gets the licence, they must first receive a building permit and provide proof from a qualified expert (such as an engineer) that vacating a property is necessary for the renovation to happen. The license will cost an additional $125 each year to renew.
According to Doucet, this change should lead to a reduction in bad-faith evictions because the chances of a renovation requiring a property to be empty are small. Doucet dismissed the idea that the bylaw would discourage landlords from doing necessary repairs over time.
“Think of how much it would take to move out of your house for renovation work. It probably has to be something substantial. There’s a lot that can be done while tenants remain.…A good landlord will maintain their assets.
If you have an asset, you want to have that asset retain its value. Good landlords and property managers will maintain their assets,” he said.
Additionally, the bylaw will require landlords to provide, for the duration of the renovation, an alternative form of accommodation or a rental top-up that is the difference between what the tenant was paying and the average market rent for a similar unit. The bylaw also gives more power to a tenant under a “right of first refusal.” This means that the tenant would, provided they notice before vacating the property, have a right to return to the unit after the renovations are completed. The landlord would then not be able to charge any more rent than they legally would have been able to if there had been no interruption.
That gives the tenant more power by placing the onus on the landlord and providing the renter with more information, such as when the renovation will be completed, said Doucet.
“If the landlord’s going through with evicting a tenant to renovate, it provides a clear pathway. It would create expectations on both the landlord and tenant on what needs to happen in order to return. And it does that by binding the landlord and tenants together, so the tenant can’t just disappear. Again, this helps in both scenarios of a bad-faith renoviction. You’re bound to your tenants. If you’re doing this in bad faith, you’re probably going to think twice about it.” he explained.
Megan Walker works for the Social Development Centre Waterloo Region in tenant support and community organizing. She is also currently being evicted from her affordable housing unit in Kitchener. She wants a similar bylaw passed in Waterloo Region. People that she works with are already vulnerable before being issued an N13 notice, and they often don’t have anywhere to go, she said.
“Not only is there a shortage of housing supply, but it’s absurdly expensive. Everybody’s looking at at least double or triple the rent that they would be paying right now. A lot of units are one or two bedrooms and culturally some people want like a three-bedroom, four-bedroom. People living together. There are whole families living with each other. It’s expensive out there right now – it’s just that we don’t have housing,” she said.
Walker said that renovictons or demovictions (evictions to make way for demolition) would make sense if they lead to more affordable housing than is currently available, however in her case she is being forced to leave her unit that will be replaced by a parking lot.
“What we need is more affordable housing. We need to massively build affordable housing. That’s the responsibility of the region; the region needs to put money into building this housing,” Walker said.
From April to September last year, the development centre supported 25 people who received N13 notices. The agency has recently started providing eviction prevention tenant support every Wednesday from 6-8 p.m. at the main branch of the Waterloo Library.
According to a 2022 report from Ontario’s Advocacy Centre for Tenants, there was a
294 per cent increase in renovictions from 2015-16.
Increases in renovictions are just one reason Waterloo Region needs a similar bylaw, said Ryan Murdoch, a member of the local chapter of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).
“I think the mere fact that you see more municipalities and councillors agreeing that something needs to be done – it’s not an accident that Hamilton has passed this now…So it’s on the radar of politicians now that this is something they’re going to need to address because all of their other constituency of renters is going to start to feel this. All voters who are renters want something like this,” Murdoch said.
Murdoch added that waiting to see what happens in Hamilton is pointless. He pointed to a renoviction bylaw that was passed in 2019 in New Westminster, BC. In the three years prior to the bylaw, there were 300 renovictions in the city of 70,000. That bylaw was repealed in 2021 when the province brought in similar legislation.
“New Westminster had this and it didn’t destroy the city. This isn’t actually asking a lot.… You can always wait and see a bit longer and study the problem, but then you’re going to study people into homelessness. Then we’re going to have to study encampments and how people end up in encampments,” Murdoch said.
Doucet shared that sentiment, saying that although specific details, such as what will be done at the municipal or regional level, will need to be worked out, the time to act is now.
“What are you waiting for?... These conversations are happening in London, in Windsor, in Toronto, in Ottawa. It’s happening all across the province and the more municipalities we can get implementing this, the better chance that a provincial government, whether it be this one or another one, will introduce the similar kind of legislation provincewide,” he said.