Hi everyone! Great re-post by Tony Miller about Ottawa's new landlord bylaw:
In November 2019, Ottawa city council voted against landlord licensing, and opted instead for a new rental housing property management bylaw.
The new bylaw will come into effect on 31 August 2021 which gives landlords time to prepare. The city will be providing templates and forms for landlords to use. These should be ready in spring 2021.
Overall, property managers and landlords will need to be organized, update existing systems and processes or create them, and keep track of all correspondence if they aren't already.
The new bylaw can be broken into 4 categories:
1) Tenant Service Requests (TSR):
Landlords will need to reply to urgent TSR's within 24 hours and to day to day issues within 7 days. Landlords will be expected to start working on the TSR's within those time-frames but apparently will not be expected to have completed the work. Landlords will also be required to keep track of TSR's as well as how and when they are resolved.
2) Capital Maintenance Plan:
"For buildings of 10 or more units, or 3 or more floors (with more than one unit), the landlord will be required to inspect the building at least once a year, record the date of the inspection, describe the condition of 8 to 10 key building elements, and note when the landlord plans to remedy each significant deficiency." - From EOLO.
3) Pest Management:
Landlords will need to implement an Integrated Pest Management (IPM). The city should be providing a template. The good news here is that tenants will be required to notify landlords about any type of pest problem, keep units clean, and follow pest treatment directions. Tenants can be fined for not adhering to these rules.
4) Information for Tenants:
Landlords will be required to provide tenants with parking info, garbage info, when to call 311 info, fire safety info, contact info, and of course the good old Ontario Human Rights Code.
Other Stuff:
a) Failure to comply with the bylaw can result in a minimum fine of $500 and up to a maximum of $100,000.
b) When bylaw asks for copies of your IPM plan or tenant information package, you will have to provide it. Also, Bylaw will be authorized to enter on any land at any reasonable time for the purposes of conducting an inspection of any portion of the property that is not actually being used as a dwelling unit.
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