Could Hamilton's anti-renoviction bylaw work in Toronto? Council committee wants to find out

Toronto councillors are asking city staff to study how Hamilton's first-in-Ontario, anti-renoviction bylaw could be implemented in Toronto.

Four councillors made the request in a motion passed at the planning and housing committee Wednesday. The motion directs staff to include in an upcoming report "consideration and analysis" of the bylaw and how that approach could work in Toronto. 

Hamilton's bylaw, passed by its council in January, is designed to deter landlords from using major renovations as an excuse for bad-faith evictions and better protect tenants living in affordable units.

"A lot of housing is being bought up for investment purposes and landlords that buy it want to get rid of the tenants because they want to make more money," Coun. Paula Fletcher (Toronto-Danforth) said in an interview ahead of the meeting.

"We have to stand up for tenants to be able to stay in their homes at a reasonable price, a reasonable rent."

The move is a step toward tackling what housing advocates say is a major problem pushing tenants out of affordable living situations and contributing to rising rent prices.

Landlords are allowed to issue N13 eviction notices to tenants if they think units need to be vacant for renovation and repairs to be done safely. In Ontario, tenants have the right to move back in afterwards, at the same rate.

City staff in Hamilton described "bad faith" renovictions as when the landlord uses the excuse of renovations to make existing tenants leave and then rent the unit to new tenants at a higher rate. 

In a letter to the committee, Fletcher and fellow councillors, Mike Colle (Eglinton-Lawrence), Frances Nunziata (York South—Weston) and Parthi Kandavel (Scarborough Southwest) said that a subcommittee during the previous council term heard from many tenants and advocates who said they had been pushed to leave a rental home despite no evidence that renovations were going to be substantial.

Some told the committee they didn't understand their rights or had been offered money to sign away their rights and leave, according to the letter.

"There were many instances where tenants left and while only cosmetic changes took place the rent was doubled or tripled in the same apartment," the letter reads.

"Many tenants have been forced out of their long time homes and neighbourhoods where they actually had the right to stay."

The councillors say it became clear to members of the subcommittee that eviction notices should be tied to building permits, but the council term ended before the committee could advance this as a solution.

"The key to stopping a renoviction is the building permit," Fletcher said. "Often, landlords give tenants an N13 and say, 'We need you out of there because we have to renovate this to such a degree that you can't stay.' Meanwhile, they never get a building permit. They never do the renovation."