Tag Archives: landlord licensing Ontario

The story of landlord licensing in Toronto – Real licensing or licensing lite?

Landlord costs are reflected in tenant rents …

If the City of Toronto really wanted to do something for tenants, it would lower the crippling property taxes imposed on apartment buildings that exceed six units. (I cannot understand why this is not a giant political issue.) After all, property taxes are a huge cost to landlords. These costs are passed on to tenants. Once passed on to tenants, tenants will pay higher rents.

Speaking of increasing costs to landlords …

Landlord licensing in primarily a political issue. In fact, landlord licensing has been an issue in Municipal Elections. Notice that this does not (at least yet) apply to small Toronto landlords.

The licensing of Student rentals has been a topic of controversy in both Guelph, Kingston and Waterloo. In general, (if not outright licensing) student rentals have been the subject of heightened bylaw scrutiny.

The following “story” from “Storify” describes how certain Toronto City Councillors brought “landlord licensing” into effect (well sort of).

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Municipal zoning by-laws, condo by-laws and renting investment properties to student tenants

I recently received an email from somebody that included the following question:

Hi.  I am wondering if you may have some insight regarding a condo situation we have in London.  We have purchased a two bedroom condo and the condos in the building are called  “single family dwelling”.

I have heard from some people that this means the people in the condo must be related to each other however, I am aware of lots of people in the building who are good friends and are not related to each other living together.

We were planning to find a paying roommate for my 20 year old son but we are concerned about what the definition of “single family dwelling” is.

To me, outside of living with your spouse or common-law partner, many people live with friends in our society.  Do you know if such a rule is enforceable?  Do you have any suggestions as to where I should go to figure this out? I would hate to have to move out of the building due to this rule.

I predict that this is going to become a more common question.

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