Legal clinic welcomes Sarnia’s ‘close watch’ on ‘renoviction’ concerns

Local community legal aid officials say they see “renoviction” cases almost daily.

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“It’s a huge problem,” said Melissa Bradley with Community Legal Assistance Sarnia (CLAS).

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So a city council motion to keep an eye on evolving bylaw drafts in places like Ottawa and Hamilton, to shore up gaps in the provincial Residential Tenancies Act, is welcome, she said.

Council made the motion this month, wary of legal traps but hoping to find some way to curb the practice of landlords evicting tenants to renovate, then hiking rents.

“I think what we need to do is keep close watch, be aware of it,” said Coun. Anne Marie Gilis, calling renovictions a pervasive moral issue in Sarnia, amid affordable widespread housing shortages and skyrocketing rents.

Council unanimously agreed.

Putting a bylaw in place could help preserve affordable housing stock and decrease homelessness, a Dec. 11 city ​​report said.

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Below the Residential Tenancies Actlandlords must serve tenants notice to evict for things such as renovation or demolition, and show plans and permits at Landlord Tenant Board hearings to obtain approval.

Some bypass the process by offering money instead, under threat of eviction, and residents — who have the right to stay in the unit until a hearing and to first refusal of the rented unit — are sometimes “totally unaware of their rights,” said CLAS’s Andrew Bolter. “A lot of landlords are circumventing that whole (act), which is a huge issue.”

When the process is followed and reno approval is given, renovations often stretch on for monthsBradley said.

“There’s nothing in the act with regards to how long the landlord can carry out renovations,” she said.

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“I’m not sure why anyone would find 18 months an acceptable time to renovate a kitchen, or foundation, or install a roof, or a new HVAC system, or anything like that..

Bradley believes those delays are often calculated to try to frustrate tenants — who must live elsewhere in the interim — and force them to move on, she said, noting board hearing backlogs and delays exacerbates the problem.

Landlords also sometimes swamp tenants with notices, making the process confusing, she said.

“It’s red flags across the board for anyone who’s advocating for tenants,” Bradley said.

Ideally, a city bylaw would require landlords to justify eviction for renovations, justifying those renovations, and enforce deadlines for renovations in the permitting process, she said.

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But whether any of that is legally permissible is the question, Bolter said.

“The bylaw can’t go against what the Residential Tenancies Act says,” he said. “It kind of has to dovetail into that.”

Other bylaw options could include barring conversion of residential rental properties for any other purpose, or creating a landlord registry, though that could create potential “conflicts with the Building Code Act, enforceability and sustainability,” says the city report. No Ontario municipality has a renoviction bylaw, and one in New Westminster, BC, was repealed in 2021.

Council, in a September message to Premier Doug Ford circulated to other municipalities, asked for “additional and meaningful steps to address the ever-increasing problem of ‘renovictions,’ ” after a resident urged the city to act.

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There’s been no response, city officials said.

Amending the act is the ideal approach, Bolter and Bradley said, noting the province has been slow to address its present deficiencies.

CLAS is willing to help the city with a potential bylaw, Bolter said.

“I think it will be useful for Sarnia to look at a bylaw that would certainly protect the tenants, which is the intention of the Residential Tenancies Act,” he said. “That’s what we would be supporting and happy to consult the city on.”

Staff are aware of three citizen complaints about renovictions, the Dec. 11 city report said.

An official with Sarnia-Lambton MPP Bob Bailey’s office said they have referred “a few” people seeking help with the issue to CLAS.

Bailey said he’d speak with Housing Minister Paul Calandra, adding, “I’m not sure where he’s at on it.”

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The province has made improvements through the Helping Homebuyers, Protecting Tenants Act, including strengthening protections against evictions due to renovations, demolitions and conversions, and doubling maximum fines under the Residential Tenancies Act, to $100,000 for individuals and $500,000 for corporations, An Calandra aide Alexandru Cioban said my email.

“Municipalities like Sarnia have the ability to create rental replacement bylaws and all existing bylaws remain in effect,” Cioban said.

“To better protect tenants. . . the government is exploring the creation of a regulatory framework that would set common rules around rental housing demolition and conversion across municipalities that establish rental replacement bylaws.

“Any future regulations under the framework would be informed by feedback received through consultation.”

[email protected]

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