Ontario landlords demand rental market reform from provincial government

Independent landlords made their voices heard this past weekend, as on Saturday, June 8, members of Small Ownership Landlords Ontario (SOLO) gathered outside of Queens Park in Toronto to demand rental market reform. The protest was built on the foundation of protections for smaller landlords who have been alleging an increase in non-payment behaviors by tenants. 

Apart from alleged delinquent payment patterns, many members in attendance cited the slow churn of the Ontario Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB), as SOLO members claim they have been enduring wait times of upwards of six months to a year. 

“What we’re looking at today, are cases that are close to eight to 12 months, and if a tenant decides to delay it, it can take over a year,” Kevin Costain, board member at SOLO told insauga.com. “What we have been asking for, in fact, what I can now say we are demanding is for the LTB to do their jobs.” 

As a byproduct of landlord-tenant disputes being stuck in the weeds, SOLO representatives have been calling on the Ford government to look into reforming the structure of the LTB administrative process. However, according to Costain, if this reform is accomplished, it will serve both landlords and tenants. 

“The kryptonite for the LTB is complexity, if a hearing tends to be more complex, the LTB just waits on it forever. So a tenant can end up getting hurt faster and over an inappropriate amount of time. The reality is, we all share a common ground,” says Costain. 

Recent information relayed to insauga.com by the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario (ACTO) indicated that while landlords may be deadlocked by the LTB’s bureaucratic standards for several months to a year, most tenants face an average of a two-year wait time when filing their disputes. 

According to Costain — despite desires for diplomacy — numerous landlords within SOLO’s ranks have endured non-payment costs reaching the tens of thousands and beyond. Costain has also been on the extreme receiving end of tenant malpractice, as he recently had a renter deny rental payments and burn the property down. 

“I was faced with $450,000 in terms of a rebuild — which luckily insurance covered — over $26,000 in unpaid rent and $10,000 in unclaimed damages, all of which was paid for out of my pocket. The system failed me at every turn,” says Costain. 

As indicated by Costain, SOLO members have organized numerous protests over the years to gain attention from the provincial government regarding the Wild West that landlords may face when dealing with an unruly tenant. However, the only way to facilitate any form of change, according to Costain, is to ensure that the wheels of the LTB turn at a rate that protects all parties. 

As for what these long-term solutions look like, Costain believes a return to fully in-person tribunals is the only way to guarantee that everyone stays on the same page. 

“At the beginning of most hearings, they are trying to figure out who’s who. There’s a roll call process in trying to figure out who is a tenant, who is a landlord and who is an observer. When you show up in person, they call your name, and all three hours are spent adjudicating. When it occurs online, you can lose 45 minutes on the roll call alone,” says Costain. 

Outside of the LTB, there is also the court of public opinion, and organizations like SOLO are not blind to the fact that public sentiment for landlords is not as unified as it is for tenants. According to Costain, education surrounding the public image of the independent landlord is also another major pillar for SOLO’s ongoing protests.

“As long as there have ever been landlords, there have been slumlords and it has always been obvious that that is a bad way to engage with tenants. We also have large corporate landlords who are doing some things that are unsavory and are demanding profits that are off the charts. Differentiating between a smaller landlord and a corporate landlord has always been part of the effort,” says Costain. 

As for how to ensure the unification between landlords and renters that Costain desires, he believes that fixing the system internally while being sensitive to the needs of all parties is the only way to move forward, as he states, “We should, first and foremost, never look down on somebody for being a renter, there is nothing wrong with being a tenant, I was a tenant for most of my life. There’s also nothing wrong with a person owning a house and renting it — we’re all trying to do our best and we need to bring some humanity back to the process.”