By-law expected to be widespread detriment to the city.

If you live in the city of London, you will be affected, either directly or indirectly, by the new Residential Units Licensing By-law which comes into effect on March 1, of 2010.

Directly affected: Owners and managers of any building containing four or less rental units (including single detached dwellings, semi-detached dwellings, duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, and converted dwellings) in the city of London must obtain a license on each residential unit. Rental units in apartment and townhouse buildings are exempt.

Costs & Requirements:

• $25.00 per building, yearly;
• proof of a recent fire inspection;
• susceptibility to random inspections, and;
• additional non-compliance fines and fees ranging up to $100,000.

Merx Weighs In
(Our position on the new regulation)

Merx Property Management does not support this bylaw. We believe the city's defense of this bylaw was thoroughly and effectively debunked by stakeholders and that city council is not listening to voters.

Property managers, landlords, and tenants overwhelmingly agree: the regulation is not beneficial to the city or its residents and should be repealed immediately.

The unfortunate part of this new regulation is that there are no winners. Most bylaws offer some level of protection for identified at-risk individuals or groups on local matters, and in this way, bylaws are intended to level the playing field and to ensure we all get along nicely and live happily together. This new regulation is expected to have the opposite effect.

This ordinance is built on the pretext that privately owned rental property standards are ailing -- a position that was effectively disproved by the London Property Management Association (LPMA), a professional organization that continues to monitor the issue and to advocate on behalf of local rental stakeholders, landlords and tenants alike.

To be clear, Merx Property Management and the professional industry acknowledge there are exceptions to the norm, and some property owners fail to meet minimum standards. These problems need correcting. There are previously existent mechanisms the city ought to use to enforce minimum standards, yet they choose not to.

"The Rental Bylaw is a bad deal for Londoners."

This new licensing program is therefore a thinly veiled tax. Its fine-print conditions will likely degrade the value of properties tied to over 12,500 residential units across the city and could cause rampant instability within the local housing market. The fallout of this bylaw will affect all London residents, on some level, but targets the city's most vulnerable stakeholders: lower income wage earners, tenants, and smaller landlords.

Income Property owners struggle to carry their properties during this unseasonable economic climate: previously stable tenants are now among the most susceptible to job losses, and job insecurity directly affects the financial stability of their landlords. Low lending rates and first-time buyer incentives are simultaneously drawing tenants away from the rental market in favour of home ownership. Property value fluctuations, and recent on-campus housing initiatives compound the problems landlords already face due to increases in property carrying and management disbursements.

The implementation of a new city Residential Rental Units License exacerbates the problems owners face including unstable rental markets, while also discouraging investment in repairs and capital improvements by taking yet more money away from property owner operating budgets.

Tenants are arguably more directly and adversely affected by this new regulation. Already among the most vulnerable of our city's residents, tenants will eventually have to bear the price of this tax. Further, that provisions within the bylaw allow for the License Manager to, "refuse to issue, refuse to renew or revoke or suspend a license," for reasons over which a tenant has no direct control carries dangerous implications that must also compromise tenants' sense of security and sovereignty over the uninterrupted use of their respective homes.

The implications of this bylaw are overwhelmingly negative, far reaching, and will worsen as the city begins disrupting occupants' privacy with yet more inspections. Further, earlier bylaw proposals suggest that the city is already planning license fee increases.

The Residential Rental Units Licensing By-law is a bad deal for Londoners, and it is incumbent on all of us to educate ourselves about its costs and to voice our united opposition to City Hall until this regulation is repealed.

Contact

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