Rentals near Windsor's post-secondary schools have 'substantial issues.' Would a landlord rating system help?
2-year pilot program found 71% of units failed building and fire inspection
A majority of rental units inspected near St. Clair College and the University of Windsor failed building inspections done as part of a two-year rental licensing pilot program.
But city council has now paused that program to give staff time to find a new program that could roll out across the whole city.
That program required landlords in Wards 1 and 2 with fewer than five rental units in a building to pass a building inspection, fire code check and an electrical system safety assessment before renting the unit.
A report to Windsor city council showed that:
- 71 per cent of units failed an initial inspection.
- 7 per cent were able to be fixed that day.
- 10 per cent posed a major safety risk.
- 28 per cent did not have working smoke or carbon monoxide alarms.
- 13 per cent were illegal units that did not have proper permits pulled for construction.
- 3 per cent were unsafe for people to live in.
A total of 660 units were inspected, far fewer than the 3,000 rental units city staff believe are rented in the area.
That's because the city was unable to fine landlords that did not get a licence because a group of landlords challenged the program in court.
The court essentially told council the program would need to be voluntary until a decision was made.
The landlords eventually lost the court challenge and an appeal of the ruling.
Could landlords get a 5 star rating?
On Monday, council heard city staff outline the results of the study and the cost of putting a license program in place for the entire city.
The initial license demand overwhelmed city staff which required "all boots on the ground to take on the applications," said Craig Robertson, the city's manager of licensing and enforcement.
He said the inspections found "substantial issues" with rentals that were inspected and suggested council pause the program to let staff reset the program.
City lawyer Dana Paladino said that could include new measures inspired by other cities that have rental licensing programs in place.
"Maybe instead of licensing the unit, we license the property manager," she suggested.
Paladino also posed the idea of handing out demerit points or a star-based system for landlords.
"Five stars for a great property condition versus lower stars for a [property in worse] condition."
Costs of city-wide program questioned
She said any new program would need to reduce the number of units inspected.
That's because of the demand on city staff to process applications in a timely manner and at a cost that the city can recover without having the charge passed on to tenants.
A city-wide program would require 7,000 licenses for rental units if just half of the total units complied — that would require more than 34 new employees.
And that would come at a cost: about $4.3-million, with a $625 annual license fee charged to the landlord for each unit they have.
Mike Cardinal, who once operated student rentals in Windsor and supports a licensing program, said that the business case presented by staff doesn't make sense to him.
"It's awful," said Cardinal.
"Look at maybe making these licenses good for two or three, even five years and spread that cost out," he said.
Mother urged council for this program after son died in 2016
But his major concern is the number of units inspectors found that didn't meet fire codes.
"That means lives," he said.
"We think of Andrew Kraayenbrink who lost his life."
Kraayenbrink died when a fire ripped through the home he was renting with five other people on the city's west end in 2016.
A year later, his mother urged council to adopt a licensing system after it was found that a required smoke alarm on the main floor was missing.
"The idea behind all of this effort has been to just comply with the code," said Cardinal.
Windsor fire chief James Waffle told council on Monday the lack of fire alarms and smoke detectors continue to be a deadly problem in house fires.
"To be quite frank, the number of fatalities that we've had over the last several years, the majority are in buildings with non-working fire alarms," said Waffle.
What renters and landlords are saying
Renter Janeen Auld also urged the city to move forward with some form of a rental licensing program.
She said the failed court challenge that made most of the pilot study a voluntary program dilutes the data and "certainly negatively impacted the depth of the information gathered."
"But we already know that safety concerns are increasing and renters are being neglected," she told council.
Landlords have argued that any costs associated with the program will be passed on to tenants and that the red tape required to license a unit is not necessary.
"We really don't need this bureaucracy," Al Teshuba, a local landlord, told council.
He said that tenants that have issues with the condition of a rental can lodge complaints with the City of Windsor, fire department and the province's Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB)
But in 2024, it took the LTB typically between five to seven months to resolve an issue.
Windsor's chief building official Rob Vani said the city handles 1,300 building condition complaints each year and typically responds within two weeks.
Teshuba — who donated to the group of landlords that challenged the city to end the program — said council would be better off focusing on a marketing campaign directed to tenants so they know their rights.
He also suggested the city subsidize upgrades for landlords that need to make improvements to meet building codes for units they rent out.
"You shouldn't have a blatant bureaucracy of licensing everybody. It's just too much waste," he told council.
In the end, council voted to ask staff to bring them back options for a city-wide rental licensing program before the 2026 budget is approved.
"There's a lot of neighbourhoods in our city where the complaint-driven model does not work," said west end councillor Fabio Costante.
"Today, more than ever, in the midst of the housing crisis that were, in the issues has been exasperated."
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