Only 6 days until Toronto's new renovictions bylaw comes into effect

A new renovictions bylaw comes into effect July 31 and the city's mayor and renter advocate groups are thrilled at what it could mean for tenants.

The Rental Renovation Licence Bylaw was first passed by council last November and aims to protect tenants from being turfed from their homes by bad-faith landlords attempting to raise rents under the disguise of renovations. 

Mayor Olivia Chow said at a news conference Friday that landlords often claim their housing units need to be empty, when in reality, many of the renovations can be done with tenants still inside.

"Far too often, landlords try to take advantage of tenants who might not fully understand their legal rights," she said. "Every time I'm out on the streets, I hear of tenants being evicted and the bogus excuses."

How the bylaw works

• Landlords need a qualified person, licensed under the Ontario Association of Architects or Professional Engineers Ontario, to confirm vacant possession of a unit is required for the renovations.

• Landlords will then have to pay a $700 application fee within seven days of issuing an N13 legal notice with intent to renovate to the tenant.

• If a qualified person verifies that the unit needs to be vacated while renovations are ongoing, landlords must provide: 

  • Tenants wishing to return with either temporary, comparable housing at similar rents or agree to pay monthly rent-gap payments.

  • Tenants choosing not to return with a severance compensation equal to three months of rent-gap payments. 

  • In both cases, landlords must give tenants a one-time moving allowance of $1,500 for a studio or one-bedroom unit or $2,500 for a two-or-more bedroom unit.

Chow said the city's building department will review landlord renovation permits. Landlords who do not follow the bylaw could be charged up to $100,000.

All landlords needed to do was provide an N13 to the Landlord and Tenant Board and the "clock was ticking" for tenants prior to this bylaw's enactment, said Toronto-Danforth Coun. Paula Fletcher at the same news conference.

Landlords could then rent their units to new people at steeper rent prices. In Ontario, any rental unit built after November 2018 is not subject to provincial rent control.

Fletcher said this bylaw is a "new day" for Toronto tenants.

"The rescue is here," she said. "Fairness will be the very base line of anything that happens."

More work to be done: advocates

Advocacy groups are also excited about what this means for tenants. 

Landlords are finally being held accountable, which makes Yaroslava Montenegro, who is the executive director of the Federation of Metro Tenants' Association, an advocacy group for tenants' rights, happy.

"This is a huge win for our movement. This bylaw was built on decades of hard work by tenants holding city officials and landlords accountable," she said at Friday's news conference.

This bylaw is demonstrative of what work and solidarity can do, Montenegro said. 

"This is a fight for dignity, for stability and also for tenant power. Together we are stronger, together we will win," she said.

Tenants deserve stability and security, agreed Michael Cuadra, co-chair of ACORN's Weston chapter. ACORN is a multi-issue, membership-based community union of low and moderate-income people.

"This is a welcome sigh of relief, of protection," he said at the news conference. "Alone we can be deceived. Alone, we can be ignored. Together we can be heard, together we can solve problems."

This is a step in the right direction, but there is still work to be done, said Douglas Kwan, director of advocacy and legal services in Ontario for the Advocacy Centre for Tenants.

Wait times at Landlord and Tenant Board hearings continue to be lengthy, the province's affordable housing stock is diminishing with legislation on it yet to be enforced and the homelessness crisis is ever present, Kwan said at the news conference.

Though this bylaw will only come into effect July 31, tenants saw other big housing news this week. 

City council voted in favour of a colour-coded system for apartment buildings, set to be integrated into the RentSafeTO program in 2026, and council also voted to waive all development charges on multiplexes and sixplexes, with a pre-approved prototype available so homeowners don't have to find a planner on their own.