NB ACORN takes idea of landlord registration straight to Moncton City Hall

ACORN members went to Moncton City Hall this week to present ideas for our landlord registration campaign. Peter Jongeneelen, Nikki Kennedy, and Maddie Mitton did a great job representing ACORN and making the case that tighter regulations need to be put on landlords in Moncton.

The presentation delivered to City Council is below. It was an overview of NB ACORN’s State of Disrepair report, which was a summary of the results of ACORN’s 2023 tenant survey.

Overall, too many tenants in Moncton and around New Brunswick are dealing with unscrupulous landlords who are not only raising rents but also are unresponsive and keep buildings in substandard conditions.

The Residential Property Maintenance and Occupancy Code acts as optional province-wide minimum property standards that municipalities can choose to enforce, they just are not!

In Moncton, the bylaw that enforces the residential property maintenance and occupancy code is bylaw Z-507. This law gives the city some basic tools to force the landlord to comply but is complaint-based (can only be triggered by tenants making complaints). Financial penalties are in place for the city to use as a stick to get compliance from a landlord, and the city has the power to go into buildings and do needed repairs and charge the landlord.

So, there are basic standards that landlords are supposed to comply with, and some structure exists to force landlords to comply. The issue is that the complaint-based enforcement system the City of Moncton is failing to use any of these tools to keep tenants safe.

If you are having issues with your unit – make sure to be at NB ACORN’s upcoming housing forum on Feb 6th! More info here: https://fb.me/e/3t9EVSJ28

Here is some press attention we got: