{"id":5913,"date":"2022-06-18T21:41:48","date_gmt":"2022-06-19T01:41:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acorncanada.org\/ctv-news-london-tenants-group-flabbergasted-toronto-style-apartment-inspections-not-backed-city\/"},"modified":"2022-06-18T21:41:48","modified_gmt":"2022-06-19T01:41:48","slug":"ctv-news-london-tenants-group-flabbergasted-toronto-style-apartment-inspections-not-backed-city","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/acorncanada.org\/news\/ctv-news-london-tenants-group-flabbergasted-toronto-style-apartment-inspections-not-backed-city\/","title":{"rendered":"CTV News London: Tenants group &#8216;flabbergasted&#8217; Toronto-style apartment inspections not backed by city staff"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"rtejustify\">\n\t<span style=\"font-size:16px;\"><em>Posted June 18, 2022<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\n\t<iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/webapps.9c9media.com\/vidi-player\/1.9.24\/share\/iframe.html?currentId=2467609&amp;config=ctvnews\/share.json&amp;kruxId=&amp;rsid=bellmedianewsprod,bellmediaglobalprod&amp;siteName=CTVNews&amp;cid=%5B%7B%22contentId%22%3A%222467609%22%2C%22ad%22%3A%7B%22adsite%22%3A%22ctv.ctvnews%22%2C%22adzone%22%3A%22embed%22%7D%7D%5D\" width=\"560\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">\n\t<span style=\"font-size:16px;\">Tenants hoping London city hall would crackdown on slumlords who fail to maintain their apartments are expressing dismay.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">\n\t<span style=\"font-size:16px;\">A <a href=\"https:\/\/pub-london.escribemeetings.com\/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=93176\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">new report by city staff<\/a> recommends against implementing a local version of Toronto\u2019s RentSafeTO apartment maintenance and inspection program.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">\n\t<span style=\"font-size:16px;\">\u201cI\u2019m a little bit flabbergasted,\u201d admits Jordan Smith of tenant advocacy group ACORN London. \u201cIt\u2019s been effective in Toronto and they\u2019ve managed to make it economically viable. It\u2019s managed to pay for itself. There\u2019s no excuse for that not to happen in London.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">\n\t<span style=\"font-size:16px;\">In Toronto, landlords pay $11.24 per rental unit as a registration fee, and $1,917 for an annual audit to ensure that basic building maintenance standards are met.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">\n\t<span style=\"font-size:16px;\">Failing to meet those standards could result in financial penalties.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">\n\t<span style=\"font-size:16px;\">There are more than 47,000 rental units here in London.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">\n\t<span style=\"font-size:16px;\">According to the staff report, a local inspection program modelled after RentSafeTO would require hiring about 37 additional municipal by-law enforcement officers plus a similar number of fire prevention officers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">\n\t<span style=\"font-size:16px;\">Currently, London only licenses rental houses, duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">\n\t<span style=\"font-size:16px;\">A license requires initial building code and fire code inspections plus payment of an annual renewal fee.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">\n\t<span style=\"font-size:16px;\">ACORN London argues municipal licensing of rental units and enforcement of the property standards by-law has left many tenants living in poorly maintained and unsafe apartments.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">\n\t<span style=\"font-size:16px;\">Instead of RentSafe, the staff report highlights the recommendations of a new Tenant Landlord Taskforce to streamline the complaint system on the city website, offer more inclusive communication between landlords\/tenants\/municipality, and conduct \u2018building blitzes\u2019 of the worst properties.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">\n\t<span style=\"font-size:16px;\">However, Smith sits on that taskforce and warns those solutions fail to ensure landlords actually make the necessary repairs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">\n\t<span style=\"font-size:16px;\">\u201cIt\u2019s important to streamline our complaint process, but that\u2019s cutting around the edges, it doesn\u2019t come close to tackling the heart of the issue.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">\n\t<span style=\"font-size:16px;\">The Community and Protective Services Committee will consider the report on Tuesday.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">\n\t<span style=\"font-size:16px;\">***<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">\n\t<span style=\"font-size:16px;\">Article by&nbsp;Daryl Newcombe for <a href=\"https:\/\/london.ctvnews.ca\/tenants-group-flabbergasted-toronto-style-apartment-inspections-not-backed-by-city-staff-1.5952489\">CTV News London<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">\n\t&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\n\t<span class=\"es-button-border\" style=\"border-style:solid;border-color:#9AAEA6;background:#C51100;border-width:0px;display:inline-block;border-radius:0px;width:auto;\"><a class=\"es-button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.acorncanada.org\/newsletter\" style=\"mso-style-priority:100 !important;text-decoration:none !important;-webkit-text-size-adjust:none;-ms-text-size-adjust:none;mso-line-height-rule:exactly;font-family:arial, 'helvetica neue', helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:18px;color:#FFFFFF;border-style:solid;border-color:#C51100;border-width:10px 20px 10px 20px;display:inline-block;background:#C51100;border-radius:0px;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;line-height:22px;width:auto;text-align:center;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sign up for ACORN&#8217;s newsletter<\/a> <\/span><br \/>\n\t&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\n\t&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\n\t&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\n\t&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":5912,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","front_page_slider":[],"campaigns":[],"featured_news":[],"class_list":["post-5913","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acorncanada.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/5913"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acorncanada.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acorncanada.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acorncanada.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acorncanada.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"front_page_slider","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acorncanada.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/front_page_slider?post=5913"},{"taxonomy":"campaigns","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acorncanada.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campaigns?post=5913"},{"taxonomy":"featured_news","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acorncanada.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_news?post=5913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}