Landlords turned away by councillors

May 21, 2008 - 08:41

By Jillian Follert

OSHAWA -- With a little over a week until the City's new rental housing bylaw takes effect, 10 more landlords have asked to be exempted from the rules.

But after landing in hot water for granting the initial two exemptions in April, councillors have decided to keep their distance.

A half-dozen landlords attended Tuesday's finance and administration committee meeting to make their plea and were made to wait more than an hour before being told the committee had voted not to let them speak.

This despite the fact that all but one had requested permission to speak in advance, had been added to the agenda by the clerk's department and had taken time off work to attend the meeting.

"It's a waste of our time and money," said Sheena Badiani, a leasing administrator with P&P Investments Inc. "We feel like we're being pushed around. They've had this agenda since last week. It would have been courteous to tell us in advance if they weren't going to listen to us."â?¨ Council approved exemptions last month for two landlords who own homes near the Durham College and UOIT campus. Both added extra bedrooms before the new licensing bylaw was passed and before the preceding interim control bylaw was in effect.

Since they had the permits and paperwork to back that up, they argued council should allow them to use all six bedrooms in their homes despite the fact the new bylaw includes a four-bedroom cap for most rentals near campus.

Council granted the exemptions April 21, even though the new bylaw doesn't come into play until May 30.

Soon after there was swift backlash from neighbourhood residents who said they should have been consulted.

With that in mind, the finance and administration committee said all subsequent exemption requests will be dealt with after May 30, and after landlords have obtained a licence. As laid out in the bylaw, the requests will then go to a hearings officer who will allow input from neighbouring residents.

The landlords estimate it could take up to two months for them to have their properties inspected, receive a licence, request an exemption and go through the hearing process.

In the meantime, many have students in limbo waiting to hear how many bedrooms the homes will have before deciding whether to sign a lease for the coming school year.

"It's not fair to the students," said landlord Phil Pfeiffer, who spent about $30,000 adding extra bedrooms to his Dalhousie Street home in the summer of 2006. "I have a group waiting to rent from me and I can't tell them anything right now."

Licensing applications will be available this week at www.oshawa.ca.

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