Dear Sir/Madame;…

   Dear Sir/Madame;

 I am the Landlord of several units in Richmond Hill and one in Newmarket.  I have found it incredibly frustrating that Richmond Hill will not recognize the separate rental of secondary units in a house whereas in Newmarket, North York, Toronto and other places, legal basement apartments are readily accepted by the municipality.

  I understand there may be some progress underway about loosening up these regulations across the province.  Might the government consider grandfathering those with a second unit (i.e. making them legal) whose unit is already in place as of 2017?

  I understand from Hon. Moridi: "During consultations on the RTA, the province heard concerns about some small landlords who abuse the landlord’s own use provisions to evict tenants for various reasons, such as to raise rents, convert the units into short-term rentals, etc."

  Being a Landlord now for over 16 years, it's been my experience that the Landlord is more frequently "abused" than the tenants.  In 16 years, I've never evicted any tenant for "personal use." However, I have my own horror stories, as do many Landlords, about abusive tenants who refuse to pay rent or utilities, and severely damage property; there is no recourse for Landlords.

  Perhaps the Government should consider a provision to protect Landlords too since we play a critical role in lessening the burden in Ontario around housing needs.  I propose that the government consider the following regulation: A tenant can be IMMEDIATELY EVICTED if the tenant has not paid  a minimum of 80% rent within the last 2 months AND has not paid 100% rent in the past 4 months.  This would give the tenant 4 months to get  completely caught up.  In addition, there should be no Sheriff's fee or wait time to evict someone.

  I hope this is constructive feedback.

[Original Comment ID: 209288]