A Residential Rental Licensing by-law has had some words changed for clarification.
During Monday's meeting, council voted in favour of minor housekeeping amendments to the by-law that was passed in mid-February.
The amendments were smaller changes to clarify parts of the by-law, or remove unnecessary wording from certain sections, as part of administration monitoring for opportunities to improve the by-law.
The by-law is part of a two-year pilot study where owners of properties in wards 1 and 2 that contain four or fewer units are now required to secure a residential rental licence for each rented unit.
As of Monday afternoon, only 500 applications have been filed in the three months since the by-law passed.
On April 24, Windsor Housing Providers Inc. filed an application in Superior Court to temporarily halt the implementation of the by-law, and will be going to court on November 27, 2023 with a city representative for the case.
The Windsor Housing Providers Inc. group has raised over $80,000 for city lawyers to fight the case.
WHPI tells AM800 News that their lawyer had reached an agreement with the City of Windsor yesterday around 3 p.m. regarding the Residential Rental Licensing Bylaw.
They say that no property owner is required to obtain a license until at least the decision of the injunction hearing results of the November court date.
Fabio Costante, Ward 2 councillor put the motion forward to approve the recommendation.
He says this by-law is not new, and council has been working towards this for four terms now.
"All that's being asked here is that we ensure that properties are adhering to minimum legislative standards. There's no legislation that's being created, this is provincial legislation, the Building Code and Fire Code already exist, they've pre-existed the RRL [Residential Rental Licensing] and they're enforceable. All we're doing is providing a proactive regime to ensure that units are up to code."
The cost for the licence would be $466 for the first year and $275 for renewals.
Costante says at the end of the day it's not about the fee, but landlords being exposed.
"We have a sub group of landlords who have raised upwards of $80,000. If I were to divide that by the $466 fee, that's an extra 171 new houses, new properties that could be registered. I divided that by $275, that's 290 houses that could be registered. So this is not about the fee guys, we've got to be honest, this is not about the fee. This is about being exposed on inspection."
Jim Morrison, ward 10 councillor, says this by-law is in place to make local housing safe.
"This is about safety and not about anybody making any money, anybody trying to pay extra fees, this is a process to make housing safe for a lot of people that wouldn't come forward, that don't know the laws."
Al Teshuba, Owner of Performance Property Management, says he wanted a motion from council to pause this by-law until the Windsor Housing Providers Inc. went to court.
"I'd love to see somebody say 'you know what, let's make it clear, not just if you know about the legal aspect of it but actually make it clear, let's not enforce, let's maybe make it voluntary. Let's maybe just have a pause to maybe do a study'. How many people actually applied out of the 4,000 units. What exactly is being required?"
Tori Jenkins, Staff Lawyer with Legal Assistance of Windsor, says she understands both sides but that the licence is in place to keep everyone in the city safe.
"We have an opportunity here and a responsibility to respond and ensure that we provide safe, adequate, and secure housing for our citizens. That's the job of city council is to ensure that everyone is safe and secure. We do that with our policing, we do that with our business by-laws, we have the opportunity to do that as well when it comes to housing."
Additional information and links to application forms and supporting documents are available on the City's website by clicking here.