A group of landlords who are challenging the city's new Residential Rental Licensing program is appealing a recent court decision, and one local councillor is disappointed.
A judge ruled in favour of the pilot program in wards one and two at the end of April, but the Windsor Housing Providers Inc. is now appealing the ruling according to President Borys Sozanski.
Ward 2 councillor, Fabio Costante, says while he's disappointed in this decision, he's not necessarily surprised.
As AM800 News reported in April 2023, Windsor Housing Providers Inc. filed an application in Superior Court to temporarily halt the implementation of the residential rental licensing bylaw.
The licence fee when applying is $466, and annual renewals cost $275. But Sozanski says the various inspections would end up costing above $1,000 per unit.
Sozanski says this there is already a by-law in place, and this program is not needed.
"We're all for them enforcing the current by-law at the provincial level, and at the building code level, and the fire department level. There's no need for this RRL, this is a massive bureaucracy they're creating, this is absolutely massive."
But Costante, says this is to ensure that all units are safe.
"All the RRL is designed to do is to ensure that these inspections happen, that folks get registered just like any other business has to get registered in our community, and that the inspections happen on a regular basis to make sure that folks that are living in these units are living in safe units."
Sozanski adds there is a number of costs involved aside from the licensing fee.
"There's the HVAC inspection, there's a fire inspection, there's background checks, that's going to be well over $1,000 for a unit. If you have a mom and pop that have a duplex, they're paying over $2,000 a year for licensing fees, which doesn't make the property any safer because the city can already go in and inspect the property."
The ward 2 councillor says the rental rates that are being charged now far exceed any previous charges.
"It appears to be a very profitable business at that, and so what we're asking is very reasonable. At the very high end, $475 for the initial registration and inspection fee, when you divide that over 12 months, it's very nominal."
Meanwhile, the President of the Windsor Housing Providers Inc., says this program will be devastating for new development.
"This tax - let's call it what it is, it's a tax on tenants - this tax will apply to all new rental housing. This is outrageous. The Province of Ontario, the federal government, is giving money to provide for more housing to be built. This is going the exact opposite direction, this is not an incentive for builders to build."
Costante says there are two sides to the coin as new development is needed, but the current units need to be up to code first.
"The one side is, without question, includes the supply of housing. And it's all types of housing at all ends of the spectrum, it could be deep affordable, to affordable, to market rate, to more luxury homes - all of the above is needed. But then there's the other side of the coin which is ensuring that the units that currently exist are at least, at the very minimum, up to building and fire code."
The appeal will be filed within a few weeks.