The Ontario Court of Appeal has dismissed a court challenge against the City of Windsor's residential rental licensing pilot project.
The court released its decision Tuesday that it was dismissing an appeal filed by Windsor Housing Providers Inc.
The appeal was launched after the Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled in March 2024 that the city's residential rental licensing bylaw was valid and dismissed an application launched by Windsor Housing Providers Inc. to temporarily halt the implementation of the measure.
WHP, a group representing hundreds of area landlords, had argued the bylaw was passed in bad faith.
The residential rental licensing program was launched in February 2023 as a pilot study aimed at improving safety in rental housing units and enhancing the enforcement of property standards.
Ward 2 Councillor Fabio Costante is pleased with the ruling and says there are exploitations of rentals happening in our community.
"This is something that has been a tough issue in the ward that I represent," he says. "Frankly, I think it's an issue that has spread throughout our city, whether it's downtown or in many pockets of south and east Windsor. I think we're seeing it all throughout our city."
Costante says in many, many neighbourhoods, complaints are not coming in when it comes to units that are not up to building and fire codes.
"Having some form of proactive regime to inspect, collect data, and know where our landlord community is and specifically where our renter community is and ensuring that those units are up to code fills a necessary gap in the system, and that's why I've been a strong proponent of this since day one," he says.
Costante says this certainly strengthens the city's resolve to move forward to enforce against units that are not up to building and fire codes.
"Making sure that tenants are safe and then collecting data that's going to come out of this pilot project to determine next steps for the council to determine whether or not it wants to roll out RRL citywide or determine next steps more broadly," he says.
The pilot program is due to expire later this month.
Once the program expires, city council is expected to receive a report on the study and potential options for moving forward.
Vice-President of the Windsor Housing Providers, Joseph Papic, says they will meet with their attorney on Wednesday to discuss the next steps in the process.
Papic says the Windsor Housing Providers had no concerns with inspections.
"Current bylaws, there's almost 20 bylaws in place right now that address property standards. This is just one more layer of bureaucracy that we don't really need," he says.
Papic says they felt the program was arbitrary, but now they have to see if this will be city wide.
"They can't continue to operate a pilot as they have. They've collected the data; they've operated the pilot for the two-year period. Now it's up to them if they will go citywide, but it's a very, very large undertaking," he says.
Under the pilot program, a residential rental license is required for each rental unit in wards 1 and 2.
The license costs $466 for the first year of the program and then $275 for yearly renewal.