Canada: An Opening For Respectable Landlords
An increasing number of ‘horror stories’ are emerging from Canada of neglectful, cost-cutting and even criminal landlords taking advantage of inexperienced students and giving student landlords in cities like Toronto and Ottawa a bad name.
In freezing cold temperatures there are reports of landlords waiting weeks before repairing faulty heating systems, leaving students to survive in terribly cold conditions, sometimes with no running hot water. One story emerged in Ottawa of a group of students living in below freezing temperatures, studying in the kitchen with their oven door wide open to secure at least a little heat. Shocking as stories like that are, they aren’t entirely uncommon.
A large part of the problem is that students are inexperienced in dealing with such situations, and all too often they merely accept that it is all part of the student experience; living in bad conditions with awful landlords. Increasingly though, especially in the UK and other countries these standards aren’t acceptable anymore, and competition in the student housing market has led to better living standards.
Canada needs to make it easier to challenge dodgy landlords in the short term, so that students feel it is worthwhile pursuing a case against a bad landlord. To appeal or complain to the Landlords and Tenants Board can take up to two months, and even then the system can be complicated and time consuming.
Benjamin Reis, a lawyer with the University of Toronto student legal clinic, says it’s the whole system that isn’t in great order and needs reform. “Really, penalties need to be more significant,” he says. “Right now I’m not really sure that a landlord has sufficient reason or incentive to inform themselves about the law and abide by it in the first place.”
There are numerous other issues with the system, all of which need to be reformed to ensure that good landlords’ reputations in Canada aren’t tarnished by the actions of a few. A more effective way of removing bad and criminal landlords from the market though is to increase competition and to allow for rulings against bad landlords to be made public.
Firstly, increased competition will give students more choice of accommodation. A better standard of student housing will always win the day, and bad landlords will either have to improve their standards or face losing student tenants. But that needs to be helped along by rulings against dodgy landlords being made available to the public. This way, students can see what kind of record and standards their prospective landlord has. This will ensure that honest, professional landlords have the upper hand in the market, and landlords who think it is worth taking the risk of arbitration above maintaining reasonable standards will suffer.
Developers and student property managers should see the situation in Canada as an opportunity. Lobbying for reform and attracting new students to superior accommodation will present a number of opportunities for prospective landlords. Meeting the student demand for good accommodation and good property management is just good business.