Dear Doug Ford
I am a housing provider in South Western Ontario. I mostly love what I do. I have some very special long term tenants paying very low rents. I would like to continue to house them as we have great relationships but I am being pressured by the expenses to house them that are increasing faster then the rents. I also, when a vacancy occurs, give new tenants, the opportunity to move in and live in my properties. I have to choose carefully because when I make a mistake, I and my great tenants may literally suffer for a year or more before a sheriff can give us some relief.
If I could change one thing, it would be the cruel barbaric system that allows my tenants and myself to be preyed upon without relief for months without knowing when we will have a decision passed down that allows us that precious order. Twice so far, I have had to go to the Landlords and Tenants Board (LTB) and the Ombudsman to get decisions because they passed the sixty day legislated time limit. This was after a 5-6 month wait for a hearing date. One was a decision upon consent that gave the tenant at my expense 60 days to leave. The order was sent 65 days after the 60 days agreed upon and I had to spend the dollars for the sheriff as well as wait an additional 14 days for him to act. It was brutal and served no good purpose. This residence was a rooming house and the situation was so toxic that words fail me.
During the process, another tenant saw this and too decided to stop paying rent and let his behavior spiral into a similar line. He knows he won’t have to leave for months, possibly even for up to a year. There is no accountability. I and my family will fix what is broken, we will put the house and our good tenants back together again, we do what’s right because our elected officials do not have the sense to create legislation and a system that is just, fair, and timely. These gaps of revenue prevent me from renovating more then needed, from providing laundry facilities onsite that would make it easier for my aging tenants, consequences that could require them to lose their self sufficiency earlier.
I already know that my children will not follow in my footsteps and do what I do because they have seen my struggles. Please change the system and make it easier for small landlords to be housing providers. Otherwise, create a new system and house these people yourself, Doug Ford. You are the leader of the province of Ontario. You have it in you to make it great! Listen to me and the people who voted for you. Spend that 19,000,000 dollars that you pledged to clean up the LTB backlog. Housing providers like myself are not the natural enemy of good tenants, the indifference of a great leader to a broken system that he has the ability to fix is.
We have given you a majority government. You can pass legislation and hold your employees responsible to rule and pass those rulings down swiftly. I live in the greatest country of the world. You can make Ontario the greatest province in the greatest country. In fact, if you do, and if you decide to run for federal office, you will have my vote for that too.
PLEASE, hear my plea. Don’t make us wait any longer for the swift justice we need to help our fellow citizens with their housing needs.
Ann Tambur
Housing Provider in Ontario
