Solo Board’s Submissions at the “More Homes Built Faster Act”

Good Afternoon Madame Chair and Legislative Committee members, my name is Rose Marie and I am the Vice Chair for SOLO – Small Ownership Landlords of Ontario

A wise man built his house on the rock.  A foolish man built his house on sand. We, small property investors, align with what the government needs. We provide 49% of rental housing stock in Ontario. We are the bedrock of rental housing but have received no support or protection. How will the Province build homes for the current population, incoming immigration forecasts and support the international student population while ignoring their current bedrock of rental housing providers? The foundation is crumbling and SOLO – Small Ownership Landlords of Ontario have suggestions on how to fix it.

The first step is legislation reform – particularly Section 59 of the Residential Tenancy Act regarding non-payment of rent and the policies surrounding timelines, minor errors and appeals to resolve an issue. There is no reason that a property owner should wait 8 to 16 months without rental payments. This is the number 1 critical fail of the current system.

Secondly, not being able to make minor changes such as including the word “basement” or “Lower level” on an N4 form or if you transposed a number that said 341 when it should say 314. These changes can be made in superior court but cannot be made for a Tribunal process?

To give you an idea of the losses incurred by property owners over the last three fiscal years, here are some stats that were tabulated based on the stats from Tribunal Ontario’s annual reports.

In the fiscal year 2020 – 2021 rental arrears were 856 million this number were COVID-19 shut down losses.
In the years 2019-2020 the rental arrears were 1.4 billion, And in the years 2018-2019 losses were 1.6 Billion

We did a quick poll yesterday called – How many doors have you closed? 85 Landlords from various cities across Ontario responded. They have closed 182 doors as a direct result of no support or protection from the current Residential Tenancy Act legislation and policies that exacerbate the delays for access to timely justice. These are properties where families or individuals could be residing in but currently remain empty. Why are they empty? Because we have been ignored, civilly defrauded in the tens of thousands of dollars per owner and the delays to resolve our issues are currently an 8 months’ wait, however, the non-payer has a right to appeal any decisions which can take non-payment or criminal issues to 16 months or more. The system has forced some property owners to live in garages, lose their properties and mental health in addition to being defrauded of tens of thousands of dollars, while the Department of Justice has 2.3 billion in unspent funds. Some of these funds could have been used to compensate property owners for their losses or hire more staff. However the most cost-effective solution is legislative reform.

I have a quote from a Kingston landlord, “The atmosphere in Ontario is very anti Landlord. I quit.” Please do not take this quote lightly, thousands have decided not to continue in the rental housing industry. They’re saying #Imout.

When considering legislation for Bill 23 please remember and include protection for your current stakeholders, the small landlord is the bedrock of rental housing in Ontario. Please also consider the constituents of each municipality. There is the fear that removal of the “red tape” and “current approval processes” will cause municipal taxpayers higher taxes. If you can guarantee that the current tax base will not be financially impacted, yes, a plan to create more housing is a good idea. There is also the concern that developers will not be able to produce housing that is ‘affordable.’ You can legislate protections or homes will sell at market rates and will be “unaffordable.”

When you can convince the decision makers, Ministers Steve Clark, Doug Downey, Merilee Fullerton and Peter Bethenfalvy to implement legislation reform to the RTA then you will have a foundation to build on. They and their policy advisors are the ones who can initiate the needed changes.

Thank you for your time.

Good morning Madame Chair and members of the standing committee,

My name is Varun Sriskanda. I am a landlord in Markham, a real estate agent at RE/MAX Royal, a member of the board of directors at SOLO, a property manager and an advocate for Ontario’s rental housing sector.

We are in a housing crisis in Ontario. This means it’s no longer something we just need to be mindful of. That time has past. Now is the time for real action.

In the news, we see stories of University students living in homeless shelters because they can’t afford the rent on a 1-bedroom apartment close to campus. Hard-working families who need to choose between making rent on time or paying their other bills. Home owners that are struggling to choose between mortgage payments and the water bill. And hotels that have been converted to a makeshift homeless shelter. 

We need more of everything. More long term supportive housing options so the Delta Hotel in Scarborough doesn’t have to serve as a shelter. More purpose-built rentals that are designated rent geared towards income. Combine that with the need for countless more affordable housing units where rent is 70-80% of market rent. 

One of the most under-represented sectors of housing in Ontario are Small landlords. Small landlords who provide a significant amount of safe, clean, legal and affordable rental units to hardworking families. Landlords like myself are happy to keep buying properties across the province and leasing them out. By doing so, we increase Ontario’s rental housing stock and reduce the overall cost of leasing a similar unit in that area. Ontario for the most part has depended on small landlords to contribute to increasing Ontario’s rental housing stock. Most of the purpose-built rentals that dot this city were built before the 80s.

Many small landlords are also small developers. They own properties that are currently zoned single family homes. We need to speed up the legalization and conversion of these properties to duplexes, triplexes or into legal rooming houses. A single-family home in Scarborough can cost close to $2500 a month to rent. That isn’t affordable. But if divided into 2 or 3 units, we can make 1 house more affordable and accessible to more families.  Small landlords currently provide a significant amount of Ontario’s rental housing stock. A little over 40% of the rental units are owned and operated by a “mom and pop” housing provider. 

Small developers don’t have the sophistication to quickly see a project from planning to handing keys to a tenant. That process typically takes 5-7 years and involves a number of legal hurdles, pricey development fees and the risk of being shot down at council for minor reasons which can easily be overcome – minor issues like fence lines, trees and the location of driveways and patios. I believe Bill 23 is going to eliminate some of these hurdles and expedite the construction of purpose-built rentals.

While Bill 23 does a lot to tackle many of the problems that are preventing us from meeting our housing goals, it falls short of addressing the challenges with being a landlord in Ontario. Bill 23, if passed, is certain to increase the number of small landlords in Ontario. We are not in a situation where the current LTB can handle more volume. We should be cautious about increasing Ontario’s rental housing stock if we have no solid place in eliminating the backlog entirely. Currently housing providers in Ontario are waiting 10-12 months to evict a defaulting tenant. We need to bring that number down to 30 days, failing which we are only going to contribute to the backlog and make things worse.

In principle, I support Bill 23. I support creating more housing options for hardworking families that keep Ontario moving. This bill needs to do more to protect the current small mom and pop housing providers while encouraging new ones. There is currently little to no incentive for someone to keep their home and offer it as a rental property versus listing it for sale with their realtor and cashing out. Every day we are seeing Ontario landlords leave this province for Alberta or even the U.S.  We need that to stop. Let’s keep building homes for Ontario families while encouraging investors to remain in the province.

Madame chair those are my submissions. I thank the committee for this opportunity.