SOLO board member Varun Sriskanda appeared on the John Oakley Show Thursday to talk about the Ford Government’s recent announcement regarding renovations and own-use evictions. The announcement ushered in more onerous restrictions on housing providers who might wish to undertake renovations or take back the use of their properties for the use of family. Also included in this announcement was the plan to double the number of Ontario landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) adjudicators. Varun spoke to Arlene Byron about this news and more.
“When you heard this announcement from the Ford Government, what were you thinking? How does it affect what you do?”
“Well, the first thing that I heard is that the Ford Government is finally going to increase the number of adjudicators and immediately start hiring more, which I have seen them advertising it on their website. That’s fantastic. I think it’s a step in the right direction. I have clients waiting ten months just for their date in court, which is ridiculous. Ten months of no rent, while you have to pay the mortgage and all the expenses – so definitely a step in the right direction. But there’s still a lot more work to do. I don’t believe this is going to be enough to tackle the backlog that has been built by the Ford Government.”
Arlene then asked, “When you say ‘by the Ford Government,’ what do you mean?”
“Well, the Ford Government was the one who stopped residential evictions in the pandemic – that created a backlog and it created an environment where tenants were encouraged to not pay rent because there was zero consequences. You could not be evicted. As a result, you created the backlog that we now have. You took a system that was already falling apart, because even pre-pandemic landlords were still waiting close to four, five, six months for a hearing date. And you made it even more, and now we’re waiting up to a year.”
Arlene then mentions the idea that housing providers may be undertaking so-called renovictions in an effort to “just charge more money,” she asks Varun what he thought of this.
“I have heard anecdotal stories of a small number of landlords engaging in that behaviour, and that’s wrong. We do not encourage that at all… renovictions should be illegal. We take great pride in providing housing to hard-working Ontario families.”
“Are you saying the majority of people asked to move are for legitimate renovations?”
“The majority of applications I see are for L1 applications – non-payment of rent. Or an N12 situation where landlords just want their own house back. I’m really concerned that this is going to harm innocent landlords that just want their own property back.”
“What can be done at the LTB to improve things?”
“I think you need to assess what type of landlords are doing that. So, if you have a situation where a landlord owns seven properties and he’s claiming that he wants to move back into one – now that sounds questionable to me already. Out of seven houses, why do you need to move back into this one? A situation of a landlord that owns one house and wants to take over his basement, he needs to be treated differently at the board. He should not have to wait in line to kick that tenant out. It’s the same line, it’s the same wait time as the guy who owns seven houses… There needs to be some common sense at the Landlord and Tenant Board.”
Varun then discusses how the increase of adjudicators is a welcome change, but “the current adjudicators need to finish up their work a lot quicker. I have a client who is waiting 60 days just for the written decision. What’s the point of hiring more adjudicators if the current adjudicators aren’t even doing their job?”
To hear the interview on AM640, see below:
To hear Varun’s appearance on the Kelly Cutrara Show, please see below:
