Hello Ward 8 Neighbours,
A two-year pilot project to license rental landlords around McMaster University and Mohawk College in Hamilton has been approved by planning committee, setting the stage to start the pilot project by this fall.
Rental licensing will help to ensure that property standards are enforced in Ward 8 and that all Ward 8 residents are able to live in legal and safe rental units that meet all regulations.
As the Ward 8 Councillor, I would like to offer my sincere appreciation to the residents of Ward 8 for their advocacy on this issue, the Ward 8 tenants who spoke in favour of licensing and the Mohawk College Students and the Mohawk Student’s Association who worked with residents to ensure that rental licensing was successfully approved – and previous Ward 8 Councillor Terry Whitehead who has been working towards the implementation of rental licensing for more than a decade.
Ward 8 Councillor John-Paul Danko
On August 6, Councillors Danko and Maureen Wilson (Ward 1) issued a press release where they stated they were jointly committed to immediately implement the proposed Rental Housing Licensing by-law with a full cost recovery fee so that all expenses are paid by landlords and not City taxpayers. Originally, City staff had moved to delay the implementation until 2023.
At the August 10 planning committee meeting, members voted unanimously in favour of the motion raised by councillors Danko and Wilson to start the Rental Housing Licensing Pilot project this fall.
The pilot project by-law will require rental business owners (landlords) to licence their rental units. Licenses will only be granted if the rental units fully comply with the Ontario building code, fire code, electrical code, parking requirements, room size and layout and all other regulations.
In order to be licensed, landlords will be required to submit their properties to interior and exterior inspections by the City (currently, the City cannot enforce violations unless inspectors are invited into a unit).
The scope of the proposed pilot project (starting on page 310) by-law would include “buildings identified under the zoning verification as having a recognized use of single-family dwelling, two-family dwelling, three-family dwelling, semi-detached dwelling and multiple dwellings containing four dwelling units. All secondary dwelling units existing or created in the pilot project area that are for rental purposes will also be included.”
The pilot project will be tried out in Ward 1 and Ward 8, as well as a section of Ward 14 whose wards compromise McMaster University and Mohawk College.
The planning committee’s vote will be up for ratification at the full council meeting on August 13. The final bylaw, implementation plan and fee schedule will be set by the planning committee at their September 21 meeting. The full cost of the rental licensing pilot will be recovered through licensing fees charged to landlords.
For a full scope of the landlord licensing by-law: https://pub-hamilton.escribemeetings.com/FileStream.ashx?DocumentId=279990 (starting at page 310).
Questions or concerns?
If you have any questions or concerns, you can contact our office here.
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