Renoviction bylaw would be costly, City of Ottawa feasibility report says

Some other Ontario cities, including Hamilton, Toronto and London, have approved bylaws to prevent renovictions

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Published Jan 09, 2025  •  5 minute read

The tenants' rights group ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) displays banners from the sidewalk on an overpass above Highway 417 in Ottawa's west end on Thursday to draw attention to the "renoviction" bylaw issue. Photo by Jean Levac /Postmedia

A city staff report has recommended against adopting a renoviction bylaw In Ottawa, arguing that it would be costly and that provincial legislation could soon supercede any bylaw.

The 19-page report acknowledges that it was “highly probable” that unlawful evictions were happening under the pretext of renovation and that there was harm caused when tenants were forced to leave their homes.

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But more education and legal supports would provide the most benefit to tenants more quickly and without added costs and risks, said the report signed by Ryan Perrault, the city’s general manager of emergency and protective services,

Last May, city staff were tasked by city council with producing a feasibility study of a renoviction bylaw.

Some other Ontario cities, including Hamilton, Toronto and London, have approved bylaws to prevent renovictions, a term is used to describe the actions of landlords who evict tenants — ostensibly to renovate rental properties — but later replace the evicted tenants with new tenants who pay more, failing to meet the legislated requirements to allow the original tenants to return.

In Ontario, evictions are covered under the Residential Tenancies Act, which governs how and when evictions can legally occur. The Landlord and Tenant Board resolves disputes about tenancy. A tenant who is being evicted to allow for renovations receives a notice called an N13.

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), a tenants’ rights group, Landlord and Tenant N13 data it acquired showed that renovictions in Ottawa had surged by 545 per cent since 2017, displacing numerous tenants and worsened the housing crisis. 

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This week, ACORN is staging three “banner drops” at Ottawa highway overpasses to draw attention to the bylaw question.

Sara Laviolette, ACORN’s Vanier chair, has lived in a two-bedroom basement apartment in a house divided into three apartments for the past two years. The single mother of a 16-year-old daughter with a disability, she pays $1,600 a month for rent.

In November, Laviolette received an N13 notifying her of plans to demolish the house and replace it with more expensive rental units.

“I was being demovicted,” she said.

Laviolette has a hearing before the Landlord and Tenant Board in February. She has scoured the market for another apartment and has found that other two-bedroom units start at $2,100 a month. She has searched as far afield as Rockland, Embrun and Winchester and found that a two-bedroom apartment in those areas would cost $1,800, plus utilities — and there would be the additional problem of commuting time and uprooting her daughter from her support system.

Laviolette was disappointed by the conclusions of the city staff report. A bylaw would help prevent low-income tenants from becoming homeless, she said, but she also notes that problems crop up even for middle-income tenants.

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“A lot of landlords are looking for income that’s triple rental cost. That’s $6,000-plus a month.”

The Hamilton bylaw, the first in Ontario, came into effect on Jan. 1. Among other measures, a Hamilton landlord must apply for a renovation licence within seven days after issuing an N13 notice to a tenant. The licence fee is $715.

As part of the licence application process, a Hamilton landlord must provide a copy of the building permit as well as a report from a qualified engineer confirming that work requires the tenant to vacate.

Hamilton estimates it will spend spent $942,850 a year enforcing its bylaw, including $906,000 for eight new staff members, $26,850 to operate three vehicles and $10,000 for annual outreach, education and communications, plus an additional $163,575 to buy the three vehicles.

Ottawa has 1.8 times Hamilton’s population and 1.9 times the number of rental units. A similar bylaw in Ottawa would cost $2.2 million a year, the staff report said.

City staff argue there hasn’t been enough time to learn how such a bylaw would play out. New Westminster, B.C., initiated a renoviction bylaw in 2019 and repealed it in 2021 after the British Columbia government changed its legislation to include more protections for tenants.

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There are pending amendments to Ontario’s Residential Tenancies Act aimed at preventing bad-faith evictions for both N13 and N12 evictions. (N12 notices are issued for personal reasons, such as when a landlord claims a rental unit is needed for an immediate family member.)

The legislative amendments are not yet in force.  

There are risks for the city in introducing a bylaw, the staff report added. Greater scrutiny on N13 evictions may result in more applications for N12 evictions. If there’s a cost for a renovation licence, that could stifle necessary renovations and repairs to rental stock.

According to City of Ottawa figures, N12 notices have increased from 277 in 2020 to 505 in 2023, while N13 notices increased from 41 to 104 over the same time span.

John Dickie, chair of the Eastern Ontario Landlord Organization, said the staff report’s conclusions were sensible. 

“(The report) pointed out that this whole area is under provincial jurisdiction and the province has enacted reforms,” Dickie said. “There’s no free lunch. If council wants to do this, they will have to raise taxes or not do something else.”

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A November 2019 file photo of John Dickie, chair of the Eastern Ontario Landlord Organization. He concedes the numbers of N12 and N13 notices in Ottawa have increased in recent years, but maintains they’re a very small number compared to the city’s 130,000 rental units. Photo by Errol McGihon /Postmedia

While he concedes the numbers of N12 and N13 notices have increased in recent years, they’re a very small number compared to the city’s 130,000 rental units, Dickie said.

“I don’t think there’s a lot more renovation happening. I think it’s come to the public’s attention because tenants have had a difficult time finding a place to move to.”

Laviolette disagrees that only a small number of renters are affected. ACORN has heard from 330 people in the past six months who have received N13 notices, she said.

No matter what the percentage of N13 notices to total rental units is, renovictions represent a tremendous amount of stress to real people, said Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper, chair of the city’s planning and housing committee.

“Renovictions continue to be a problem in Ottawa. We see spurious renovictions that cause stress and financial harm to tenants,” Leiper said.

Meanwhile, there’s no guarantee that amendments to the provincial Residential Tenancies Act will become law, Leiper added.

In Hintonburg, there have been a number of vacancies created through renoviction notices, Leiper said. The city’s vacant unit tax has spurred redevelopment, but the harm to the original tenants continues.

The needs of tenants have to be balanced against the need to do major repairs, Dickie said.

“We have had cases where tenants were screaming that a building was a rat hole. And, at the same time, they were refusing to move out (for repairs). The landlord was between a rock and a hard place,” he said.

The staff report will go before the city’s planning and housing committee on Jan. 15. No vote will be taken then, but a member of the committee could bring forward a motion or a notice of motion to direct staff to craft a bylaw.

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