A group of landlords contesting the city\u2019s new residential rental licensing bylaw is appealing a recent court decision<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A judge tossed their case last month, but the landlords feel they have a case for the decision to be overturned, saying the judge made errors in law<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis bylaw is poorly thought out. It’s poorly implemented, and it’s illegal in our opinion,\u201d said Borys Sozanski, who heads up the group Windsor Housing Providers. \u201cThat’s why we’re challenging and that’s why we’re appealing it because we believe that we have grounds for a solid appeal of this case.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sozanski, a Windsor property owner, says the licensing bylaw that\u2019s currently in the midst of a two-year pilot phase is redundant and costly<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is not reasonable and the fees will never go down,\u201d he said. \u201cBureaucracies never become more efficient. They get more bloated, they get out of control. And that’s exactly what’s going to happen here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The licence fee when applying is $466 dollars. Annual Renewals cost about half that<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Sozanski argues the various inspections run that tab above $1,000 per unit<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat’s outrageous. A lot of these small operators and small mom and pop owners of properties are already not making ends meet,\u201d said Sozanski<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The intent of the bylaw is to bring rental units in wards 1 and 2 in compliance with building and fire code<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt’s extremely disappointing to learn that there’s an intent to appeal,\u201d said Ward 2 Councillor Fabio Costante<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He points to early data from the pilot program, which shows code compliance from early registrants is below 40 per cent<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Costante is concerned the repeated litigation is affecting the city\u2019s efforts to run a successful pilot<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe litigation has cast a large shadow over this pilot project,\u201d Costante said<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The councillor, who was instrumental in the creation of the bylaw took to Facebook Tuesday, calling the appeal a \u201cstall tactic to avoid the RRL pilot project altogether.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt does beg the question of is there more that’s being protected here, not just the claim that these fees are too high per year,\u201d Costante said, adding he will be asking council to recover all costs associated with litigation so taxpayers aren\u2019t stuck with the tab<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sozanski believes the landlords will prevail and is trying to keep the pilot program from rolling out city-wide, which he says will raise everyone\u2019s rents even higher<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese costs of licensing will get passed onto the tenants and that’s very unfortunate, because tenants are struggling to make ends meet as it is,\u201d Sozanski said<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The appeal will be filed within a few weeks<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A group of landlords contesting the city\u2019s new residential rental licensing bylaw is appealing a recent court decision A judge tossed their case last month, but the landlords feel they have a case for the decision to be overturned, saying the judge made errors in law \u201cThis bylaw is poorly thought out. It’s poorly implemented, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":26638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"","format":"standard","video":"","gallery":"","source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"topbottom","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"1","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"jnews_post_split":{"enable_post_split":"0","post_split":[{"template":"1","tag":"h2","numbering":"asc","mode":"normal","first":"0","enable_toc":"0","toc_type":"normal"}]},"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n