Chair’s message Two years ago, ACORN and some “progressive” City Councillors made a big push to bring in landlord licensing in the City of Ottawa. Other Ontario cities have landlord licensing (or registration), which requires an annual fee for each rental unit, City inspections, an application to get a license, and a lot of paperwork and records. EOLO opposed landlord licensing and prevented it from being adopted for Ottawa. Therefore, Ottawa landlords do not need to pay the City any fees to operate rental property. However, the City decided to require landlords to take some new actions and do some new paperwork, and enacted the Rental Housing Property Management By-law (the “RHPM By-law”). Key new requirements are explained below. - John Dickie, EOLO Chair
Ottawa’s new Rental Housing Property Management By-law requirements The RHPM By-law will come into force in the City of Ottawa on August 31, 2021, just over four months from now. The new rules seek to avoid and solve the problems caused by miscommunications between tenants and landlords. However, the by-law will add to the administrative obligations that all residential landlords have. To find the by-law, search “Ottawa” and “Rental Housing Property Management”. The by-law addresses five areas: • Pest control • Keeping a “capital maintenance plan” (for most buildings) • Procedures for managing and recording tenant service requests • Recording tenant requests for assistance • Providing an information package to tenants This article will focus on pest control and keeping a capital maintenance plan. An article in the next issue will address the other three areas of new regulations.
Capital maintenance plans The new requirement to keep a capital maintenance plan will apply to: • A residential rental building with 10 or more rental units other than a townhouse or rowhouse • A building that contains two or more residential rental units, which is three or more storeys in height
Under section 3 of the RHPM By-law, owners of those buildings must create and maintain a capital maintenance plan (CMP) listing and addressing these capital elements which exist at the building: • Accessibility features and equipment, for common entrances and areas • Building-wide electrical distribution systems • Plumbing for the building, such as risers and stacks • Fire escapes • Elevators • Mechanical systems (furnace, boiler, and AC units provided by the landlord) • Roofs • Exterior cladding • Balconies and balcony railings • Parking structures The CMP must be kept in an electronic format. That could be Excel, any other spreadsheet, Word, any other word processing software, or specialized computer software. For each of the capital elements, the capital maintenance plan shall: • Identify the capital element • Record the date of last inspection • Describe the condition, including any deficiencies, witnessed during the last inspection • Describe any required remedial action, such as refurbishment or planned replacement, and the anticipated time period during which this action will occur
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