As part of our “Let’s Improve the Ontario Rental Industry” we have invited landlords and tenants to share their opinions on how we can make these improvements. These opinions are from individual contributors and are not the opinions of the Ontario Landlords Association. We believe by fostering communication between landlords and tenants we can improve the Ontario rental industry

You Can Make Sure You Get Fast Repairs By Just Calling Your Local By-Laws Department Directly And Reporting Your Landlord

Sorry I’m not a professional writer or anything but people here encouraged me to share my story to help other tenants. There have been lots of great tenant posts that have helped others like How Ontario Tenants Can Easily Break a Lease, so I’ll try.

Second, this has nothing to do with all the good landlords out there who care about their tenants and make sure their rentals are safe.  This is just about the bad landlords.

I’m a single mum renting a place. As a single mum having a clean and safe property is a priority for me. So when I saw black mold in the bathroom I needed to act to protect my kids!

I called the landlord on Saturday night and texted 5 times and got no reply!

Even by Tuesday no reply, that’s 4 days of potentially poisoning my child!

I went to the Ontario tenants forum and asked others what to do and they said call the by-laws department directly and there is no need to even talk to your landlord because every city and town has laws for maintaining safe houses and tenants can call by-laws directly.

Landlords must follow the law!

By-Law Officer Was Professional And On My Side!

The by-laws officer came the next day and I asked her to do a huge, complete inspection of the rental house to protect me and my kids and she agreed.  She saw the black mold.

But it didn’t end there, as the Officer inspected the entire rental property! 

I was so happy to have help and protection for me and my family! She also found a lot of other issues (wiring, insulation) and even found the shingles were not up to code!

The by-laws officer said she would send a letter to the landlord demanding things get fixed or the landlord would be fined thousands of dollars. The landlord was also given a firm date to do the repairs, so they couldn’t “play games.”

A week later the landlord contacted me and gave me a schedule for lots of contractors to come to fix the mold and all the other issues.

I said “NO! You need to follow MY SCHEDULE or I will call the By-Law Officer again!” 

My landlord agreed fast, because he was worried that I was a smart tenant who knows my rights and he can’t treat me like crap or I will call the by-laws department again!

Tenants if you have any problems don’t even waste your time to call your landlord.  They are cheap and stingy and don’t care about you and your children at all!

Don’t waste time…call the by-laws department directly and they will come, you let them in, and you show them all the potential problems.

Then, the fight is between by-laws and your landlord, not you and your landlord.

And landlords get scared when the government is involved and will respect you and fear you for know how to protect your rights! They also know if they get fined the government will collect it.

Tenants Can Call By-Laws Directly And They Will Force Your Landlord To Make Repairs Or Get Charged Thousands of Dollars

Good landlords who take care of their rental properties don’t need to worry. But if you have a bad landlord you can call by-laws directly and make your landlord scared and obey your every command!

How Can You Contact Your Local By-Laws Department? 

Just call your city or town. And ask the receptionist to put you through to “the by-law department”.  It’s easy and they are excellent!

Ontario Tenants – Bad Landlords Are Out There But You Can Protect Yourself!