Toronto just unveiled a new proposed bylaw to curb renovictions. Here’s what it includes

Toronto city staff have unveiled a proposed bylaw aimed at deterring landlords from evicting tenants in bad faith under the guise of renovations. 
If adopted by city council, any landlord who wants to force out tenants to undergo property facelifts will be required to apply for a special licence from city hall within seven days of handing out eviction notices. 
The Rental Renovation License would cost $700 per unit and require a landlord to already have a building permit, according to the staff report released Wednesday for councillors’ consideration. Under the proposal, a landlord would also require a report from a “qualified person” — such as a licensed engineer or architect, depending on the work being done — to verify the renovation or repair work is extensive enough to require an empty unit.
Tenants or other interested parties would then be able to track progress on any renovation that displaced tenants via a searchable online registry. 
Rule-breakers would face the threat of tickets for less serious offences or court summons for more severe cases, with the available fines as high as $100,000. Staff have recommended that affordable, public and supportive housing sites be exempt from the new bylaw, given the city already has more oversight.
If approved by council, the new rules would take effect July 31, 2025.
“Those landlords that are using renovations as an excuse to evict people, you can’t get away with it now,” Mayor Olivia Chow told reporters in a briefing.
The proposed bylaw has been in the works since earlier this year, on the heels of a rule shift in Hamilton aimed at tackling the same problem. Hamilton approved its bylaw in the spring, which also requires landlords to apply for a city renovation licence within seven days of giving their tenants an eviction notice. Their new oversight model was set to take effect Jan. 1.
Across Ontario, a rising number of tenants have accused their landlords of giving them illegitemate eviction notices, citing reasons such as personal use and renovations. The practice of improperly turfing tenants for repairs has earned the moniker of a “renoviction,” which city staff also adopted for their proposed bylaw.
A Star analysis earlier this year looking at two official processes meant to punish and deter bad-faith activity like renovictions found landlords breaking the rules are often handed far milder punishments than are available. 
Several observers, in response, suggested that punishments weren’t enough to deter bad-faith activity, and argued a need for more preventative action. Toronto-Danforth Coun. Paula Fletcher was among those proposing that Toronto follow in Hamilton’s footsteps with a new renovation permit system.
It wasn’t a perfect solution, Fletcher had argued, noting cities still couldn’t compel landlords to prove the validity of own-use evictions, where a landlord says they or their family members need to move in. But she saw the bylaw as a necessary step to protect tenants displaced for the reason of repairs and renovations.
While stressing there are fair reasons to allow landlords to remove tenants for such actions, she worried the rules were increasingly being exploited to bring in higher-paying tenants. “They’ve now become loopholes.”
Fletcher lauded Toronto’s proposal, arguing in a statement that bad-faith evictions only worsened the city’s affordability squeeze. “Profit-driven renovictions reduce our supply of affordable housing, displace tenants and drive up the price of housing,” Fletcher wrote. 
Toronto’s recommended rules would require landlords to detail a plan for housing any displaced tenants planning to exercise their right to return to the unit when renovations are done. That could mean offering a temporary, comparable unit at a similar rent, or a monthly rent gap payment based on “post-2015 average market rents.” All tenants would also have to be offered a moving allowance, and “severance compensation” if they choose not to return.
An accommodation or compensation plan, signed by the affected tenants, would have to be submitted to city hall as part of their landlord’s application.
While city hall says available data makes it hard to predict how many applications they’ll receive — with available data on eviction cases only counting those where a landlord files for a hearing at the Landlord and Tenant Board — its plan for extra staffing is based off an estimate of 160 cases.
Once the city issues a licence, the landlord would be required to post a city-issued tenant information notice on the door of the tenant’s unit within five days, and provide a photograph of it to city hall within two weeks.
“Toronto Building will be actively monitoring building permits on units where renovation licences have been issued to support the timely completion of work and facilitate the ability of tenants to return to their rental unit as quickly as possible,” the report adds.
The idea, as outlined by staff, was to balance efforts to address “the misuse of renovations as an excuse to evict tenants” with the valid need for renovations and repairs within Toronto’s “often aging, existing rental housing stock.”
The report will be considered by city hall’s planning and housing committee next Wednesday, and if passed, will then go to council for final approval in November.