The RentSafe initiative approved by Council in 2017 is one of the most comprehensive, progressive, and rigorous municipal tenant protection initiatives in North America. The new multi-residential apartment by-law was the result of years of hard work with local tenant advocates and city-wide organizations, including the Federation of Metro Toronto Tenants’ Associations, ACORN, Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario, as well as community legal clinics.

Unfortunately, the City has yet to deliver on many crucial measures that Council promised to Toronto renters. That's why Councillors Josh Matlow and Kristyn Wong-Tam joined tenant advocates to demand that the following components of RentSafe must be implemented at the November 26, 2019 Council debate:

• - Apartment rating system similar to the City's "Dinesafe" program requiring landlords to post a colour-coded sign that displays the City's rating in a prominent, publicly identifiable location, along with posting the same information to the City's website.
• - Standard operating procedure to provide tenants and Municipal Standards Officers with codified, transparent timelines for how long landlords have to remedy specific property standards violations. eg. guardrail needs to be fixed in 30 days, graffiti removed in 10 days, etc.
• - Limit time extensions at Property Standards Committee as the Committee has far too frequently granted extensions for landlords to complete necessary repairs or to remedy other property standards violations. Council directed that extensions be limited to extraordinary circumstances.
• - Administrative Monetary Penalties allowing Municpal Standards Officers to levy increased set fines

Please Fill out the form below and click on the resulting link to send an email to your Councillor. Your voice is needed to support Toronto's tenants.