Rental registry bylaw passes first reading at council

The proposed bylaw would require all rental housing units in HRM to be registered by April 1, 2024

CITYnews halifax \ Meghan Groff

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Halifax Regional Municipality is moving closer to establishing a registry of rental properties.

The proposed bylaw — which passed first reading at Halifax council Tuesday — would require all rental housing units in HRM to be registered by April 1, 2024.

This includes large and small apartment buildings, income properties, single room occupancies, secondary and backyard suites and short-term rentals.

Halifax South Downtown Councillor Waye Mason said this is about making sure buildings are meeting minimum standards.

“We’ve had people jacking up buildings without a permit, putting in an illegal basement suite, not putting fire-rated drywall, not being worried about having a secondary egress so if the place is on fire, people can get out,” Mason said.

“This is a real and present danger. These things actually are happening in our community.”

In addition, the property owners would need to provide a maintenance plan to ensure the upkeep of the building.

The bylaw would also include the ability to conduct “proactive” inspections. Currently rental properties are only inspected when a complaint has been filed by a tenant.

Dawson Patterson, HRM’s acting manager of building standards, explained older buildings would be the priority as recently constructed secondary and backyard suites meet modern regulations.

“There’s a gap in the one-to-three unit range where our fire safety regulations don’t specify any type of routine or proactive inspections, when you’re less than four residential units, and we want to target that group with our older building stock,” he said.

“Buildings that we’ve never been in. Buildings that have never seen current fire and life safety measures.”

Those not in compliance would face fines ranging from $150 to $10,000 “depending on the type and recurrence of the offence,” a staff report said.

“Staff will work with rental property owners to help bring rental properties in compliance with the new rental registry in an expedient manner and will only issue fines should rental property owners show unwillingness to comply,” the report added.

The staff report proposes the registry could also provide valuable information on the rental landscape in HRM.

Spryfield – Sambro Loop – Prospect Road Councillor Patty Cuttell suggested that data could help council make important decisions down the road.

“I also see the importance of this registry in us being able to understand what our housing stock is and … figuring out how we might, in the future, incentivize more rental if that’s needed or more home ownership if that is needed,” she stated.

Rental property owners would need to fill out an online form including information like the address and description of the property, contact information of the owner, details on the property management operator and proof of insurance.

There would be no fee to register and it would only need to be done once, unless there’s a change in ownership or a major alteration, like the addition of units.

The municipality’s director of infrastructure planning for HRM, Peter Duncan, said one reason for not charging to register is that additional fees tend to get passed on to tenants.

“Also we were cognizant of the need to incentivize actually signing up and registering,” he explained.

Prior to Tuesday’s council meeting, ACORN held a rally outside city hall to highlight the benefits of the rental property registry.

“This landlord registration bylaw would be a big win for tenants,” said Halifax Peninsula ACORN chair Hannah Wood in a news release.  “By passing this bylaw city council will be able to show HRM tenants that the city takes the issue of healthy, decent, and maintained housing seriously.”

“There has been a severe power imbalance between tenants and landlords for too long. Landlord registration is a significant step towards leveling out that imbalance.”

However the head of the Investment Property Owners Association (IPOANS) told CityNews Halifax, he feels the current bylaws are sufficient to deal with bad landlords, it’s enforcement that’s missing.

“Nobody wants an unsafe building. There are existing bylaws that aren’t properly enforced and everybody knows it,” Kevin Russell said. “But instead of addressing the enforcement issue, council and staff spent all this time working on a registry.”

“A registry doesn’t make a lick of difference and there hasn’t been any meaningful recent consultations [with property owners.]”

Councillor Mason said, even though no recent discussions with IPOANS about the registry have been taken place, the property owners he’s talked to have told him “I’m tired of competing with people who aren’t meeting minimum standards.”

Mayor Mike Savage said most landlords in HRM are great and he doesn’t want them to face any unnecessary burdens, but he also doesn’t believe this registry will be “onerous.”

“l don’t think this is a threat to most of the landlords in HRM,” he said. “I think there are some that need to have a bit of an eye kept on them.”

“It’s not licensing, it’s not charging a fee,” he added. “It’s not a new concept, it’s been used in lots of other cities.”

Council ended up voting 15-1 in favour of the registry, with only Lower Sackville’s Paul Russell against the idea.

He cited the financial implications section of the staff report that states, “The full impact of the adoption of the rental registry by-law is difficult to assess, however it is anticipated that the development of the rental registry as well as a focus on proactive building inspections will require the need for additional staff.”

It’s thought the 2023/24 budget will need to include $170,000 in funding for two full time employees. By 2024/25, two additional staff members would be needed, for a total cost of $340,000 a year.

“We know who the bad landlords and the good landlords are, generally speaking, and we are simply looking to build a list of them,” Russell stated.

“I just don’t see the justification for spending the money for this.”