Guelph's New Renoviction By-Law Explained.

[00:00:00]Guelph passed a brand new bylaw on June 10th. If you're a landlord in this city, pay attention here.

[00:00:07]It's called the rental renovations licensing bylaw, and it was approved by council on June 10th. The target here is renovictions, which is when a landlord files an N13 notice to its tenants to remove them claiming major work needs to be done to the home, only to relist it again later that same year for a much higher rent rate. This comes on the heels of N13 notices doubling last year, and since 2020 over 500 families have been displaced from their homes. So, council finally said, "Enough."

[00:00:37]Here's what changes if you own a rental property in Guelph. From the moment you serve your N13 notice, you have 7 days to file for a renovations license. And you can't even get your license until you have your building permits and a report from either an architect or an engineer claiming that the work is so extensive that the tenant genuinely cannot stay. The licensing fee is $650 per unit. And if your renovations last longer than 12 months, you have to reapply. So, this is not going to be a straightforward or simple process.

[00:01:11]Most people in Guelph have no idea that this just happened. So, if you're looking at a rental property in Guelph, specifically something with more than one unit, it's going to be very important to understand your tenant situation and what the cost of doing a future reno is going to be to execute legally. Your due diligence checklist just got a little bit bigger.

[00:01:31]Enforcement hasn't started yet. The city is still in rollout mode with an eye on September for these things to take effect. So, if you've got a future renovation in the pipeline, you still got a little bit of time to get ahead of it. But once the rules kick in, they apply immediately.