A Toronto city councillor is pushing for a tougher response to landlords who cheat their tenants. According to CBC News, the councillor wants to see more Toronto landlords being criminally investigated if they defraud the people who rent from them, arguing that some of the worst behaviour by landlords currently goes unpunished by the justice system.
The frustration behind the idea is straightforward. According to the account, Councillor Josh Matlow said that for some reason, when tenants are defrauded out of their own homes, nothing is done. It is that gap between the harm tenants describe and the lack of consequences for landlords that his proposal is meant to address.
His plan focuses on the officers who already visit rental units. According to CBC News, Matlow has filed a motion to look into making bylaw officers more proactive when inspecting rental units, so that they can gather documentation of suspected crimes and bring it to police, particularly in cases where landlords illegally evict their tenants.
At the moment, those officers are not tasked with that kind of role. According to the account, RentSafe officers are not currently asked to hand over evidence they come across, even if a tenant tells them about problems with their landlord. Under Matlow's idea, an officer who picks up such evidence would be expected to pass it along so that it could be acted on.
Landlords can, in some circumstances, end up behind bars. According to CBC News, the landlord of a historic apartment building was sentenced to 15 days in jail and a hefty fine, showing that criminal consequences are possible. That case, however, was for fire safety violations rather than fraud, a distinction that goes to the heart of why the councillor says change is needed.
Proving fraud is a far more difficult undertaking. According to the account, one lawyer noted that the landlord and tenant board was created to deal with these kinds of cases, and argued that the system does not fund fraud matters as a general rule and lacks police officers, prosecutors and judges who specialize in them, making convictions hard to secure.
The proposal has also run into questions about jurisdiction and practicality. According to CBC News, a Toronto police spokesperson said most landlord-tenant disputes fall outside their jurisdiction, and some industry players have called the councillor's idea unrealistic, setting up a debate over how far the city can go in treating landlord misconduct as a criminal matter.