Managers of eight-unit buildings with health or safety issues could face hefty and repetitive fines under the City’s future mandatory “responsible owner” certification, which should come into effect next year. They will also have to disclose the rent for their rental units.
The administration of Valérie Plante unveiled Tuesday the details of this certification, which was among the electoral promises of the head of Projet Montréal within the framework of the first 100 days of her mandate. It will apply to around 250,000 dwellings in some 12,000 buildings in the metropolis.
In order to obtain this certification, which will be renewed every five years, the owners concerned will have to prove that each of the rental units in their building is not confronted with a significant presence of mold or vermin or even safety issues, especially regarding its structure.
Landlords will also have to provide the rent for each of their units when obtaining this certification and indicate which ones are vacant and which are occupied, as well as the size of these units. This information will be available online, likely as open data, as will the certification status of owners subject to it.
Fines
Obtaining this certification being mandatory, owners who neglect to obtain them or who lose it following the visit of inspectors to their building may be subject to hefty fines which may be applied repeatedly, if necessary. For natural persons, these will vary from $250 to $625 for a first offense and from $1,250 to $2,500 for a repeat offense. For companies, these fines will vary from $500 to $1,250 for a first offence, an amount that can go up to $5,000 for a repeat offence. These fines will apply per dwelling and each visit by the inspectors, when violations are observed on site.
Moreover, the managers of several apartment buildings will have to obtain certification for each of them. Public bodies, such as the Office municipal d’habitation de Montréal, will also be subject to this regulation. Recalcitrant owners could also lose access to certain financial aid from the City dedicated in particular to the renovation of housing.
However, this certification will have to go through several stages before coming into force. In particular, it will be the subject of a resolution at the municipal council meeting next month before being the subject of public consultation and recommendations by the Commission on Economic and Urban Development and Housing of the City. Formal changes to the City’s regulations will then come into effect in the first months of 2023, the City anticipates.
The City considers that it is in buildings with eight or more dwellings in which there are the most unsanitary problems in the metropolis, hence the decision to limit the application of this certification to these.
More details will follow.