Howard Is Howard...We Need To Learn To Live With It

Howard's licence revoked

Moscoe's plan to regulate landlords will be replaced by new audit and enforcement program

By SUE-ANN LEVY

Within weeks of being appointed to head the new licensing and standards committee in December of 2006, Coun. Howard Moscoe -- the man who would licence anything that moved if he could -- threatened to target Toronto landlords.

The over-the-hill publicity hound was so hellbent to make his mark regulating landlords -- and charging steadily escalating fees to do so -- he told anyone who'd listen last year that under his scheme apartments would be graded based on the shape they're in and those judged badly in need of repair would be charged an annual fee of $400 per unit.

"It's the sleazy landlords I'm after," Mr. Tough Talker mused last year.

(OK, OK ... I'll bite my tongue about sleazy politicians.)

The months went by and we heard nothing.

But I'm pleased to report the new head of municipal licensing and standards department, Jim Hart, has put the kibosh on Moscoe's costly, bureaucratic excuse to punish and tax all landlords.

The no-nonsense Hart, who took over as executive director of MLS four months ago, announced yesterday that instead of a licensing scheme, a new Municipal Licensing and Standards Multi-residential Apartment Building (MRAB) audit and enforcement program will commence Dec. 1.

That program -- operated by a team of 12 MLS officers with a background in building audits -- will proactively inspect 176 rental (private and social housing) buildings determined to be the most in need of repair by the end of 2009. That compares to the 14 inspected to date this year.

Four buildings, with six units or more, will be selected from each ward based on complaints and will be put through extensive audits of their structure, mechanical and electrical systems and even where they store their garbage. All buildings to be targeted will be plainly posted on a new website.

Hart noted the plan -- which goes to the mayor's handpicked executive committee next Monday -- is to also create a mobile office that will address tenant concerns with specific units.

NO 'NEW COSTS'

He made it clear there will be no "new costs" to set up this program -- the officers and their coordinator will be "redeployed" from existing MLS staff. He said he intends to address their burgeoning workload -- created by a number of new bylaws -- by filling some 40 vacancies that still remain open.

The only charges to landlords will be a reinspection fee if they don't comply with city orders by the third visit -- $60 for the actual visit and $60 per hour for every hour city staff need to remain to inspect the building.

"This is a priority ... we need to move on it," said Hart of the plan, noting he'll come back in a year with options that may include more fees to landlords but licensing will "not be one of the options."

Asked why not licensing, Hart said if a landlord has 10 buildings and only one is in disrepair, they'd have difficulty trying to decide whether to take away his license to operate one building or the entire portfolio. He added taking away a license could end up pushing vulnerable tenants out on the streets.

"I've had the opportunity to explore all the options and I've come to the conclusion we don't need landlord licensing to get fees from landlords," insisted Moscoe.

Hardly. I have no doubt that Hart, with whom I've always been impressed, quickly recognized this kind of scheme is a bad idea as a slowdown in the economy looms, and his department already has the tools to clamp down on bad landlords but haven't used them.

"I think we should have been doing this for years ... it's time we started," Hart conceded.

Gloria Salomon, whose company owns and manages 1,300 rental units in Toronto, called the plan "really good common sense" seeing as it targets bad landlords and not everyone.

"They (city officials) didn't get into the issue of enforcement as much as they could have in the past and if they want to do that now, we're happy with that," she said. "The licensing scheme was impractical ... it didn't make any rational sense."

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Dollars and sense: After some prodding, I've finally learned the city spent a not-too-shabby $1.2 million on services for the 900 tenants of 2 Secord Ave. after a Toronto hydro vault exploded in the basement of the 21-storey apartment complex on July 20. Some $953,000 alone went to housing and food.