Advertisement

Kingston city council set to vote on landlord licensing motion

Click to play video: 'Council set to vote on Landlord Licensing motion'
Council set to vote on Landlord Licensing motion
WATCH: A new motion from city council would make it easier for the city to maintain housing standards – Dec 20, 2022

Sydenham district city councillor Conny Glenn hopes her motion set to go to council will improve the housing landscape in Kingston.

“It’s just about providing housing but it’s also about good housing,” said Glenn.

The first term councillor says the idea for the motion came to her while campaigning in the fall municipal election.

“I was hearing reports of infestations and black mould, there were steps that were unsafe to go up,” said Glenn.

The motion, if passed by council, is intended to make it easier for the municipality to inspect rental properties.

For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.

Get breaking National news

For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.
By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

“It allows us as a city to get in and do an inspection beforehand,” said Glenn. “Right now, in order to inspect, it’s complaint-based.”

Story continues below advertisement

Details are still being discussed, but it would require landlords to be licensed in order to operate rental properties.

Robert Melo is the president of the Kingston Residential Rental Property Owners Association and questions how effective the licensing proposal would be.

“Licensing is just another hurdle that we have to deal with as landlords,” said Melo. “Based on all the studies that we’ve done it doesn’t work, it doesn’t accomplish what they want.”

Melo says he would rather landlords work with the city to address housing standards issues.

“That cooperative effort will save the taxpayer a lot of money, and actually get done what they are looking for,” said Melo.

Glenn says if her motion gets the nod of approval from the rest of council, staff will be directed to look at the feasibility of rental licensing and report back to council in about a year.

Sponsored content

AdChoices