Dear fellow landlords,
Many of you are aware the City of St. Catharines has recently begun an initiative opposing student housing units with more than 4 tenants residing within.
Items to be implemented during this initiative are:
1) Notices requesting inspection of student rental properties due to “anonymous complaints”
2) Work orders with:
a. Threats/fines in excess of $50,000
b. Demanding eviction of any number of students above four
c. Demanding costly renovations such as, increased fire separation, HVAC retrofit, basement walkouts, installation and enlargement of windows, hardwire smoke alarms etc.
3) Modifications of current by-laws to accommodate the self interested City agenda
The City has compiled a list of more than 450 of these suspected student homes, with the list continuing to grow every day. With the recent by-law changes and public comments by City officials in the local newspaper, the City has continued to gain momentum with this initiative. The City’s pattern of taking advantage of well-intentioned, but uninformed landlords continues. There are many legal discrepancies in the Cities reasoning and justification for these initiatives. Yet these actions continue to intimidate individual landlords into compliance.
This needs to stop. We as landlords need a unified front.
We would like to invite anyone who owns a rental property in St Catharine’s or Thorold to join our association so that the landlord’s perspective will be heard and addressed. In doing so we hope to contribute to these issues through a strong unified voice and work towards a solution for all. If you have received an inspection letter/order, or if you are simply concerned about this initiative, please contact us at nshainfo@gmail.com.
We look forward to working collectively towards united landlord representation
Kind Regards,
The Niagara Student Housing Association
Many of you are aware the City of St. Catharines has recently begun an initiative opposing student housing units with more than 4 tenants residing within.
Items to be implemented during this initiative are:
1) Notices requesting inspection of student rental properties due to “anonymous complaints”
2) Work orders with:
a. Threats/fines in excess of $50,000
b. Demanding eviction of any number of students above four
c. Demanding costly renovations such as, increased fire separation, HVAC retrofit, basement walkouts, installation and enlargement of windows, hardwire smoke alarms etc.
3) Modifications of current by-laws to accommodate the self interested City agenda
The City has compiled a list of more than 450 of these suspected student homes, with the list continuing to grow every day. With the recent by-law changes and public comments by City officials in the local newspaper, the City has continued to gain momentum with this initiative. The City’s pattern of taking advantage of well-intentioned, but uninformed landlords continues. There are many legal discrepancies in the Cities reasoning and justification for these initiatives. Yet these actions continue to intimidate individual landlords into compliance.
This needs to stop. We as landlords need a unified front.
We would like to invite anyone who owns a rental property in St Catharine’s or Thorold to join our association so that the landlord’s perspective will be heard and addressed. In doing so we hope to contribute to these issues through a strong unified voice and work towards a solution for all. If you have received an inspection letter/order, or if you are simply concerned about this initiative, please contact us at nshainfo@gmail.com.
We look forward to working collectively towards united landlord representation
Kind Regards,
The Niagara Student Housing Association