Two Thorold residents are fed up with the boom of rental properties in their neighbourhood — which they say have led to neglected front yards, heaps of garbage and rat infestations.
“It’s been slowly getting worse and worse and worse,” says Craig Cameron, while taking ThoroldToday on a tour of some of the worst offenders in his neighbourhood. “The landlords aren’t taking care of their properties.”
Cameron points to a nearby student house that keeps leaving heaps of garbage by their side door.
While he praises the city’s by-law department for diligently showing up every time he calls, it hasn’t stopped the students living in the house from collecting trash in their yard.
“It’s repeat offenders,” says Cameron. “They should fine them even more. I would like them to enforce what they have a little bit better.”
All Cameron can do is leave out traps for the rats, which he says have started to show up on his property as a result.
Cameron has been living off of Collier Road for 39 years and he has slowly seen his neighbourhood transform throughout the last few years.
“They are bragging about how big Thorold is going to get but they’re not ready for it,” he says. “They've got to be ahead of this stuff, not trying to catch up.”
Luckily, Cameron has found a sympathetic ear in his neighbour John Cooze, who has also diligently been calling the city’s by-law department to try and improve the neighbourhood.
“What we want is for us not to have to call the city every time the grass needs to be cut,” Cooze tells ThoroldToday. “It’s up to the city to do something about this.”
According to Cooze, dead mice keep turning up in his pool because nearby properties are left to decay.
“We need the owners of those houses to continue to keep their place up nicely without us having to bother the city all the time,” he says.
To deal with issues surrounding rental properties, the city instated a Residential Rental Licensing (RRL) program a few years ago.
If a landlord wants to rent out his property he first has to obtain a license from the city, which is valid for two years.
According to City Hall: “It helps educate landlords and tenants on the existing by-laws as well as minimum health and safety requirements for rental properties.”
If a landlord is found to be in violation of any by-laws, the city can hand out penalties.
“Fines do accumulate accordingly,” writes City Hall, in a statement to ThoroldToday. “Penalties are typically issued to landlords on a monthly basis. The City has the authority to issue a $700 penalty each day, however, staff limit the penalties to monthly, unless compliance becomes a significant issue.”
If a landlord is repeatedly found to be in non-compliance they “could lose their license, however, the City has not revoked anyone's license to date.”
City Hall also adds that “the City's RRL Program is currently under review for opportunities to strengthen enforcement and compliance.”
As for Cooze and Cameron, they just want landlords in Thorold to take a little bit more pride in their properties.
“If the owners were responsible then we wouldn’t have to worry about it,” says Cooze.