Guelph committee moving forward with potential vacant home tax and renoviction bylaw

The City of Guelph may be considering a vacant home tax and a renoviction bylaw. CTV’s Colton Wiens reports.

City councillors in Guelph, Ont. is considering more options to tackle housing issues.

On Tuesday, Committee of the Whole unanimously voted to move ahead with a vacant home tax. Vacant home taxes are municipal taxes that can be issued to the owner of an unoccupied residential building. The province gave single and upper tier municipalities the ability to impose the tax on vacant homes in March 2024. The taxes are already in place in Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton, Windsor and Sault Ste. Marie.

“Some people that do need to feel this tax as an opportunity to motivate them to not continue to sit with these properties, many in very derelict conditions, and get them to actually be used for housing for people,” Guelph Mayor Cam Guthrie said.

City staff believe approximately 30 homes in Guelph are currently vacant.

It is expected to cost around $300,000 to implement the tax. Owners would be charged 4 per cent of the home’s assessed value if the property sits vacant for more than 183 days.

“Those funds would be dedicated to go into an affordable housing reserve, to actually go towards building more affordable housing in the city,” Guthrie said.

In Toronto, Hamilton and Ottawa, homeowners are required to annually declare if someone is living in their unit. Instead, Guelph is considering a complaint-based approach to avoid administrative burdens for property owners and staff.

The committee also approved a potential renoviction bylaw on Tuesday to protect tenants from landlords who renovate units with the intention of kicking out current renters so they can re-list the unit at a higher rent cost.

“The renoviction bylaw will start to weed out those bad faither actors of landlords,” Guthrie said. “Council is united on this issue because we do not want people to lose their homes and find themselves in precarious housing situations where they cannot afford anywhere else to live.”

The cities of Kitchener and Waterloo both took steps earlier this year to explore potential renoviction bylaws.

Housing experts say landlords have been abusing a notice system in an attempt to force renters from their homes. A N12 notice is issued when a landlord says they need the unit as a primary residence for themselves or a family member. An N13 notice can be issued because a landlord wants to demolish, repair or convert a unit.

According to the Legal Clinic of Guelph and Wellington County, N12 and N13 notices are extremely common in the city.

“Our clinic saw a 245% increase in N13s from 2020 to 2025 and are on track to see over 280 units (housing over 500 people) impacted by N13s by the end of this year,” Stephanie Clendenning, executive director and lawyer at the Legal Clinic of Guelph and Wellington County said in an email to CTV. “This is only the tip of the iceberg as these numbers only capture those who contacted our clinic for help. There are so many more that do not reach out as the current provincial legislative framework is so deficient that many renters do not stay and fight.”

Clendenning said a renoviction bylaw is essential to close the loopholes that currently exist within the residential tenancy agreement.

“While we strongly feel that the provincial government should step up and address the issue, we cannot afford to wait any longer,” Clendenning said in the email.

Both the renoviction bylaw and vacancy tax are expected to be discussed by council at its next meeting on Nov. 25. Guthrie would like to see the vacancy tax implemented as soon as possible and the renoviction bylaw implemented by early next year.