Windsor opts against citywide rental licensing, approves education and enforcement strategy

For Canadian renters, it may feel like the years since the COVID-19 pandemic have brought one hit after another. A for rent sign is displayed on a house in Ottawa on Friday, Oct. 14, 2022.

Windsor council is moving away from citywide rental licensing in favour of proactive enforcement, education and outreach aimed at improving conditions in rental properties.

Council approved the new approach Monday, which is expected to include at least two dedicated bylaw officers, targeted enforcement in problem areas and information packages outlining the rights and responsibilities of tenants and landlords.

The program is expected to launch in spring 2027 and will eventually help the city develop a centralized registry of rental properties.

“This is the first step in a multi-year plan,” said Craig Robertson, Windsor’s manager of licensing and enforcement.

“It’s going around and letting tenants know, ‘Here’s what your rights are, and if there are issues here, we’re going to get them corrected.’”

Citywide licensing deemed too costly

The strategy offers an alternative to the licensing model tested in Wards 1 and 2 between 2023 and 2025.

The pilot required landlords of applicable rental properties in those wards to obtain licences and pass inspections intended to improve housing and fire safety.

The licensing bylaw has been held in abeyance since council received the pilot’s preliminary results in April 2025.

According to administration, expanding the program citywide could require 34 additional full-time employees and cost approximately $4.37 million annually for staffing alone.

A mature citywide program could involve approximately 7,000 annual applications at 50 per cent participation, requiring a minimum annual licensing fee of $625 to recover those staffing costs.

About 600 licences were issued during the pilot, but Robertson said the city did not have enough capacity to begin renewing them.

“We didn’t have the capacity to even do renewals,” he said. “That 600 took over two years to get licensed because they wouldn’t get their licence unless they passed their inspections.”

Instead, the city plans to assign at least two bylaw officers to proactively visit neighbourhoods with known rental and property standards concerns.

“We may be spending more time in a particular ward than others, but we have to look at rentals as a whole — not just student rentals,” Robertson said. “It’ll be rentals citywide.”

The city receives between 12,000 and 14,000 yard and property maintenance complaints annually. However, administration said a previous proactive enforcement campaign showed many violations are never reported.

During the 2025 “Walk In Your Ward” campaign, officers identified 1,033 private-property violations. Only 10 per cent had previously been reported through 311.

More than 60 per cent were resolved within 24 hours of a notice being issued.

“A lot of people either don’t know about it or they don’t feel comfortable calling on their neighbours,” Robertson said. “Put that burden on administration and our enforcement staff.”

The first phase of the new program is also expected to include information packages explaining safe and lawful living conditions, how tenants can report concerns and the obligations landlords have under fire, building and property standards rules.

The report says the material could be distributed in multiple languages through the University of Windsor, St. Clair College, housing organizations and other community partners.

Over time, confirmed or suspected rental properties will be entered into a centralized registry. The city has also raised the longer-term possibility of a public rating system for properties vetted through inspections.

Concerns remain about accessing homes

Several councillors questioned whether the new strategy would adequately address unsafe conditions inside rental properties.

Ward 6 Coun. Jo-Anne Gignac said exterior violations such as tall grass and garbage are significantly different from unsafe conditions inside a home.

“Dirty yards and piles of wood accumulating are much different than an interior where individuals are living that doesn’t meet the requirements for the height of rooms, functioning showers or a number of other issues,” Gignac said.

Robertson said a rental licence does not automatically give bylaw officers permission to enter a private home. Even during the pilot, tenants sometimes declined entry, requiring the city and landlords to pursue other legal mechanisms.

“Whether you have a licence or not, that piece of paper doesn’t allow you inside the home,” Robertson said. “The paper just adds red tape. We’re looking at doing something a little more proactive.”

He added that licensing may fail to capture some of the properties the city is most concerned about.

“A licensing program is only as good as the people who are coming in to apply for the licence,” Robertson said. “A lot of the homes that we desire to capture, that are that bad, will likely go underground.”

Gignac said she was disappointed to see the pilot disappear without certainty that the new strategy will provide effective enforcement tools.

“The pilot project was a hard fight,” she said. “It kind of breaks my heart to see it disappearing, not knowing that we’re going to have effective tools to address the concerns that we’ve had for years in this chamber.”

Ward 9 Coun. Kieran McKenzie raised concerns about tenants who may fear consequences if they report unsafe conditions.

“It’s really hard to report on your landlord,” McKenzie said.

Council directed administration to report on existing tenant protections and any additional measures that could be implemented by the municipality or would require advocacy to the province.

Ward 2 Coun. Frazier Fathers also successfully requested that the program’s results be broken down by ward and compared with reactive 311 complaints.

“This is a positive first step — and I emphasize first step — in the right direction,” Fathers said.

He urged administration to roll out the program quickly.

“I just really want to emphasize to administration the need for speed on this, because there are folks waiting and there are people at risk in the community,” Fathers said.

Ward 1 Coun. Fred Francis put forward the motion council ultimately approved.

“Would you consider this a success or a failure? I don’t know how to answer that — maybe somewhere in between,” Francis said of the pilot.

“But the fact that we were able to highlight over a thousand violations tells us that there is an issue. That’s clear as day.”

After one year, administration is expected to report back on outcomes, data quality, compliance and further options, including whether a mandatory registry or another model should be considered.