What homeowners can do to avoid rooming house blues

Yorkregion.com
Aug. 28, 2015
By Laura Finney

If someone buys a home in your neighbourhood and turns it into a rooming house, is there anything you can do?

That’s a question many homeowners in Markham, like their neighbours across York Region face and, to some degree, they can get the city to take action, even if officials’ powers are limited by legislation.

“We can’t tell you how you can live in your house, in most ways,” says Chris Alexander, acting manager of bylaw and regulatory services with the city.

Alexander said changes to the planning act in 1994 meant officials could not distinguish land use based on relationships between the people who lived in a home.

“You can have up to 10 people living there, if you put in extra bedrooms, provided you don’t put any locks on the doors,” he said. “As long as you get a building permit.”

Once locks are placed on a door and it can be locked from the outside with a key it is considered a dwelling unit, he said.

Still, neighbours are often not happy about the situation.

Concerns include security, parking, safety, privacy and property value.

Alexander said many complaints come from residents who have not actually been inside the suspected rooming houses, and officials want to make sure they are careful to validate complaints before contacting homeowners.

“Our biggest challenge is gaining entrance into the house,” said Alexander.

Qiwen Wang is the owner of a house in the Warden Avenue and Denison Street area that has been the subject of complaints.

Neighbours said Wang had put up walls in the living, family and dining rooms, added more rooms in the basement and had numbers placed on all the new doors.

At one time most of the front yard had been turned into a parking area using interlocking brick, a neighbour says.

Wang said he and other family bought the home for his mother because she liked the area, and he admitted to adding new rooms on the main floor to help cover the costs of the home.

“We thought maybe we can live upstairs and rent out the rooms downstairs,” he said.

He said although he does not live in the house some of his family, including his mother, does. “I don’t make that much...Maybe I can afford the house like this.”

He said he was unaware it was illegal because in other places in the GTA allow rooming houses. Although some places require licensing.

“I just graduated from university, for two years I don’t have much savings,” he said.

“I just want my parents to live better that’s why I do all this work. I didn’t know it would create this much trouble.”

In January a bylaw officer went to the home and removed all the locks off the bedroom doors at Wang’s house.

Wang said he also had to evict their tenants in the basement because basement apartments are illegal, if built after November 1995.

Alexander said there are a number of challenges the city faces when trying to get access into these homes to ensure bylaws are being followed.

“Everyone’s house is their castle...and gaining access is very much protected under our rights,” he explained. “So it’s difficult for us to get in. We’re not trying to avoid our responsibilities. We’re trying to respect the rights of the individuals, but at the same time obviously investigate what it is the concerns are.”

He said they use the definition from the Fire Code for a rooming house.

When lodging is provided for four or more people for remuneration, or for provision of services, it is considered a rooming house.

Alexander said it can be difficult to prove there is remuneration because tenants are not always cooperative.

Alexander said homeowners are permitted to make changes to their own homes, including converting rooms perhaps built for one purpose into another use.

Wang argued there is a need for rooming houses in Markham and the surrounding area.

Many of his tenants are people who work or go to school in Markham, and cannot afford housing close by.

“Some people are spending two hours on the road because they couldn’t find a rental unit nearby,” he said. “The students, they can’t afford a house.”

And with the York University campus coming, Wang said the demand for dwellings like rooming houses will increase.

Alexander agreed.

“What you will see...if you look at all the other municipalities that have post secondary locations, is that the number of rooming houses, second suites does escalate because of the affordability,” he said.

Still, others say there can be a stigma attached to a rooming house being on your street.

A few years ago a fire in another Markham rooming house in the city nearly took the life of a teenage boy. A woman was found dead in another Markham rooming house driveway. A man and woman have since been charged with murder.

In the meantime, the rules in Markham might be soon changing.

Right now Alexander said there are about 42 parent bylaws for rooming houses with there are different rules for different locations.

The city is conducting a comprehensive review and looking at changes to the zoning bylaw. One of the issues will be rooming houses and second suites, he said. A council report is expected this fall.

Additionally Bill 140, or the Strong Communities through Affordable Housing Act, looks at the need to introduce affordable housing in Ontario municipalities, he explained.

“One way in doing that is obviously through second suites or basement apartments as well as other kinds of shared accommodations,” he said.