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Landlords may have to cool their London apartments as city council considers forcing property owners to lower temperatures as summers grow hotter.
For landlords that do not have air conditioning in their buildings, city hall may also force them to add it, states a report heading to city council’s community and protective services committee.
City councillors will discuss a maximum temperature bylaw at the committee meeting next week that would require apartments that have air conditioning kept below 26 C. But the city also wants to strike a subcommittee that will study forcing landlords to add air conditioning to apartments that don’t have it now.
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“I think the purpose of air conditioning is to keep temperatures below 26 C, or else what is the purpose of having air conditioning? “ said Ward 13 Coun. David Ferreira, who represents downtown. “We have had really hot days. I imagine units that are above 26 C are not comfortable.”
But a move to force property owners to add air conditioning will prove costly, and has to be weighed carefully, Ferreira said. “It;s an extra cost. I can see it being problematic for landlords. We’ll have to find a balance.”
The residential tenancy act now states landlords must supply heat and hot and cold water as “vital services” but doesn’t mandate cooling.
The report from city staff also states projections show Ontario will have more than 60 extremely hot days annually by the end of the century.
In 2050, it is projected London will have 46 days when the temperature is above 30 C.
But the city may be overreaching with a bylaw that intrudes on the residential tenancy act, and is provincial government jurisdiction, said Jared Zaifman, chief executive of the London Home Builders’ Association.
“This likely should be with the province. That’s where it fits most appropriately,” he said. “It’s a provincial matter.”
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The proposed “maximum rental unit temperature subcommittee” of the existing tenant landlord task force would bring together landlords, tenants and property managers and staff from the Middlesex-London Health Unit, London Hydro and city hall to discuss the issue, including whether air conditioning should be added to existing units.
The Middlesex-London Health Unit is scheduled to present a report to its board of health on Sept.19 on this issue. The board for the health unit is made up of provincial, city and county officials.
Mississauga has implemented a maximum temperature bylaw.
“It’s definitely a topic which will see discussion,” Ferreira said. “It’s about finding a balance for a good quality of life.”
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