The RHEU, run by the province, is mandated to uphold landlord and tenant rights. It has the power to investigate complaints and fine individual landlords up to $50,000. It works independently from the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB).
Of the ministry’s $1-billion operating expense budget for its housing program this year, $1.8 million goes to the RHEU, according to the ministry’s website. The RHEU’s budget is expected to stay the same next year.
In comparison, Ontario’s animal welfare service agency, which also employs officers to enforce provincial law, has an annual budget of $21 million.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
After being renovicted from her home of nearly 20 years, Darlene Wesley says she doesn’t care how long it takes, she wants Ontario’s rental housing enforcement officers to investigate and fine her former landlord.
Data reports show the RHEU opens 1,500 cases a year, on average, and the vast majority are closed at the “compliance stage” most often when a “successful intervention has been reached.”
It’s supposed to work in conjunction with the LTB and provide a low-barrier way for people to resolve housing disputes, said Douglas Kwan, a director at the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario.
As rates for rental units continue to rise, and landlords have a greater financial incentive to kick out old tenants and charge new ones more, the RHEU is not investigating or issuing fines “nearly enough,” said Kwan.
The data does not show the individual breakdown of fines, but court bulletins about RHEU cases posted to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing’s website give some insight.
Wesley said she wants the RHEU to take action because she’s not optimistic the LTB will hand down the kind of harsh penalty she thinks is necessary to prevent illegal renovictions from happening in the future.
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