On July 1st 2017, a new apartment building by-law will take effect on owners and operators across the GTA. This by-law requires the management of every multi-residential building to pay an annual fee per unit to the city. This fee will allow the city to administer, monitor and enforce the new regulations aimed at protecting tenants in apartment communities throughout Toronto.
Key details of the apartment building by-law one should know:
- The fee is $10.60 per unit every year.
- The by-law applies to all multi-resident apartment buildings three stories or more and 10 or more units.
- The building needs to be registered with the City annually and owner must update the City within 30 days of any change of ownership or operator.
- Non-compliance can result in fines up to $100,000 if convicted.
Specific areas affected by the new by-law:
- Tenant service requests
- Tenant notifications
- Pest management
- Waste management plans and requirements
- Cleaning plan and requirements
- Licensed contractors for maintenance
- State of good repair capital plan
- Record keeping
- Renting a unit to a new tenant where there is a confirmed property standards order.
One of the largest new requirements going into effect is the maintenance request clause. This will require owners/operators to “develop a process for receiving and tracking tenant requests.” This means being able to collect and track specific information regarding every request that gets sent to the management and the response back to the tenant. In addition, the management will need to demonstrate compliance with this new process.
Payquad’s maintenance module will help management companies navigate and comply with the new tenant request by-law, in an easy to implement and simple to use way. Best of all it is 100% free. Yes, you heard right.
The maintenance module allows tenants to create requests through a tenant portal and automatically be sent to management. Management can assign, track, and update the status of requests from the management portal. Everything is automatically archived in the system and tenants get notified of status updates in real-time as well, through the app and to their personal email inbox. Other features are built in to the module to further simplify and process requests making sure nothing falls through the cracks and you are compliant with the new by-laws being enforced.
Give us a call or shoot us an email at info@payquad.com to learn more and sign up for a free demonstration.
