If you are having issues with the apartment you are renting such as as plumbing problems, leaky ceilings, pests, low or no heat, or problems in the common areas of the building, you must talk with your landlord or property owner first.
Your landlord/property owner is required to respond to urgent service requests within 24 hours. Service requests are urgent if they are related to vital services, such as:
Non-urgent service requests need to be responded to within seven days.
If your complaints is unresolved and problems persist, you can connect with 311 to create a service request, via the mobile app or by phone.
Make service requests in writing and keep a copy of your requests. Your landlord must track these service requests and keep copies from the past 24 months. You can request to see your records. Learn more about landlord record-keeping requirements.
If you submit a complaint (service request) to the City through 311, you can check the status using the reference number provided to you. Enter your reference number in the Status Tracking box at the bottom of the toronto.ca and click “GO.”
You can also check the history of bylaw violations at an address.
Once you submit a complaint (service request) through 311, a bylaw enforcement officer will reach out to you to gather more information about your complaint.
If your complaint is urgent and related to vital services, City staff will respond within 24 hours. If your complaint is about a non-urgent issue, the team aims to respond within five to 10 days.
The bylaw enforcement officer may request photos and a copy of the service request submitted to the building owner or operator. Should you fail to respond to the officer within a reasonable amount of time, the file will be closed.
Service requests for property standards are available on the ML&S Customer Service Standards webpage.
Once you have submitted a complaint (service request) to the City, you can escalate it if:
You can escalate your complaint by contacting 311. You will then be provided with the name and contact number of the Supervisor responding to your complaint.
The City will contact you by phone or email, and advise you on the actions that the City has taken to address your complaint and if it has been resolved.
If you do not respond, you will receive a notification by email or mail, advising you that the service request will be closed and that you can contact City staff by a certain date if have any further questions.
After that date passes, new service requests must be submitted to 311.
The primary goal of the RentSafeTO program is to bring building owners and property managers into compliance using progressive enforcement action which begins with education and can escalate to include issuing a Notice of Violation or Order to Comply, inspection fees, laying charges and conducting remedial action.
A Bylaw Enforcement Officer (BEOs) will issue a Notice of Violation or an Order to Comply to notify a building owner and/or operator that they must correct any bylaw violations. There may be occasions when a BEO may proceed directly to issuing a ticket or a summons to court like when a violation of Chapter 354, Apartment Buildings is observed upon investigation. When an Order to Comply or Notice of Violation is issued, it includes a compliance timeline; this timeline can range anywhere between immediate compliance (in the example of an urgent service request) to up to 30 days (in the example of a non-urgent service request).
A BEO will re-inspect the property when the Order to Comply or Notice of Violation compliance timeline has expired. A BEO may inspect a property prior to its expiration if a building owner/operator advises that compliance has been achieved. If a re-inspection confirms that compliance has not been achieved, the BEO may issue a re-inspection fee.
Based on the complexity of the bylaw violation (and the extent of the work required to obtain compliance), there may be exceptions to the general timelines noted above. For example, a compliance timeline may be affected if the issue has been appealed to the Property Standards Appeal Committee.
Once compliance is achieved, the City will close the file. If compliance has not been achieved, next steps are determined on a case-by-case basis and with management supervision.
Next steps may include issuing a ticket (where upon conviction, an owner is liable to pay a fine) and/or issuing a summons to court. More information on this process is available on the RentSafeTO Fees & Fines webpage.
When all feasible enforcement options have been exhausted and if compliance with a City-issued Order to Comply and/or Notice of Violation to correct a bylaw violation has not been achieved, the City may undertake remedial action. This involves a City contractor undertaking the work to address a bylaw violation and the City adding the cost of this work to the property owner’s property tax bill.
Undertaking remedial action does not remove a property owner from their obligation to maintain their property or meet the standards outlined in the City’s bylaw requirements and/or applicable legislation.