On July 27th, Owen Sound City Council approved a new Vital Services By-law and updates to the Property Standards By-law addressing mould and pests.
For those involved with RentSafe Owen Sound, this is an important milestone in work underway for several years to better understand rental housing conditions and find collaborative solutions that support healthy, safe and affordable housing.
The Vital Services By-law establishes clearer responsibilities for landlords to ensure tenants have essential services, including heat, hot and cold water, electricity, gas and, where required under a lease, air conditioning. It also gives the City tools to investigate complaints and to take action when the loss of a vital service creates a health or safety concern.
From Research to Action
In November 2024, the RentSafe Owen Sound Collaborative presented its Landlord & Tenant Survey Findings and recommendations to the City of Owen Sound’s Corporate Services Committee.
The surveys provided an important opportunity to hear from both sides of the rental housing relationship. 545 tenants responded to the tenant survey, representing an estimated 28% of rental units in Owen Sound. The landlord survey included 36 landlords/property managers responsible for nearly 800 units, estimated at approximately 40% of the local rental market.
What we heard demonstrated that housing quality is a shared concern.
RentSafe tenant survey respondents identified significant concerns with temperature, pests, water leaks, mould and indoor air quality.
Among tenant respondents, 73% reported pests/insects other than bedbugs, 71% reported their unit being too hot or too cold, 62% reported water leaks and 47% reported mould. Sixty percent reported anxiety related to the physical condition of their unit.
Landlords also identified challenges maintaining rental properties, including finding contractors, gaining access to units for repairs, maintenance costs and communication with tenants.
Importantly, tenants and landlords identified many of the same housing quality concerns, including temperature control, windows, plumbing and water leaks, pests and bedbugs, and mould. Read the full report here.
We Are All Neighbours
One of the strongest messages from the research was that tenants can feel trapped while landlords can feel stuck.
For tenants, rising rents and limited housing options can make it difficult to leave unhealthy housing. For landlords, maintaining Owen Sound’s older rental housing stock can involve significant costs and challenges.
This is why RentSafe’s work focuses on bringing people together rather than placing responsibility for our housing challenges on one group.
RentSafe seeks solutions that recognize the experiences of tenants and landlords while protecting Owen Sound’s existing affordable rental housing.
What Did RentSafe Recommend?
In 2024, RentSafe presented 3 immediate recommendations to the City.
1. Better rental housing data. We recommended collecting information on habitability issues identified through by-law and fire inspections—including mould, pests, water leaks and broken windows—to better understand conditions in Owen Sound’s older rental housing stock.
2. Clearer standards for mould. We recommended incorporating Ontario’s model mould by-law language into Owen Sound’s Property Standards By-law. The City’s new updates addressing mould and pests represent important progress on an issue identified through the RentSafe research.
3. Support landlords and tenants. We invited the City to be part of solutions that help landlords maintain healthy rental properties while improving effective landlord-tenant relationships. During a housing crisis, we need new affordable housing—but we also need to protect and improve the affordable rental housing we already have.
The Next Question: Extreme Heat
During Council’s July 27th discussion, the question of a “right to cooling” and maximum indoor temperatures was raised. This connects directly with the RentSafe findings: 71% of tenant respondents reported their unit being too hot or too cold.
Under Owen Sound’s new Vital Services By-law, landlords must provide a minimum temperature of 20°C from September 15th to May 31st. Under Section 11-C of the prepared by-law a maximum indoor temperature of 26C is in place, if the lease indicates an air-conditioner and landlords are required to ensure suitable cool air in a unit. Bylaw can charge the landlord if they don’t repair an existing air conditioner and/or if they remove it.
There is a new provision in the Residential Tenancy Act effective July 1st, 2026, regarding air conditioning, maintenance and repairs as well as utility charges. Tenants are permitted to install a window or portable air conditioner, even where a lease prohibits it, as long as it meets the prescribed conditions and notifies the landlord in writing. Seasonal rent increases may be applied by landlords to cover electrical costs.
There are currently no by-laws in Ontario, that require all units to have permanent cooling systems. This would require a retrofit or renovations of buildings which would impact the availability and affordability of rental units in the City. The cities of Toronto and Hamilton are currently researching a Maximum Heat By-Law and the City of Owen Sound will monitor these initiatives.
This opens an important next conversation for RentSafe.
Healthy Housing Is Also a Climate Issue
Extreme heat increasingly intersects with the issues RentSafe has been working on for years: housing quality, affordability, health and equity.
Older rental buildings can be particularly challenging. Aging windows, inadequate ventilation and limited cooling can increase exposure to extreme temperatures. At the same time, major retrofits can be expensive.
The challenge is finding solutions that improve tenant health and climate resilience without contributing to displacement or the loss of affordable rental housing.
The 2024 RentSafe Owen Sound work identified three interconnected challenges: unit quality concerns, lack of trust and communication, and lack of satisfaction with the rental housing system. It also pointed toward longer-term opportunities, including proactive inspections, stronger community involvement and measures to preserve affordable rental housing.
The adoption of stronger mould, pest and Vital Services standards demonstrates how local research, community collaboration and municipal leadership can translate into action.
As we build on this work, our next question is:
What does healthy, safe, affordable and climate-resilient rental housing look like for Owen Sound?
The Poverty Task Force and our RentSafe partners will continue working with tenants, landlords, the City and community partners to explore this question. Together with RentSafe Ontario we will come together next on September 29th to discuss climate resiliency and rental housing.
