Editorial: Get real data on unit repairs

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It’s hard to argue with Apartment Owners’ Association president Willy Scholten, who says a survey of only 188 people is not a large enough sample to merit public policy change on unit maintenance. According to him, the province has some 200,000 people who rent their home.

He’s right. But this deficiency should prompt more rigorous research – ideally from an independent organization or the provincial government – rather than a rejection of the premise altogether.

ACORN, a tenant’s lobby group, wants municipalities to shift from a complaint-based system to proactive enforcement of a renter’s right to proper maintenance. Their small survey – which is really nothing as rigorous as a proper poll – suggests a substantial proportion of tenants are not seeing timely repairs.

If that’s true, it would merit a better enforcement approach. Tenants should expect prompt attention to maintenance issues, and have recourse if landlords aren’t holding up their end of the deal.

Even if it’s only some bad apples who aren’t acting quickly enough, as Scholten suggests, that’s all the more reason to weed them out and get them in line on a fundamental expectation of renters.

This policy need not be pro- or anti-landlord. And the best approach may not follow ACORN’s preference of proactive independent review. Perhaps there is a way to incorporate both into one, so that landlords with a history of slow repairs could be checked on more regularly, whilst those with crystal-clear records would not expect any attention from regulators.

But first, the province needs to get to the bottom of whether this is a problem to the extent ACORN is suggesting. This means investing in more than a voluntary survey that’s likely to attract favourable responses, instead of a proper random sample.