In each “Behind the Scenes” segment, Village Media's Scott Sexsmith sits down with one of our local journalists to talk about the story behind the story.
These interviews are designed to help you better understand how our community-based reporters gather the information that lands in your local news feed. You can find more Behind the Scenes from reporter across Ontario here.
Today's spotlight is on OrilliaMatters.com's Greg McGrath-Goudie, whose story ''Broken system' leaves Ramara landlords to foot bill for tenants trashing their home' was published on Aug 27.
Below is the full story, in case you missed it.
A Ramara Township landlord has had to come out of retirement to foot the bill for tenants that have refused to pay rent for more than six months.
Rob Maranzan, along with his wife, Kim, have rented out a three-bedroom unit on Creighton Street since January 2023. While their tenants initially paid their monthly rent of $2,200 and their share of the utilities, by February 2024 they had stopped paying for anything — leaving the Maranzans on the hook for around $18,000 since that time.
Three adults initially rented the unit, but by December last year an additional six people had moved in, including two adults and four young children, bringing the total number of occupants up to nine people, along with three dogs.
“We were on vacation, so when we got back it was December … and because kids were on holidays … we didn't notice right away because they don't come out of the house,” recalled Kim. “It was when they went back to school, all of a sudden I see these kids go out.”
The couple raised concerns about nine people using the well and septic, but those concerns fell on deaf ears.
“After I found out that there was so many people over there, extra people, I told her that's not acceptable. There's too many people there. It's too much on the well; it's too much on the septic,” Kim said. “She said, ‘Well, she's here to help me with my mother.’"
Ultimately, the couple went to the Landlord Tenant Board for overcrowding concerns, and the tenants stopped paying rent at that point, the Maranzans said, leaving them to pay for rent, utilities, and problems caused by the overburdened well and septic system.
“We had to put a new pump in the septic,” Rob said. “They're killing everything. I mean, there's one freaking toilet for (nine) people. I could go on and on and on.”
Kim added the tenants have burned out the pump for the well, which has been drained three times since the six extra residents moved into the home.
Over the ensuing months, the Maranzans have filed with the Landlord Tenant Board to evict the residents, all while watching the property fall into a state of disrepair while simultaneously footing the bill for their tenants’ expenses.
Garbage, excess belongings, a triple-decker bunk bed, and more are crammed into the 800-square-foot unit, with the deck covered in additional garbage and dog waste.
“We have the basement of that house,” Rob said. “We're below that deck, and they got dogs’ shit and piss above us.”
To cover the bills, Rob has had to come out of retirement, and Kim has had to work full time.
“We had to go back to work because we couldn’t afford it,” Kim said.
Ultimately, the couple had a hearing with the Landlord Tenant Board earlier this month, but they said the application was thrown out on a technicality, after they uploaded a form without a signature onto the online portal.
“The reason that it was closed is because we couldn't provide proof that there was a signature, and we … have the proof that there's a signature, but he didn't want to listen to us,” said Kim, who noted they were rushed through the process at their hearing.
The couple has since filed a complaint, and plans to appeal the results at the hearing, but they are concerned that there could be another multi-month wait before they can get the issue resolved.
“We're trying to appeal that one, but I mean, another application — here we are in August — it could be April of next year,” Rob lamented.
Efforts to address the problem with the Township of Ramara have also fallen flat, with Rob saying the fire department and bylaw office have “washed their hands” of the situation.
“We've had Ramara fire wash their hands, like nobody's even come to the property,” Rob said. “Because they're breaking standards of living — you need 100 square foot per person … (bylaw) talked the big talk, but at the end of the day, (they) washed (their) hands of it too.”
The situation has caused significant distress to the couple as they struggle to foot the bill for their delinquent tenants.
“We can't stop paying utilities or nothing. Like, where's the justice in any of this?” Rob said.
In an email to OrilliaMatters, Ramara bylaw officials explained that property maintenance issues are the responsibility of the landlord.
“It’s not the role of the township to manage tenant-occupied properties on behalf of landlords or property managers. While violations of the property standards bylaw may exist on tenant-occupied (properties), it is not the township's mandate or jurisdiction to manage these properties or these issues,” said John Popple, the township's manager of community standards.
“It is the property owner/landlord’s responsibility to exercise their powers under Ontario law as a landlord.”
As such, Popple explained the township will not issue fines for infractions on landlord-controlled properties.
“Where landlords/property owners file complaints about their own properties, the township will not take action under its bylaws, and property owners and landlords should seek legal advice from a legal professional, or exercise their rights as a landlord under Ontario law and under the authority of the Landlord and Tenant Board of Ontario,” he said.
Mayor Basil Clarke said a part of the reason the township does not issue fines in these situations is that they would ultimately be the responsibility of the landlord.
“We can issue bylaw infractions. Unfortunately, that fine falls on the landowner, and we hate to do that,” Clarke said. “I mean, these landlords are already out a bunch of money, so we don't want to double down and (cost) them even more.”
The Maranzans raised concerns about whether the property adhered to the fire code, given the number of resident and the cluttered state of the unit, but Clarke said such violations usually relate to the structural integrity of the property, such as wires hanging out of a wall, or tenants knocking down a load-bearing wall — and not the amount of garbage in a unit.
Regarding the number of tenants on site, Clarke said that since the lease states there are three occupants, the township’s hands are tied when it comes to the additional “guests.”
“They leased it to the legal amount of people. The rest are invited guests. I can't tell you … that you can't have guests in your apartment,” he said. “Government can't say you can't have your mother come and visit for the weekend, and that's what happens when you go to move forward: ‘They don't really live here. They’re just visiting, right?’”
Clarke said he feels “bad for the folks,” and pointed to the backlogged Landlord Tenant Board as the crux of the issue.
“If you're a tenant, it's a 12-month wait. If you're a landlord, it's a 10-month wait — that's how backlogged the systems are,” Clarke said. “I've endorsed motions here at Simcoe County, as well as Ramara Township on lobbying the government, that they have to look into the landlord tenant agreement and fix it. It's a broken system.”
He said the system is “broken on both sides,” for landlords who are dealing with bad tenants, and vice versa.
“I'll be honest, the feds and the province have really dropped the ball on these rental agreements. It's extremely hard today to get people out,” he said. “These are the ones they really need to crack down on … this example makes it bad for other tenants.”
