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Niagara Falls
Thursday, February 6, 2025
Arch-i-text: If push comes to shove, enforcing standards can be done
Another home of heritage and architectural significance in NOTL that Brian Marshall has chosen to highlight: This Arts & Crafts cottage from circa 1920, boarded up and abandoned. BRIAN MARSHALL

For the last two weeks, we have been considering property standards bylaws — what they are, how they are enforced and the potential fines for non-compliance with a binding property standards order issued by the municipality.

However, the question of what happens when a property owner is either unwilling (unlikely in the face of the potential fines) or unable, financially or otherwise, to comply with the order remains to be addressed.

The answer is quite simple — the municipality may directly intervene to bring the property into compliance with the order.

The authority to do so is conveyed by the province to the municipality in the Building Code Act. Under “Property Standards,” in section 15.4, the act provides:

The “power of municipality if order not complied with” is for the municipality to cause the property “to be repaired or demolished accordingly.”

This encompasses “warrantless entry,” in which employees or agents of the municipality can enter the property “at any reasonable time” without a warrant to execute the repair or demolishment, and ensures no liability of the municipality to compensate the owner, occupant or any other person for anything the municipality does “in the reasonable exercise of its powers” under subsection 1.

In short, the municipality has the right to “repair or demolish” a property to bring it into compliance with a binding order.

And, its employees or agents may access the property at any “reasonable” time to effect the required actions/work.

Further, neither the municipality nor its agents have any liability concerning the necessary actions undertaken to bring the property into compliance with the order.

The act then broadens municipal authority in cases wherein the condition of the property “pose(s) an immediate danger to the health or safety of any person” or the building is deemed to be “unsafe.”

“Well,” you say, “even if the municipality has the authority to have the corrective work carried out, it would cost the taxpayers a bloody fortune.”

Actually, this is not the case.

Section 15.4.4 of the act specifies that the municipality “shall have a lien on the land for the amount spent on the repair or demolition” and “the amount shall have priority lien status.”

So, what does the Municipal Act have to say about a “priority lien”?

Section 2 of this act states the amount spent on repair or demolition if given priority lien status, may be added to the tax roll against the property, concerning which amount was imposed or against any other property, “in respect of which the amount was authorized to be added by this or any other act.”

It defines the “priority lien status” as such: If an amount is added to the tax roll for a property, that amount (including interest), may be collected the same way the property’s taxes are, may be recovered from the property owner as a debt owed to the municipality, is a special lien on the property the same way taxes are under subsection 349 (3) of the Municipal Act and can be included in the cancellation price the same way as taxes on the property.

In reality, every municipality in Ontario has the authority and implied responsibility to ensure a property is brought into compliance with a binding property standards order — at no expense to the taxpayers.

I’m not suggesting this should be the first tool reached for but, if push comes to shove, the municipality can get it done.

If you’d like to read the legislation yourself, the Building Code Act can be found at www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/92b23#BK25 — just scroll down to Section 15 “Property Standards” and reference 15.4, 15.7 & 15.9. The Municipal Act can accessed at www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/01m25. The relevant information is in Part 1, Sections 2 and 3.

Brian Marshall is a NOTL realtor, author and expert consultant on architectural design, restoration and heritage.

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