In a motion brought forward by Ward 1 councillor Helen Shwery, Cambridge council will debate whether landlords or tenants should be held responsible for unpaid water and sewage bills at a meeting on Tuesday night.
Back in 2015, council approved the Landlord and Tenant Water account that required landlords to foot the bill for unpaid payments.
The new motion requests city staff report back by June on changing the account to shift the onus to tenants.
It's a move many landlords would like to see, but one Shannon Down, the executive director at the Waterloo Region Community Legal Services, said could create accountability issues.
"Landlords are responsible for maintenance and repairs," Down said.
"If a tenant was responsible for the water and sewage bill and something goes wrong, like a dripping faucet, the responsibility to fix that is still on the landlord. There's landlords that need to be chased by tenants and neglect repairs."
What may not seem like a big deal, like a dripping faucet or running toilet, can lead to massive bills.
Tenants typically pay for their water bills either through all-inclusive rent payments or as a separate expense.
"There's some incentive for landlords to make sure they maintain those systems within the units," Down said.
"This reduces their incentive to do that."
Down points to the fact landlords already have a mechanism to recoup potential losses for unpaid bills through the Landlord and Tenant Board.
By changing who's responsible, it will only shift that process onto the city and taxpayers, she said.
Getting a hearing at the board, whether the issue is brought forward by the landlord or tenant, can take months.
"Landlords are in business for profit and the risks of loss," Down said.
"Most municipalities and landlords are responsible. The city can add unpaid amounts to property tax bills."
But not everyone believes the current structure is the fair way to do business.
Kayla Andrade, founder of Ontario Landlords Watch, feels it should be on the tenants to deal with unpaid bills as they're the end user.
"I’m thrilled that the new council is revisiting this policy afters many years of it being in place," Andrade said.
"It's not the business of the landlord to collect on behalf of a product produced by the city."
And while it may seem like landlords just want to rid themselves of potential issues, Andrade sees a change as being potentially beneficial for the tenants.
"It protects them and leaves them an option to make payment arrangements to the city," she said.
"We like to advocate for good landlord and tenants. If they keep paying their rent on time but they struggle with their water, landlords can go for an eviction just on the water bill."
With the current housing crisis, having landlords go after tenants for water bills and impacting their credit isn't helping, Andrade said, as it can also hinder residents' ability obtain future rental agreements.
As for the accountability around maintenance and repairs, Andrade said there are avenues to address that, as well, through property standards and the Landlord and Tenant Board.
"This is a tool where they can make a change in policy that keeps people in their homes," she said.
"Council knows it's revisiting something that was very controversial back then. We have a housing crisis. When they put this policy in place, we didn't."
