‘Go somewhere else’ Brampton mayor tells slum landlords

Brampton Mayor Patrick has a simple yet stern message for those who don’t provide safe and healthy housing to renters — leave town.

Responding to questions at a media conference today (Feb. 20) to announce the elimination of residential rental licensing (RRL) fees, Brown encouraged those who ignore building and fire code regulations in rooming houses to get out of Brampton and set up elsewhere.

He said that through monitoring online forums and chat groups run by those who want to ignore regulations, it’s clear that many don’t want to follow rules and want no part of the RRL.

Brown said some have said they will leave the city because they are faced with thousands of dollars in fines for not meeting fire safety and building codes.

“Someone who doesn’t want to meet building and fire codes is threatening to leave the city if they can’t run a slum unit?” stated Brown. “Good…leave…if you want to have a firetrap risking the safety of our residents then go somewhere else, we don’t need you in Brampton.”

Today’s announcement saw they city eliminate RRL fees as an enticement to get more landlords to register for the program.

RRL was introduced last year as a pilot program in response to thousands of Brampton homes that had been turned into uncontrolled rooming houses that contained several tenants who were living in unsafe conditions.

Since last June the city has hired 38 additional bylaw enforcement officers to deal with issues such as non-compliant landlords and in 2024 issued $121,000 in fines against those who did not meet the various regulations that control housing.