A Toronto landlord that was fined $75,000 in February by the Landlord and Tenant Board has been penalized again after pleading guilty to charges by Ontario’s Rental Housing Enforcement Unit for failing to allow tenants evicted from three units to return to their apartments following a renovation.

An Ontario Court of Justice ordered the owner of an eight-unit Little Italy building to pay $48,000, plus a $12,000 victim surcharge, for violating the Residential Tenancies Act that says former tenants have the first right of refusal to their units after a renovation, providing they give notice prior to moving out that they want to return.

The fines do not compensate the tenants, who were put out of their homes in 2017, after their landlord, 795 College Inc., notified them it was renovating. A year after they were forced out, new tenants were occupying their units at about three times the rent, according to a press release Monday from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

“Now I pay $3,000-plus to live in the same neighbourhood so my son can continue to go to the same school,” said Aurora Browne, one of the evicted occupants.

The tenants, who were all artists and creative workers, were offered $4,800 to leave voluntarily. Those who were ordered out, like Browne, received three months’ rent as per the legal requirement.

“The relief that we were asking was not a fine but to get back into our apartments. We wanted to stay there,” Browne said. Even though she is a co-creator of the successful CBC Baroness von Sketch Show, she says she can’t contemplate being able to afford a house in the city.

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The tenants are victims of what housing advocates call the worrisome practice of “renoviction.” Landlords force tenants out of their units for renovations assuming those residents will move on to new homes. That allows the landlord to charge a rent increase above Ontario’s rent control guideline, which is 1.8 per cent for 2019.

The directors of 795 College St., Evan Johnsen and Neil Spiegel, are the co-founders of Circa, a development company that specializes in converting older, lowrise Toronto apartments into condos. They bought the eight-unit Little Italy apartment for $1.5 million in 2014. In 2016, they notified the tenants that they would have to move so the building could be renovated.

In a statement, 795 College Inc. acknowledged its failure to allow the tenants their right to first refusal on their old apartments. But it said that it had repaired the building at significant cost.

“As we made clear through this process, when we acquired 795 College it had 46 municipal work orders filed against it, lacked a functioning heating system, and had been deemed unsafe by the City of Toronto due to structural deficiencies. Nevertheless, we committed to the property and to the millions of dollars in construction remediation and design work the building required,” said an email from the company’s spokesperson Danny Roth.

“We also committed to ensuring the property remained as rental housing. Despite this, we failed to meet our obligations to three former tenants,” 795 College Inc. said.

Browne said, “the fines are just like the cost of doing business” for the landlord.

She said the building’s previous tenants recognized the condition of the building was a compromise in favour of affordable rent.

“The tradeoff was I would fix the toilet myself rather than call the landlord. The building did need work. It didn’t need granite countertops,” she said. “I understand why (795 College Inc.) went after the building. It was a jewel.”

Browne said she is among the tenants who are appealing the Landlord and Tenant Board’s contention that it does not have jurisdiction to return the tenants to the homes that are now occupied by others.

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According to the government, fines for violations of the Residential Tenancies Act can range from up to $25,000 for an individual and up to $100,000 for a corporation. The Rental Housing Enforcement Unit is responsible for offences under the Act and is separate from the Landlord and Tenant Board.

The board’s $75,000 fine of 795 College Inc. was supposed to a deterrent. But it is money the owners of 795 College Inc. will quickly recoup thanks to the higher rent they are charging their new tenants, Browne said.

“Everybody has been making money on this except us,” she said.