Brampton city council has approved a citywide expansion of its Residential Rental Licensing (RRL) pilot program, along with significant increases to fines for non-compliant landlords, effective Jan. 1, 2026.
Council first endorsed the expansion at a Nov. 26 general committee meeting, before ratifying it by a 10–1 vote at its regular meeting on Dec. 10. While the original plan called for a phased rollout over the coming year, the City of Brampton announced in a Dec. 18 news release that the program will instead be extended from five wards to all 10 on the first day of the new year.
Beginning Jan. 1, all landlords with properties containing four or fewer rental units will be required to apply for or renew an RRL licence annually before renting out units. The city confirmed that licence applications and renewals will remain free, and that the pilot program has been extended for an additional three years. Landlords will also be required to complete an online learning module demonstrating their understanding of municipal rental regulations prior to being issued a licence.
The RRL program currently applies only in Wards 1, 3, 4, 5 and 7. It requires landlords to register eligible rental units, obtain a municipal licence, and submit to health, building and safety inspections. A $300 annual licensing fee introduced when the program launched has been suspended indefinitely, with Mayor Patrick Brown saying he does not intend to reinstate it.
The pilot had been scheduled to expire on Dec. 31, 2025.
Councillor Gurpartap Singh Toor, who represents Wards 9 and 10, cast the sole vote against the citywide expansion. He said he had hoped council would wait to assess the outcomes of the pilot’s recent expansion into additional wards before moving forward across the entire city.
Despite the opposition, landlords citywide will now be required to register their units or face substantially higher fines, which council also approved by a 10–1 vote on Dec. 10.
Under the new penalty structure, failing to register an additional rental unit will result in fines of $1,000 for a first offence, $1,250 for a second, and $1,500 for a third and subsequent violations. Ten existing offences under the RRL bylaw will also see increases, with fines rising from $600 to $750 for a first offence, from $900 to $1,250 for a second, and from $1,200 to $1,500 for repeated violations.
Council additionally approved three new RRL-related offences — failing to comply with the bylaw’s provisions, failing to post a licence at a rental property, and failing to comply with a city order — each carrying the same escalating fine structure.
Separate from the RRL changes, council also approved a 400 per cent increase in fines for first-time violations of the city’s occupancy standards bylaw, a move Toor also opposed. He argued the sharp increase — from $250 to $1,000 for a first offence — was overly punitive, particularly for landlords already facing financial pressures.
“If Brampton residents are going to be penalized much higher than anybody else in other municipalities, I’m not OK with that,” Toor said during council debate.
In response, Brown said the intent of the fine increases is to shift enforcement costs away from compliant landlords and onto those who violate the rules.
“Bad actors pay, good landlords don’t,” Brown said, adding that the vast majority of landlords follow the rules. City bylaw director Robert Higgs echoed that view, saying the focus is on improving compliance rather than penalizing landlords who meet regulatory requirements.
More information on the Residential Rental Licensing program and landlord obligations is available on the City of Brampton’s website.