A new website has ranked the 100 worst landlords and apartment buildings in Toronto, information that should prove very useful for prospective renters in this city. The criteria for both sets of rankings is based on open data from the City of Toronto that tracks violations issued by city inspectors.

The ranking comes via the site LandlordWatch, which is run by Yale Fox, a TED Fellow and CEO of Rentlogic, with the help of ACORN Canada, a low and moderate family-income social justice advocacy group. The purpose of the ranking, Fox says, is to "level the playing field between renters and landlords."

The secondary purpose is to put pressure on Toronto's Licensing and Standards Committee, which is set to consider a staff report on licensing system for landlords in this city. One of the proposals in this report is to implement a DineSafe-like ranking system that would allow renters to screen buildings and landlords in a transparent manner.

Both Fox and ACORN strongly advocate for a such a program, and LandlordWatch offers a little glimpse of the potential of a ranking system of this type, even if an official City of Toronto version would look quite different. The ultimate point is to empower renters by making information about landlords and their buildings as easy to access as possible.

LandlordWatch's list of worst landlords in Toronto

1. Toronto Community Housing (452 violations)
2. Havcare Investments Inc. (174 violations)
3. BNAI Fishel Corporation (170 violations)
4. Arsandco Investments (145 violations)
5. Q Reit Sub LP (134 violations)
6. Akelius Canada Inc. (92 violations)
7. Gupta Rakesh and Gupta Swarash (90 violations)
8. 2021349 Ontario Limited (90 violations)
9. IMH 15 Eva Ltd. (83 violations)
10. 2255761 Ontario Limited, Bell-Am Apartments Limited

LandlordWatch's list of worst apartment buildings in Toronto

1. 500 Dawes Rd. -- Havcare Investments Inc. (174 violations)
2. 1501 Woodbine Ave. -- Arsandco Investments Inc. (145 violations)
3. 104-105 West Lodge Ave. -- Bnai Fishel Corp. (138 violations)
4. 275 Bleecker Street -- Toronto Community Housing Corporation (130 violations)
5. 15 Eva Road -- IMH 15 Eva Ltd. (83 violations)
6. 34 Heydon Park Road -- Gupta Rakesh, Gupta Swarash (82 violations)
7. 650 Parliament Street -- Parwell Investments Inc. & Bleeman Holdings Inc. (79 violations)
8. 126 Bellamy Road North -- 2255761 Ontario Limited, Bell-Am Apts. Ltd. (76 violations)
9. 125 Lawton Blvd. -- Alexander Robertson (73 violations)
10. 20 Pell Street -- Raimondo Puopolo Corp. (64 violations)

For the full lists of 100 worst landlords and buildings, check out LandlordWatch.ca.

Photo by AshtonPal in the blogTO Flickr pool.