Tenants living in substandard housing conditions have almost no legal protection in the Yukon, says the territory's Opposition leader.

In an interview Tuesday, Liberal Leader Arthur Mitchell said he is very concerned that tenants living in poor conditions have little legal protection and that landlords who have their properties damaged have very little recourse under the law.

The reason for the problem, he said, is that there seem to be no regulations which give the Yukon Landlord and Tenant Act any teeth.

'It's clear that something needs to be done, and we'll certainly raise this in public debate,' Mitchell said.

'First of all, I'd like to see some more specificity put into the act as to the obligations to the landlord to put in a healthy atmosphere.

'(Landlords should) provide accommodations that are not injurious to people's health and safety. It doesn't mean that it has to be luxurious, it just means it has to be clean and with no grime and mould. And not with rotting floors that you can step through and be injured by doing so,' Mitchell said.

It shouldn't be up to tenants to have to file a civil suit to remedy problems, the Liberal leader said.

'The protection should be there in advance rather than after the fact. There should be some regulations; there's an act, but there's no regs. It's kind of like having an envelope with nothing in it.

'To comply with health, maintenance and occupancy standards as required by law, and there apparently aren't any standards, is a sad state of affairs.'

Mitchell's comments follow those made by tenants of Whitehorse landlord Hans Affolter. As reported in last Friday's Star, they complained their dwellings suffered from such conditions as holes in the floors, broken windows, mould, malfunctioning furnaces and wood stoves, and leaky roofs.

Affolter tenant Marie-Sue LaBelle said she was shocked and dismayed to learn the only option for tenants to have the problems addressed was to take the landlord to court because there were no laws to make them fix problems.

Affolter said while he knew there were ailments such as mould in some of the 40 units he rents out in the territory, there is no legislation to assist landlords in getting compensation for rental properties that are damaged by tenants.

Dr. Bryce Larke, the Yukon medical officer of health, said this week he has also been made aware of the problem.

'Tenants have phoned me and asked what they can do, but there isn't much,' he said.

Larke said holes in the floor could be a problem from a health perspective because people could fall through floors and hurt themselves. Broken windows would make dwellings hard to heat, he noted.

There is not a wide degree of evidence, he added, that mould would negatively affect the health of the majority of the population.

'There's not really good evidence as to serious health risks in most people,' Larke said. People who have respiratory problems would be more likely than the average person to be negatively affected, he added.

Fiona Charbonneau, the Yukon government's consumer affairs manager whose office is responsible for administering the residential portion of the Landlord and Tenant Act, said there is little her office can do because there is no enforcement mechanism in the act.

There are also no health, safety, occupancy or maintenance standards in the act, she added.

According to the the Landlord and Tenant Act, landlords have to comply with any health, safety and maintenance standards set out in law.

Landlord and tenant disputes, she said, are typically solved in court.

Lynn Richards,, the government's environmental health services manager, said there is also very little her staff can do because legislation does not give them the mandate to act.

City manager Dennis Shewfelt said there is very little the city can do. Similarly, Whitehorse fire chief Clive Sparks said his department is also limited in how it can respond to complaints.

Mitchell said he finds it strange the territory has the authority to require owners of commercial buildings and businesses to fix problems, but doesn't for similar problems found in rental units.

'There are rules and regulations ... if you're dealing with the public in a public place, then there's occupational health and safety, workers compensation so both employers and customers have some degree of protection,' Mitchell said.

'(Public buildings) have health standards. But, you are also in business when you rent houses to people but that just seems to fall through the cracks.'

Kurt Dieckmann, the director of the territory's occupational health and safety branch, said his office has the authority to force employers and/or building owners to comply with safety standards. However, that authority does not extend into rental units, including homes, apartment buildings or trailers.

'Our mandate does not extend into residences or rentals. It does for any rental that is for employment or businesses purposes.'

Dieckmann said if buildings falling under his mandate are found to have problems such as mould, holes in floors, broken windows or problems with the roof, his office would act.

'If it is a workplace and we were to go in and there was visible mould, yes, we would require the employer to clean it up and we would write an order to that effect.'

He said if buildings are found to have problems with their structural integrity, such as holes in walls or roofs, his office also has the authority to order those things remedied.

'Our regulations specify that any roof structure or floor has to be able to handle a load, or an expected load, that is applied to it.

'We would order an engineer to inspect ... any work that had to be done would be at the expense of the employer,' he said.

Furnaces that leak fumes into a building are also a concern, Dieckmann said, as are broken windows and plumbing problems.

Occupational health and safety's mandate, he added, also applies to hotels but not to rooms used for long-term occupancy.

Dieckmann said if the employer failed to comply with a work order from his office, he or she could be fined or prosecuted.

NDP MLA Steve Cardiff said he too is concerned about the lack of regulations surrounding the territory's Landlord and Tenant Act.

'I think that it is something that is long overdue that needs to be addressed,' Cardiff said.

'It is old, it doesn't serve the needs of either landlords or tenants and hasn't for a long time. We've heard complaints about it for a number of years. It's something that needs to be addressed.'

Cardiff believes that in the current housing market, many people are being forced to live in poor housing conditions because there are very few options available to them.

'In the current real estate market, whether you're buying or renting, people are forced into situations where they are living in substandard accommodations.

'(Tenants) don't have anything; there's no laws to protect them. And there're no laws that protect the landlords.'