Property owners are concerned about the growing number, they say, of tenants choosing to assign their leases.
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According to a survey by the Corporation of Real Estate Owners of Quebec (CORPIQ), one in four landlords would experience a lease transfer situation, an unprecedented number.
“Just last year, we were talking about 10% of owners. There, it jumped completely to 25%, “said Benoît Sainte-Marie, general manager of CORPIQ, in an interview with TVA Nouvelles.
The latter warns, however, that by using this practice, tenants are playing a dangerous game.
“It’s a disturbing phenomenon, I say, for the quality of housing and, in the medium term, for the prices in force in Quebec,” he said.
If tenants begin to overuse the assignment of lease, landlords could come to decide to further increase their tenants’ rents, believes Mr. Sainte-Marie.
“These are owners who have been very friendly by giving small raises [à leur locataire]. There, the owner will ask himself: if the tenant assigns his lease and he is not able to recover, say, the sums he has not necessarily given in increase [à son locataire]he will say to himself: “What did I do there?”, He maintains.
For tenant associations, the assignment of leases is not only a right, but also a tool to counter rising rental prices.
“The assignment of the lease, it must be said, is provided for in the law, it is a right that tenants have. In times of housing shortage, it can also be used as a self-help strategy. The law already provides that there is a fixing of rents possible at the change of tenants. The problem is that even if it is mandatory, many landlords, not to say a majority, do not fill out this section of the lease,” says Véronique Laflamme, spokesperson for the Front d’action populaire en réménagement urbain ( FRAPRU).
This practice is also very widespread in social networks, where there are a large number of pages and accounts dedicated to the assignment of leases.
Some real estate leasing companies are also seeing a rise in the popularity of lease assignments.
“In fact, clearly, there is a demand. Tenants are ready to call us so that we can help them with their lease assignment,” explains David Blouin, President and Founder of Blouin Real Estate Rental.