MONTREAL — Quebec solidaire pledged on Sunday to introduce a bill to counter “savage rent increases” for buildings that have been rented for less than 5 years.
At the moment, section F of the leases allows the owners of these dwellings to raise their prices as they wish, without the tenants being able to contest this before the Administrative Housing Tribunal.
“There are incredibly high, abusive increases,” said United Housing and Housing spokesperson Andrés Fontecilla in a telephone interview.
“In a context of housing shortage, in a context where tenants, in most regions of Quebec, cannot abandon a dwelling because they will not be able to find another. Well! this is the perfect opportunity for some speculators to impose increases,” he added.
The latest report from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, released Friday, indicates that in several small municipalities in Quebec, these vacancy rates are close to 0%.
Mr. Fontecilla called on the Minister of Housing, Andrée Laforest, to legislate on Section F: “Does she defend the interests of families in Quebec or the interests of large real estate owners?”
The minister’s office did not immediately respond to messages from The Canadian Press.
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But according to the Association of Quebec Landlords (APQ), clause F is necessary to encourage the creation of new housing units, precisely when these are beginning to be lacking in several regions of Quebec.
“The expenses of a new building are difficult to predict,” said the president of the APQ, Martin Messier, in a telephone interview. “With more flexible marketing (…), we can afford a certain margin of error.”
He cited the case of landlords who forget to fill in this famous section, and who realize belatedly that the rents they collect are not sufficient to maintain the building, or that “there is no one left who wants buy that building”, for lack of profitability.
According to him, without this provision, the owner will “rent at the most expensive price possible”, for fear of losing money, or else not investing at all in new projects.
Mr Fontecilla agreed this is something to consider in legislation, but argued that ‘after a year it’s reasonable to have a very fair idea of what it’s going to cost’ , without having to wait five years.
“We do not prohibit increases with a framework for clause F”, he defended, saying above all that he wanted the tenants concerned to have the possibility of defending their point before the Administrative Housing Tribunal.
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This article was produced with the financial support of the Facebook and The Canadian Press News Fellowships.
Clara Descurninges, The Canadian Press