2024-01-30 05:00:00
An 83-year-old Laval resident is in shock at having to leave the home she has lived in for 30 years despite the law intended to protect seniors vulnerable to such situations.
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“I’m looking, I started emptying the accumulated stuff. I don’t know where I’m going to go,” says Andrée Bertrand, met in Laval’s four and a half block where she pays $456 per month.
At the beginning of December, she received a notice of repossession of her accommodation from her landlord who wanted to accommodate her aunt suffering from Alzheimer’s there.
Although she initially refused to take it back, she finally signed a lease termination agreement with the owner in exchange for an amount of $3,884 to cover moving costs and three months of rent.
“I was told that it was a lost cause, that if I didn’t sign, I would lose everything,” says the woman who lives on the meager income from her pension, barely more than $21,000 per year.
“Breach”
In principle, since 2016, a new article of the Civil Code protects tenants aged 70 and over who have lived in their accommodation for more than ten years and whose income makes them eligible for low rent.
There is an exception if the person who will benefit from the accommodation is also aged 70 and over,” warns Marjolaine Condrain-Morel, lawyer and legal popularizer at Éducaloi.
This person must also be a family member of whom the owner is the main supporter.
“It is a breach which leaves a door open to the recovery of housing. We need to know: does the law protect us or not? says Madame Bertrand’s son, Normand Dubois, indignantly.
A caregiver for his disabled daughter, the 62-year-old man cannot accommodate his mother in his small home, nor his two sisters.
In the midst of the housing crisis, finding a new roof is not easy.
“I may have found a place for $2,100, which would cost me a thousand dollars with government help. If it’s more than that, I’m on the street!”, worries Ms. Bertrand.
Targeted elderly people
For the Association of Housing Committees and Tenant Associations of Quebec (RCLAQ), this shows that the system is still letting seniors escape who risk finding themselves homeless.
“Elderly people are particularly targeted by evictions because they have been in their homes for a long time and they do not pay much. Often, they do not have the strength to fight,” underlines the spokesperson, Cédric Dussault.
He advises people to always consult their housing committee before signing anything. “Often there is a difference between what the law says on paper and what happens in reality,” he says.
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