An immigrant without status who has lived in Quebec for about ten years was scammed by a tenant and is now facing eviction. Moussa, who is not giving his name so as not to harm his precarious situation, paid $1,200, or about two months’ rent, to a person renting a room in a building in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Montreal. Not only did he never get the keys to the apartment, but he will likely never see his money again.
“It had never happened to me to be scammed like that. It broke me,” Moussa told Duty.
Originally from Africa, Moussa was denied asylum ten years ago. After a series of misfortunes, including the failure of a sponsorship by his then-partner, he lost his work permit and chose to stay in the country to be close to his loved ones. Even though it meant living without status, he was hopeful that he would be able to apply for permanent residency on humanitarian grounds, which he is currently doing. “My life is here now,” he said.
Two weeks ago, Moussa responded to an ad on Kijiji for a room in an apartment on rue Saint-Jacques. The person renting, who is not the owner according to the checks of the Dutydemanded cash payment of two months’ rent, which is illegal. With no credit history or references, Moussa had no choice but to comply if he wanted a roof over his head. “I never told this man I didn’t have papers, but I think he understood,” the African immigrant said. “He saw that I was desperate.”
At the time of the in-person transaction, Moussa was with a Solidarity Across Borders activist, who had helped him carry his few belongings: a bag, a cardboard box and a television. The man renting the apartment reportedly told him to come back in two days, but agreed to keep Moussa’s belongings. Suspicious, Moussa wrote to the tenant again the next day to reassure himself about the deal they had made. The man then allegedly told him he had left for Toronto. “I didn’t trust him anymore,” explains Moussa, who immediately went to the apartment. “I wanted him to stop playing games and give me back my belongings and my money.”
I had never been scammed like that before. It broke me.
The nightmare of eviction
According to his account, what happened next became a nightmare for him. Once there, Moussa was told by a woman who occupied another room in the apartment that she could not do anything for him. Moussa became more insistent to get his belongings back, which were finally returned to him. But the police were called to the scene.
Against all odds, the man who had made the deal with Moussa, who was clearly not in Toronto, came out of the apartment. He admitted to the police that he had received a sum of money that he would try to repay. The police decided to take Moussa to the station, after noting that there was an arrest warrant in his name. They pushed the search to the point of checking his status and Moussa was turned over to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and then released on conditions.
“I’m very stressed, I don’t know what’s going to happen to me tomorrow,” he said.
Since 2020, under a “no fear” policy implemented by the administration of Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante, officers of the Montreal Police Service (SPVM) are supposed to no longer systematically carry out status checks, except under certain conditions, notably when there is an arrest warrant resulting from an immigration procedure.
“Montreal is really not a sanctuary city,” lamented Amy Darwish, coordinator of the Parc-Extension Action Committee.
“It seems like there is rather close collaboration between the SPVM and the CBSA. We often see racial profiling or situations where the police check if there is a warrant and arrest people,” she says. Mme Darwish said he is seeing more and more people being deported following a “routine arrest.”
Increased vulnerability of migrants
When it comes to housing, there’s no doubt that undocumented migrants are the most vulnerable, particularly because the spectre of eviction always looms, says Amy Darwish. “It’s hard to defend your rights when you’re an undocumented tenant.”
This is also what Margaret Van Nooten, of the housing committee Projet Genèse in Côte-des-Neiges, has observed. “What landlords are looking for is the tenant’s credit history, their references at work or as a former tenant. But many newcomers and undocumented people won’t have that,” she says. “They will then pay two or three months’ rent in advance. That’s often all the money they have or have managed to borrow.” The law is clear, however: only one month’s rent can be due, and that is when the lease is signed.
While it is possible to report an abusive landlord to the Administrative Housing Tribunal (TAL), there are also remedies available when the fraud is committed by the tenant, such as in the case of a sublet. “But even if the judgment is in our favor, the chances of getting our money back are practically non-existent,” emphasizes Mme Van Nooten. And the costs of undertaking these steps at the TAL are prohibitive.
In the case of this room for rent in an apartment on rue Saint-Jacques, The Duty learned that the tenant had been summoned to appear before the TAL last week for unpaid rent. The tenant did not appear at the hearing, according to what we have seen. At the time of writing, the room was still for rent on Kijiji.