Five tenants are being forced to increase their rent by 33% less than a year after signing a sublease with the owner of the premises, a criticized practice which deprives them of their right to remain in the premises.
Larry Gitman, the owner of this five-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment, located a stone’s throw from the Mont-Royal metro station on rue Saint-Denis, declined to comment when reached by phone Thursday. However, he admitted to being the owner of the premises, as well as several other accommodations in Montreal. The property manager also declined to comment.
In the last few days, the five tenants of this renovated apartment in the Plateau Mont-Royal were surprised to learn that their monthly rent will increase by $1,000 at the end of their lease, on June 30. “He said it was because of inflation,” says Carina Sabourin, one of the tenants of this accommodation, currently rented for $3,000 a month.
“By reading the regulations online [concernant le droit au logement]we found that it did not respect the rules in connection with rent increases, ”she adds in an interview Thursday, in the presence of one of her roommates, Claire Vanden Eynde.
After questioning the Plateau Mont-Royal Housing Committee, university students living in this apartment said that this rent increase should be around $50 per month.
“There is nothing that justifies a rent increase of $1,000” for this accommodation, said the To have to the community organizer within this housing committee, Vicky Langevin.
An “illegal” sublease
The young women then refused this increase in rent, which earned them a threat of eviction from the landlord. The latter has since posted the furnished accommodation for rent on various websites, where it is offered for $4,000 per month.
“He had asked the week before if he could come and take pictures to put the apartment on Facebook,” recalls Mme Vanden Eynde, speaking of the building manager, to whom she had then reminded that she did not wish to leave this accommodation.
Normally, a lease is renewed automatically in order to protect the tenants’ right to remain in the premises, as provided for in the Civil Code of Quebec. “The lease of a dwelling, it is re-leased, it does not have a fixed duration”, also recalls the lawyer specializing in housing law Manuel Johnson in an interview.
The rental contract signed by the five students – and whose The duty got a copy — mentions however that it is a “sublease”. In such cases, the tenants do not have the acquired right to remain in this accommodation beyond the expiry date of the contract. “It takes away all our rights,” sighs Carina Sabourin, who feels trapped.
The Civil Code of Quebec nevertheless provides that only a tenant can sublet his dwelling. However, in this case, it is indeed the owner of the building, in accordance with what is registered on the property roll of the City, who signed this rental contract with his tenants. An illegal practice, believes Mr.and Johnson.
“Some landlords may be trying to take advantage of ignorance of the law to impose this kind of lease on foreign students,” says the lawyer. However, “a sublease with an owner does not exist […] It’s against the law,” he said. An analysis shared by Vicky Langevin, from the Plateau Mont-Royal Housing Committee.
“A landlord cannot himself make a sublease. It must be a tenant who sublets, so it’s illegal, ”she says. The community organizer also sees this as “a common practice” used by landlords who try to “abuse the ignorance of the rights” of tenants to more easily impose significant increases in their rent on them.
The latter thus considers that an appeal before the Administrative Housing Tribunal would make it possible to decide on the validity or otherwise of this sublease, within the framework of a declaratory judgment. An avenue that the tenants of this accommodation are considering. “I think we will look to find another place to go, but at the same time we will go to the TAL to raise this point”, says Mme Sabourin, who wishes to prevent other tenants from suffering a similar situation.