Seniors win case in housing court

A Laval residence will pay them compensation for “loss of enjoyment” during the pandemic

Ariane Kroll
The Press

The private residence for seniors Les Jardins de Renoir, in Laval, will have to pay up to $1,105 to tenants for recreation and other services provided for in their lease of which they were deprived during the pandemic, concluded the Administrative Housing Tribunal ( TAL) in a decision issued in early November.

“It is obvious that the tenants have lost access to a service provided for in their leases and that they have suffered a loss of enjoyment that can be described as real, serious, significant and substantial justifying a reduction in rent”, writes the administrative judge Philippe Morisset.

A decision that will set a precedent?

“It’s really an important decision, it sets the tone for other requests,” commented lawyer Hélène Guay, who specializes in defending the rights of seniors, in a telephone interview.

About thirty similar appeals have been submitted to the TAL, but this is the first to be the subject of a decision, indicates M^e Guay, who provided information to tenants.

At the Laval private residence for seniors (RPA), the loss of enjoyment was recognized only for certain services, including the swimming pool, the gymnasium, the billiard rooms, bowling alleys and cinema, the library, the gardens and the chapel. The closure of other spaces, including the puzzle room, the community rooms and the atrium, did not give rise to a reduction in rent.

The reductions are also limited to certain periods of the pandemic, when the places were completely closed. They do not apply to the months when the service was offered with “different access terms”, even if access could then be “less convenient”, specifies Judge Morisset in a very detailed decision closely of 40 pages.

Reductions of $220 to $1105 per unit

The reductions granted range from $220 to $1,105 per unit, for the period from April 2020 to February 2022. The RPA Les Jardins de Renoir, owned by the Cogir group, has 740 units.

“We are currently learning about the judgment and its possible implications with our teams. We therefore have no comments at this time,” Cogir spokeswoman Brigitte Pouliot said by email Monday.

The applicants took advantage of a recent provision allowing tenants of certified RPAs to submit a joint application to the TAL.

“It allows people to assert their rights when they were embarrassed to do so for all kinds of concerns, such as being isolated or being rebuffed by management,” explains Ms.^e Guy.

No immunity under the Public Health Act

M^e Guay is pleased that the TAL rejected the main argument of the RPA, which claimed to benefit from “immunity” under the Public Health Act.

According to article 123 of this law, “the government, the minister or any other person cannot be prosecuted for an act performed in good faith in the exercise or execution of these powers”.

This immunity “cannot include any citizen, whether private or corporate, who respects and implements the directives”, however, considered Judge Morisset.

The additional expenses that the RPA may have incurred have “no impact on the determination of the loss of rental value”, also considered the judge.

“The landlord has made a great deal of the additional services it has offered or put in place during the pandemic. However, the landlord was largely compensated by the Government. »

However, the court did not award anything for the closing of the dining room, since “the landlord continued to provide meal service to the tenants and that […] the meals were delivered to their lodgings”.

The closure of the hairdressing salon and the pharmacy, considered “a convenience” and not a service included in the lease, did not give rise to a rent reduction either.