The Legault government tabled a bill on Friday to crack down on landlords who evict, but tenants also suffer since they would lose the right to make lease assignments without the owner’s notice.
Bill 31 will require owners of new buildings to indicate in the lease the maximum increases they could impose on their tenants for the next five years. This will give tenants greater “predictability,” said Housing Minister France-Élaine Duranceau.
Tenant advocacy groups were asking for more, namely the elimination of clause F from the lease, which allows these unlimited increases. But the minister pleads that such a change could have slowed down the construction of new housing in a context where the needs are crying out.
His bill also provides for measures making evictions more restrictive for owners. The latter would have a greater burden of proof in the context of an action for damages for eviction.
Another change: tenants who do not respond to an eviction notice in a timely manner would not be penalized for their negligence. Rather than being presumed to be in agreement with the eviction, it will be taken for granted that they are against it.
Concretely, this will force landlords to justify their decision to evict a tenant before the Housing Court.
In cases where landlords use false pretenses to evict people and raise rents, the bill will not change anything a priori. On the other hand, in cases where tenants subsequently take them to court in civil proceedings for illegal eviction, it will be more difficult for the landlord to win their case.
No more lease assignments
Also targeted by the bill’s measures, tenants could no longer make lease assignments without the landlord having a say. The latter could terminate the lease as soon as he receives the notice of assignment.
A measure strongly denounced by Québec Solidaire on Friday. It is “a major setback”, reacted the deputy Andres Fontecilla. It is one of the tools “most used to protect against rent increases”, he insisted.
However, assignments of leases by tenants are fundamentally unfair in the eyes of the minister. “That doesn’t make sense. You are the owner, you take risks, you invest your money in an asset and you do not even have control of it”.
As for knowing if the moment can be badly chosen, because of the vulnerability of the tenants, the minister retorts that “there will never be a good moment”.
The bill was tabled by Minister Duranceau on the last day of the parliamentary session. It must be the subject of consultations in Parliament at the start of the school year in the fall.
In recent months, the opposition in Parliament has increased the pressure on the minister to act against the housing crisis and the impoverishment of tenants. On Friday, Québec Solidaire criticized him for having acted too late and for not having planned anything to contain the rent increases.
Minister Duranceau defends herself by saying that Bill 31 is part of a “combination of measures” aimed at countering the housing crisis. A crisis that “will not be resolved overnight the crisis”, she also mentions.