Several former tenants of the burned building in Old Montreal testified to the Duty of the “climate of fear” that would have reigned in recent years within the walls of this heritage building, which once offered affordable rents, before giving way to short-term rentals and expensive leases.
Tuesday afternoon, a second victim was extricated from the rubble of the building, bringing to two the number of confirmed dead following this fire, which left nine injured last Thursday. The identity of the second victim, whose body will be analyzed by the laboratory of forensic sciences and forensic medicine, is unknown.
Five people are also still missing. Among those missing are believed to be residents of Quebec, Ontario and the United States. The search in the rubble is however complicated by the poor state of the burnt building, indicated in the morning the inspector David Shane, of the Service of police of the City of Montreal (SPVM).
“There are places where the roof has collapsed on the floors and the floors are stacked on top of each other. We are facing a scene of destruction, ”he summarized in a press briefing.
Intimidation and threats
The owner of the building on rue du Port which burned down last Thursday has also had several disputes with tenants in recent years. He is also the owner of about fifteen buildings in the metropolis.
Thus, since 2020, Emile-Haim Benamor has accumulated more than twenty decisions from the Administrative Housing Tribunal (TAL) concerning tenants of eight of its buildings located in Montreal and Westmount, noted The duty. Some files at the TAL show tenants having sued this landlord to claim reductions in their rent or even moral and punitive damages for “trouble and inconvenience” or the “harassment” they allege to have suffered.
Catherine Joyal remained for three years in the burnt down building in Old Montreal. The year she moved into this 14-unit building, in 2009, the building was acquired by Emile-Haim Benamor for $1.65 million. At that point, “it really changed. The climate that began to reign was a climate of fear, intimidation, harassment,” said Ms.me Joyal, who left this building in 2012.
During her stay in this building, the tenant fought before the TAL against the owner who, she alleges, wanted her to leave her apartment for which she was paying “really cheap” rent. “He entered our house several times, without notice, at 6 a.m., shouting and making threats,” says Ms.me Joyal, who then lived with her former spouse. “Eventually, I left, I was no longer capable. »
On September 6, 2012, Mr. Benamor also lost a case before the TAL after trying to oust Mr.me Joyal, Piotr Torbiki, on the grounds that a lease had been transferred to the latter by a former tenant without the authorization of the owner. However, “the termination of the requested lease appeared more important to evict the tenant to dispose of the premises for another purpose”, noted the administrative judge Jocelyne Gascon, who validated the assignment of the lease in favor of the tenant. The monthly rent for this accommodation then amounted to 400 dollars.
Another tenant, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals from his former landlord, meanwhile left his accommodation last February, “in the middle of the night”, after suffering “seven years of harassment” from the from Emile-Haim Benamor. The latter would have let him know that he wanted to oust him to rent this accommodation on Airbnb. Faced with the tenant’s refusal to leave, he would have seen his rent rise rapidly in recent years to reach $1,800, as evidenced by his last lease renewal. “At least now I’m safe. »
Buster Fraum has lived in this building twice, for four months in the summer of 2015 and again for a year from the summer of 2020. He too claims to have suffered “abuse” from the owner of this building which, he claims, was in very poor condition. “I learned to stop taking my shower in the morning, because if the owner was there he would knock on my door yelling to ask me to stop taking my shower because it was leaking water in the bathroom. stairs,” he says.
“I’m sure that if they had done the inspections, he wouldn’t have left it like that,” says a former tenant of the building, referring to the inspectors from the City of Montreal. The lady, who asked to remain anonymous, had also noticed in 2021 that this building was poorly maintained. “The police, the City of Montreal, they could give him fines, something to avoid what happened. But they weren’t there. »
At the time these lines were written, the City had not responded to questions from the Duty concerning the number of inspections carried out in this building since its acquisition by Emile-Haim Benamor in 2009, nor on the number of permits granted to it.
The owner and his lawyer could not be reached by The dutyTuesday.