A co-owner was ordered this week to hand over more than $83,000 to the condominium syndicate of a Montreal building after years of illegally renting short-term accommodation there on Airbnb-type platforms.
In 2014, Lu Zhao acquired an apartment located in a 187-unit condominium building spread over 19 floors in the heart of the Griffintown district. However, she did not acquire this accommodation to stay there, but rather to rent it on a short-term basis to passing tourists.
However, in August 2016, the co-owners of the building adopted in assembly an amendment to the regulations of the building to prohibit it from renting accommodation for less than 12 consecutive months. Offenders are then liable to a fine of 1000 dollars for a first violation, a sum which then climbs to 3000 dollars for subsequent violations. The regulations were again amended in April 2017 to specify in black and white that “the promotion of accommodation on sites dedicated to short-term rentals, such as [sur] Airbnb, is prohibited”.
Mme Zhao, however, does not care about these changes to the building’s internal regulations and continues to rent his accommodation on Airbnb, claiming that it is in fact his tenant who sublets this accommodation on this platform. However, this tenant is “fictitious” and is simply part of the “stratagem” used by the co-owner to rent her accommodation on a short-term basis for years, ruled a judge of the Superior Court of Quebec on March 27.
“The evidence shows unequivocally that this person does not exist and that she is rather the pseudonym of Ms. Zhao who created an online profile using this name”, mentions the judgment. Judge Azimuddin Hussain also notes that the time of the creation of the account of this fictitious person, in 2017, coincides with the time when the building regulations were amended to specify that short-term rentals on platforms such as Airbnb are prohibited.
“It’s very profitable for them, so they have a lot of imagination to get around all the mechanisms that are put in place to try to force the law to be respected,” notes Élise Beauchesne, President and CEO of SolutionCondo. , the company responsible for managing the co-ownership syndicate of this building.
The evidence collected by the union also shows that tourists entered Lu Zhao’s accommodation through the neighboring building using an “elaborate, but sneaky system” to which the co-owner had recourse in the hope that ” no one is aware of his activities”.
17 offenses
The condominium syndicate still managed to document the presence of tourists in this accommodation. An administrator thus monitored the announcements published by the pseudonym of Lu Zhao and went to knock on the door of the condominium when tourists went there to ask to photograph their identity document in order to verify that their real address is not the one. from M’s apartmentme Zhao. The building’s security guard also made sure to alert the union when he saw tourists with their suitcases entering the building.
“You really have to catch tourists in the act when they are in the building. That’s the whole challenge. In our case, it was easier because we had a security guard and an administrator who was determined to document all of this, but small buildings do not always have these resources at their disposal, “says Ms.me Beauchesne.
In 2019, the union even went so far as to mandate a bailiff who went to reserve the accommodation of Mme Zhao pretending to be a tourist in order to accumulate sufficient evidence against the co-owner.
Thus, the co-owner received, between 2016 and 2019, 17 building by-law violation notices totaling $49,000. Each time, these violations were ignored by the co-owner, which forced the co-ownership syndicate to go to court in 2019 to obtain the sums claimed and force Lu Zhao to stop renting his accommodation for the short term.
“The lady really didn’t want to stop,” recalls Élise Beauchesne. The co-owner, however, lost her fight in the face of the extent of the evidence presented against her by the syndicate of co-ownership.
Thus, the Superior Court of Quebec acquiesced on Monday to the requests of the syndicate of co-ownership and ordered Lu Zhao to stop renting his accommodation for periods of less than 12 consecutive months. The co-owner must also return $49,000 to the syndicate for the unpaid infractions, as well as $34,387 in legal costs, for a total of $83,387.
Not a unique case
Two lawyers specializing in condominium law confirm to the Duty that it is not uncommon for condominium syndicates to have to go to court to try to put an end to illegal short-term rentals in their building.
“Penalty clauses must [incluses dans les règlements adoptés par les syndicats de copropriété] be made in such a way that it is really a deterrent to short-term rentals,” said Yves Joli-Coeur, who is also president of the Regroupement des managers et copropriétaires du Québec. Thus, there is a risk of discouraging more co-owners from indulging in this practice, notes the lawyer. “Generally, it has a deterrent effect. »
“If you have a fine that is not dissuasive enough, for example 100 dollars, there are owners who will continue” to rent their accommodation in the short term, despite the offenses issued by the syndicate of co-ownership, also opines the Lawyer Ludovic Le Draoullec.
Élise Beauchesne believes that it is above all the cities and the Quebec government that have the appropriate means to tackle illegal short-term rentals, in particular by deploying more inspectors in the field. “Someone has to do the appropriate checks and the penalties have to be steep. Otherwise, people will continue. »