The accommodation is advertised like this on the Airbnb website: “This is not your grandmother’s house. » You come here to party. The big party. There’s a poker table, a putting green, a ping-pong table, a video games room, a crazy stereo, beds to accommodate 14 partygoers, in short, enough to disgust your neighbors until the wee hours in the morning.
And to sicken them, you will sicken them, you and all those who will parade after you in this den of pleasure, do not doubt it for a moment.
Think about it, it’s a real bargain. For $1,000 per night, you will party in the heart of a peaceful residential area, in Verdun. You will scream, dance and sing at the top of your lungs on the terrace. As a bonus, you will push the neighbor to the limit, she who has just had a baby and who is already sorely lacking in sleep…
All this, under the noses of the authorities!
Because, no, the owner of this chic residence, Karim-Olivier Kamal, does not have the right to rent it to you. Verdun prohibits the commercial rental of accommodation to tourists throughout its territory. Notice, in Verdun as elsewhere, many owners still do it, discreetly.
But when one of them is as unsubtle as Mr. Kamal – who not only converted Grandma’s house into a place of debauchery, but also has the nerve to promote it all over the place. letters on the Airbnb website – it seems to me that it should be simple for the municipal authorities to put an end to its lucrative scheme.
You think. All the Verdun district was able to do was give Mr. Kamal a $2,500 ticket. The equivalent of two and a half days of rental. A little slap on the wrist. Very small. Barely a touch. Almost a caress.
Nothing has changed. In an investigation published Friday, my colleague Isabelle Ducas exposed the stratagems used by owners to circumvent the rules and offer illegal tourist rentals1. Child’s play. Some of them, for example, claim to be owners of two main residences. It’s absurd. But the most absurd thing is that it works!
Since then, Quebec has tightened the screws on the owners. Last year, the number of tourist rentals offered on the Airbnb platform increased, going from 30,000 to 31,600 across Quebec. Admit that it’s quite a challenge.
All this, a year after the fire in Old Montreal which killed seven people, including six in accommodations posted completely illegally on the Airbnb platform.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
The building on Place d’Youville, in Old Montreal, where a fire killed seven people last March
A year has passed since municipal and provincial authorities assured us, with tears in their eyes and hands on their hearts: enough is enough, the Wild West of Airbnbs. It has to change. Never again, such a tragedy!
It hasn’t changed.
In the midst of the housing crisis, speculators are still showing up on Airbnb and other rental platforms. Shamelessly. Without restraint.
The squad set up by the City of Montreal after the fire admits its helplessness. In eight months, she submitted 42 tickets. This is not much, considering the scale of the phenomenon. Only one Airbnb listing was closed to re-enter the rental market.
The City also admits its failure to enforce its own regulations. Despite his suspicions, it is impossible for him to prove that an owner is lying when he declares that a rental property is his main residence. Revenu Québec holds this information. And he guards it, jealously.
Mayor Valérie Plante talks about “the madhouse”. In the office of the Minister of Tourism, Caroline Proulx, we continue to say that “municipalities already have all the necessary tools to apply their regulations”. This is clearly not the case.
I already wrote it a year ago: the authorities must take their responsibilities and stop passing the buck2. They must adopt much more robust measures to force rental platforms, and those who appear on them, to respect local regulations.
It’s happening elsewhere. In San Francisco, in Barcelona, it works. Why not in Quebec? You just have to give yourself the means to get there. Impose truly dissuasive sanctions. And allow the different bodies to collaborate a little with each other, what the hell.
If nothing changes, a trial could change the situation: that of the collective action brought by relatives of the victims of the fire in Old Montreal against the owner of the burned building, against the manager and against Airbnb.
Until now, the American company has never been held responsible for injuries, assaults or deaths occurring in accommodation rented on its platform. She spent millions on out-of-court settlements, the magazine reported Maclean’s in a recent survey3.
This time it might be different. In October, plaintiffs’ lawyers added the City of Montreal to the list of defendants, saying it had failed to enforce its own regulations with Airbnb.
It will be interesting to follow this trial, brought by bereaved parents but determined to demand accountability. Its repercussions could be felt well beyond the borders of Montreal.
1. Read our file “No more Airbnb despite a turn of the screw”
2. Read the column “For Charlie”, by Isabelle Hachey
3. Read a magazine article Maclean’s (in English)