The number of evictions is rising sharply in Quebec, according to an annual report unveiled Tuesday by organizations defending the rights of tenants.
In 2020, 600 Quebec households had requested the help of these organizations because their owner threatened to evict them from their apartment. This year, they were 874. Already, in 2020, the number of requests for assistance on this subject had doubled, compared to 2019.
Community organizers stress that these data represent only the tip of the iceberg, as many tenants who are evicted from their homes do not know where to seek help and do not know their rights.
Most of the time, it is new owners, who have just acquired a building at a high price, who are thus trying to evict tenants, according to the compilation of the Regroupement des committees housing et associations de tenantes du Québec (RCLALQ).
“Half of the eviction attempts were made by owners who bought the building in the past year,” said Maxime Roy-Allard, spokesperson for RCLALQ. “They are therefore carried out in order to be able to quickly increase the rents and make more profit. ”
The law allows an owner to take back an apartment to lodge there or to lodge a member of his family. Evictions are also possible in the event of subdivision or expansion of a dwelling, with compensation to the tenant.
But tenants’ rights organizations denounce the fact that many times these are tactics used by landlords to re-let a home at a higher price.
Renovations – taking advantage of the completion of work in a dwelling to evict a tenant – are not permitted by law, but landlords still try to evict tenants using this pretext.
Among the 874 cases examined by the RCLALQ, half concerned tenants who had lived in their accommodation for at least 10 years, and more than a third for at least 15 years.
“These are often people rooted in their neighborhood, with a social network around them, living in affordable housing,” says Mr. Roy-Allard.
These tenant households paid an average rent of $ 767 per month, which is much lower than the average rent of $ 844 in Quebec according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), specifies the spokesperson for RCLALQ. .
To counter evictions and protect tenants, the organization requests the intervention of the Minister of Housing, Andrée Laforest.
He calls in particular for the complete withdrawal of the provisions of the Civil Code of Quebec allowing eviction for the purposes of subdivision, expansion and change of use. Regarding repossessions, they must be prohibited for all sectors where the vacancy rate is less than 3% and the allowances paid to tenants during a repossession should be considerably increased, from three to 12 months rent. , asks the RCLALQ.
He also urges Minister Andrée Laforest to institute mandatory rent control and a rent register, to prevent eviction tactics.