Tenants of a building on rue Jean-Talon Est, located a few steps from a future station of the blue line of the Montreal metro, denounce the “intimidating” and “insistent” maneuvers of their owner to chase them away places. Allegations denied en bloc by the managers of the place.
Jessy Caseres and Edward Morillo are the parents of a large blended family of six children. Newly permanent resident, Mr. Morillo lives with his family on the second floor of a residential building in the borough of Saint-Léonard. The location is a stone’s throw from the land where the Langelier and Lacordaire stations of the blue metro line will be dug from 2024.
The couple say they were pressured by building managers to leave the place, as were four other households living in the building, who confided in the Duty. The owner says he wants to carry out major renovations.
“It’s all soaked in water,” Mr. Morillo says straight away, staring up at the blistered gypsum-covered ceiling of his living room. Further on, an uncovered floor leads to a bathroom where the ceiling is disfigured by a blister about thirty centimeters high. “In the shower, there is mold coming out,” adds Mr. Morillo’s son, visibly embarrassed by this observation.
However, if the family sleeps badly, it is not only because of the defective taps which flow permanently, molds on the walls or swollen ceilings of water.
On March 17, the tenants received a notice of a 12% rent increase, even though none of their multiple calls for help had resulted in work being done in their apartments. “We refused the increase,” explains the Caseres-Morillo couple. A few days later, on March 29, the building manager showed up at his door to get him to sign a lease termination. Appalled, Mr. Morillo nods. The administrator would also have refused their rent payments under the pretext of the “imminent demolition of the building”, they say.
Roland Boyer, a neighbor, says he received a verbal offer of “minimum $5,000, and [les propriétaires] were paying for the move”, to terminate his lease. Although several of his neighbors said yes to this offer, he finally agreed with the two building managers, Meyer Elhadad and David Hai Benarroch, on an acceptable rent increase in order to stay in his apartment.
What we know is that since the announcement [des travaux de prolongement] has been made, there are no more calls in that area.
A similar offer was made to her downstairs neighbour, Maria Eugenia Rivas Avila, who is also said to have come under pressure from the administrators. “My daughter lives down here. We’ve been living here for years, we don’t want to move, ”said the tenant. His apartment has been invaded by mold in the last year. Mme Rivas Avila says he did all the renovations at his expense.
Lucy Faride Cadavid lives on her side with a hole in the ceiling of her bathroom which has not been repaired despite repeated requests to the managers of the building. He was also offered a lease termination: “They told us: ‘If you leave, we can make an arrangement.’ The tenant notices many departures around her: “The gentleman on the other side, he lived here for 28 years; he left. The lady opposite, she left [aussi]. On the second floor, apartment 8 has not been occupied for two years. »
“It’s not as if the building was neglected”
Meyer Elhadad, who manages the building, whose owners would live in Venezuela, informed the Duty that he does not “think” that the building “has serious problems”. “I had an apartment full of mould, but we did the work. I had the wall removed and the City came with inspectors, ”says the latter by telephone.
“It’s not as if the building was neglected,” adds the manager. The building’s windows were replaced a year ago, at a cost of about $100,000, and the water infiltration is believed to be caused by their installation, he explains. “We are actively engaged in resolving this problem,” he assured by text message to the Duty.
On site, we were able to find traces of mold around the windows of three of the four apartments visited. Three tenants indicated that the mold was back just a few months after the work.
The owner took out a mortgage on the building for nearly $1.6 million from a private lender in 2020, according to documents seen by The duty.
The appeal of the future metro
According to the tenants met by THE Dutythe forthcoming arrival of the blue metro line is pushing landlords to raise rents.
Mario Tardif, community organizer at Action Dignité de Saint-Léonard, has also noted an increase in cases of tenants being pushed out by their landlords along the Jean-Talon axis. “What we know is that since the announcement [des travaux de prolongement] was made, we have more calls in that area,” said the spokesperson. His organization also notes more “requests for repossession of housing, renovations […]people who get kicked out without [que soient suivis] legal paths.
The faces of the crisis
Although student accommodation has been urgently offered to the family of Jessy Caseres and Edward Morillo, the couple do not intend to move, as do other households questioned by The duty. Supported by Sylvie Lavigne, spokesperson for the La Petite-Patrie Housing Committee, he is currently taking steps in anticipation of an intervention by the Administrative Housing Tribunal.
“It’s too hard to find [un logement]it’s far too expensive, ”laments the couple.
Sylvie Lavigne is sorry, for her part, for the maneuvers used by the managers of the place to drive out the occupants. “It’s always pretty much the same kind of building [et de locataires]people who have been there for a long time and who do not pay high rent. [Les gestionnaires] will find all sorts of subterfuges to get rid of these tenants. »
Mme Lavigne underlines the great difficulty for many households to find a new home in the midst of a housing crisis. “We see people who work, but who can no longer afford rent,” she reports. “And to [ce phénomène] Added to this is the proliferation of credit inquiries, where we will even ask for a tax report. […] The owners are looking for single, well-off people who are able to pay,” she complains.
Now, “we almost condemn people to the street – or else to find themselves in housing in worse condition”, adds the one who has defended the rights of tenants for 27 years.