Loss of services during containment | RPA tenants demand refund

Private residences for seniors should reimburse the services to which their tenants did not have access during the pandemic without forcing them to fight in court, believes the Quebec Association for the Defense of the Rights of Retired and Pre-retired Persons (AQDR). There is nothing to reimburse, objects the Quebec Regrouping of residences for seniors (RQRA).

Ariane Kroll
The Press

The activities, including the swimming pool and the bowling alley, as well as the common areas, such as the dining room, are among the attractions that convinced Daniel Cardinal to move into the Montreal residence Ora, owned by Groupe Maurice. Benefits which, according to him, represent 15% of the cost of his rent, and of which he has been deprived for long periods for two years.

“We have been fighting since the start of the pandemic to get results, and they do not want to reimburse us for any costs”, denounced the sixty-year-old on Friday on the sidelines of an AQDR press briefing.

Mr. Cardinal and neighbors of his residence therefore filed a joint request for a rent reduction with the Administrative Housing Tribunal (TAL). At least fifteen residences for seniors (RPA) are the subject of such joint requests to the TAL.

“All those who have been cheated do not have the energy to fight,” however, underlined Pierre Lynch, president of the AQDR, who is asking for “systematic reimbursement”.

For the RQRA, whose some 800 members own 62% of housing of this type, this is out of the question.

“They know very well that there are fixed costs that cannot disappear […]a large part of which for which we have not had government assistance,” objects the CEO of the RQRA, Marc Fortin.

Such reimbursement could cost $250 to $300 per month per dwelling, for 18 to 24 months, estimates the group. “You easily come up with 250, 300, 350 million dollars,” argues Mr. Fortin, recalling that small and medium-sized seniors’ residences have disappeared over the past year.

Residences have immunity from prosecution, also argues Mr. Fortin, citing a legal opinion obtained by the RQRA. Section 123 of the Public Health Actwhich lists measures that “the government or the minister” can take in a state of health emergency, mentions in fact that “the government, the minister or any other person cannot be prosecuted for an act performed in good faith” .

This “good faith” in a context where Quebec had “the power to impose exceptional measures on RPAs, as on the entire population”, is also mentioned by Groupe Maurice in a statement sent by email to The Press.

Lucille Théroux leads the joint request of the tenants of her residence, L’Avantage, in Brossard, also owned by Groupe Maurice. It does not dispute the application of health measures by the company. “That’s not what it’s about! It is a question of reimbursing us for what we paid and that we did not have, period, ”insists this retired executive from the health system.

“Skilled in Excel”, she estimated the value of the services included in the rents and compiled the loss of access to justify a request for reimbursement of $225 per month. “They will have to do it early to impress me,” warns the octogenarian.

“The RPAs had no discretion as to the application of the numerous directives issued by Public Health”, recalled the Groupe Maurice in its written statement.

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“The reimbursement that is requested is completely legal” and “is based on very simple and very clear analyzes and principles”, for her part indicated lawyer Hélène Guay, who specializes in the defense of the rights of seniors, at the point of AQDR press.

Quebec tenants have obtained rent reductions for loss of use during the pandemic, reports M^and Guy.

A tenant of an RPA in Granby who asked for $235.85 got $100. A tenant of an RPA in Montréal-Nord who asked for $125 to $250 per month obtained a monthly reimbursement of $90 for three months and $15 for the following months. A high-end condominium tenant in Laval also obtained $150 per month for six months.