This text is part of the special Real Estate section
Several organizations are concerned about seeing the housing crisis worsen with the new housing law, which modifies the conditions for transferring leases, and several are sounding the alarm about its repercussions on certain tenants, particularly women and marginalized groups.
Tabled by the Minister responsible for Housing, France-Élaine Duranceau, in June 2023 and sanctioned on February 21, Bill 31 “modifying various legislative provisions relating to housing” created a shock wave among organizations who defend the rights of tenants, in particular because of the article which modifies the rules surrounding the transfer of lease. “The biggest issue with this article of law,” says David Searle, lawyer and specialist in housing law, “is misinformation. Many people think that tenants no longer have the right to assign their lease, which is completely false. »
Rising rents and discrimination
Before Bill 31 came into force, a landlord could not refuse an assignment of lease without serious reason. “In practice, however, many owners refused an assignment without good reason,” says Mr. Searle. Since February 21, a lease assignment can be rejected by a landlord without explanation. The tenant is then released from his lease and the landlord is free to rent his accommodation to whomever he wishes. “There is one exception. If the landlord has a valid reason, he can refuse the assignment and the tenant remains bound by his lease, specifies the lawyer. The problem from before therefore risks recurring, some owners will allow themselves to prohibit a transfer for peccadilloes because people know neither the law nor their rights.”
To justify the modifications to the right of transfer of lease, Mme Duranceau argued, among other things, the idea that certain tenants took advantage of their lease assignment to “sell” their accommodation to the highest bidder, and that the relationship between tenants and owners started on bad terms, with the latter not having chosen those. there. “It’s not wrong,” admits David Searle, “but Article 7 will lead to other types of abuse. »
Because an assignment of lease prevented an owner, before February 21, from increasing their rent, “it ensured that low rents were inherited within the same marginalized community,” maintains Marie-Ève Desroches, responsible for community life and consultation at the Table of Women’s Groups of Montreal (TGFM). From now on, an owner will be able to easily refuse a transfer, release their tenant, give their accommodation a facelift and rent it again for much more. »
According to her, this article of law risks exacerbating discrimination in the choice of tenant. At a press conference with various feminist organizations and in defense of the right to housing on March 8, Mme Desroches asserted that the current housing crisis “intensifies competition between tenants, which accentuates inequalities between women and men, but also between women themselves. » The length of stay has more than doubled in women’s accommodation centers with the pandemic, but this length has not returned to normal. “And it risks intensifying, because which owner is going to choose a single-parent woman with two children who comes out of a residential center? asks Marie-Ève Desroches. This is who the transfer of leases came to the aid of before Law 31.”
Some solutions
On the other hand, in this bill, according to Mr. Searle, a few measures make it possible to alleviate the crisis. There is greater control over evictions, for example. Also, the owner is now required to enter the amount of rent paid in the last 12 months. If he enters a false figure or if he asks for a rent higher than what the scale of the Administrative Housing Tribunal (TAL) allows, the new tenant of a lease assignment, for example, can, even if he has already signed your lease, request a rent fixing from the TAL. So, theoretically, abusive rent increases are more difficult, but, in practice, “few tenants want to get off to a bad start to their relationship with their landlord,” says the lawyer. Furthermore, yes, landlords have recourse, but the government is asking us to unclog the justice system. So we have a problem! »
The TGFM requested a meeting with Minister Duranceau to discuss issues related to housing from a gender perspective, a request that remained unanswered. “We must consider housing as an area of action to help discriminated groups and women,” says M.me Rocks. The federal government wants 25% of the budget paid to the provinces for the creation of affordable housing to be invested in housing projects that meet the needs of women, but “Quebec responds that it will inject this money according to what it considers , it should be a priority, maintains Marie-Ève Desroches, and obviously, building more social housing is not one of them. » Mr. Searle adds that it is also necessary to establish a rent control register since the transfer of lease “should not be used for that. » Obviously, as Mme Desroches, not every policy is neutral and article 7 of Bill 31 risks, in the eyes of many, widening inequalities.
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