Residents of the municipality of Saint-Côme, in Lanaudière, suffered a setback in the Superior Court of Quebec this week after trying in vain to ban the presence of residences rented short-term on Airbnb-type platforms around the lake, once peaceful, where they have remained for years. They are now weighing their options, it has been learned The duty.
This municipality with its demographic growth represents a blatant example of the impacts of the pandemic on the growth in the number of residences offered for short-term rental in rural villages of the province. Thus, Saint-Côme, a municipality of approximately 2,600 residents, currently has nearly 300 residences with a short-term rental permit, Mayor Martin Bordeleau confirmed Friday in an interview with Duty.
“It has a very big impact on our merchants, our restaurants, Val Saint-Côme [une station de ski de la municipalité], argues the mayor. It has an impact on all commercial activity in our village. »
Legal recourse
However, tourist residences do not only make people happy in the municipality. In recent years, the tranquility of residents living around Lac Clair has been disrupted by the arrival of passing tourists who came to recharge their batteries there during the pandemic, which temporarily prevented thousands of Quebecers from traveling abroad. There are currently four properties – including two large chalets – which have the authorizations required by the municipality to be rented short-term on platforms such as Airbnb. Their owners obtained the required permits from the municipality in spring 2021.
Subsequently, from the summer of 2021, “the municipality received complaints due to noise, fireworks and the use of prohibited boats on Lake Clair,” mentions a decision by Judge Gregory Moore. The latter focused during a hearing held on December 4 on a lawsuit against the municipality launched on October 13, 2021 by the Association Notre-Dame du lac Clair, which brings together the owners of more than 130 residences located on the outskirts of this body of water.
“You don’t settle there to endure nuisances like that,” says Bernard Paquin in an interview, whose home offers a breathtaking view of Lake Clair.
The members of this association wanted to have short-term rentals declared prohibited in the area surrounding this lake, which is reserved in municipal regulations for single-family dwellings. They therefore argued before the Court that since commercial uses are prohibited around this lake, this should also be the case for tourist residences.
The municipality, for its part, argued that the request from this group of residents is “inadmissible because the holders of these permits are not implicated and have not had the chance to contest the association’s request”, which as also agreed by the Superior Court of Quebec, in a decision rendered Wednesday.
“The association and the municipality have produced hearsay evidence indicating that these people would have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy or build their residences in the expectation of recovering part of their investments through rental. short term. To the extent that this evidence is admissible, it describes interests too important to be ignored,” Justice Moore said. According to him, the absence of the four owners of tourist residences during this hearing deprived the court “of the evidence and the repercussions of the owners who would be directly affected by a declaratory judgment”.
“Theoretical questions”
Judge Gregory Moore also ruled that the residents of Lac Clair at the origin of this legal action were not able to prove that the four short-term rental properties at the heart of this case are the source of the nuisances that they denounce, and that therefore these disturbances would cease if the court banned their presence around the body of water.
“Although it is reasonable to believe that long-term residents are more respectful towards neighbors and the neighborhood than weekend tenants, the evidence does not allow definitive conclusions to be drawn in this sense,” indicates the decision of the Superior Court. However, the latter “is not required to rule on theoretical questions or in cases where the judgment will not put an end to the uncertainty or controversy raised”, underlined the magistrate, who thus rejected the appeal of the Lac Clair Residents Association.
“We welcome the judgment favorably. This is a question that could have had quite significant repercussions in the municipality if we had not won the case,” notes Mayor Martin Bordeleau. Last year, the municipality adopted a new zoning by-law which prohibits tourist residences in certain areas, including around Lac Clair. The 106 tourist residences which already had a permit to carry out short-term rentals in areas where tourist residences are now prohibited, however, retain an acquired right allowing them to continue to operate.
Thus, more than a hundred residences would have had to stop short-term rentals – and not only the four located around Lac Clair – if the residents’ association at the heart of this affair had obtained a favorable judgment from the Superior Court, mentioned Mr. Bordeleau on Friday, visibly relieved. The mayor also notes that this legal decision was expected by several municipalities which are also faced with the growing popularity of short-term rentals in their territory. The municipality of Saint-Côme also received financial support of approximately $25,000 from the Fédération québécoise des municipalities to pay its legal fees in this matter, confides the mayor.
“I’m disappointed, that’s obvious, but I haven’t had time to think about what happens next,” notes Jean-Denis Asselin. The latter indicates that the members of the Notre-Dame du lac Clair Association will first have to hold a board meeting next year before deciding whether to appeal this decision.