Tenants will find themselves on the street or forced to move away from large centers due to the Legault government’s decision to adopt an article in its Bill 31, which will limit the right of tenants to transfer their lease, fears the Regroupement housing committees and tenant associations of Quebec (RCLALQ).
Article 7 of Bill 31, defended by the Minister responsible for Housing, France-Élaine Duranceau, was adopted in parliamentary committee on Tuesday. This aims to ensure that owners will no longer have to invoke a serious reason – such as the financial insolvency of a tenant – to refuse an assignment of lease. When this bill comes into force, an owner will be able to refuse an assignment of lease without having to justify it.
“He can simply say he refuses. And at that point, the tenant has no recourse,” noted RCLALQ spokesperson Martin Blanchard on Wednesday during a virtual press conference. The organization thus fears that “the withdrawal of the right to transfer a lease” has the effect of “worsening” the housing crisis, marked by a rapid increase in rents and homelessness in Quebec, in recent years . “The transfer of a lease, for many people, was the only way to have access to housing at all,” insisted Cédric Dussault, from RCLALQ.
“Without any supporting data, the government is bending to the whims of homeowners associations to remove the slightest obstacle to maximizing their profits […]. It’s completely shameful,” continued the organization’s co-spokesperson, who affirmed that Minister Duranceau refused to meet with the organization as part of the study of Bill 31.
Prevent tragedies
During this event, several tenants took turns speaking to highlight how being able to benefit from a lease transfer in recent years allowed them to avoid finding themselves in a precarious situation. For example, Kékéli Egbetoke obtained last year, thanks to a lease transfer, a one-bedroom apartment in Trois-Rivières for a rent of $550 per month, electricity and heating included. She had searched for three months previously for accommodation that met her financial capacity and her needs, in vain.
“All this to say that without this transfer of lease, I would not have been able, as a young student who has just finished her studies, to find a heated and lit three and a half with current prices [sur le marché locatif] when I didn’t have a job yet,” noted the young woman.
Geneviève Arcand, despite her salary as a nurse, for her part questioned for a moment her decision to separate from her ex-partner, because she feared not being able to find another apartment in the Rosemont district, in Montreal, meeting its financial capacity. “And I know people who have not separated and who now remain in toxic relationships because it changes things to separate and live alone,” confided the mother. She also benefited from a lease assignment which allowed her to move with her young child to another apartment in the neighborhood.
The tenant now fears that more tenants will find themselves having to move away from the central neighborhoods of Montreal, once Bill 31 comes into force, because they will no longer have the means to find affordable housing. “I find that absurd. »
The RCLAQ will demonstrate again on Saturday in the streets of Montreal against Bill 31, which could be adopted within a few weeks.