The tenants of the Mont-Carmel seniors’ residence (RPA), located in downtown Montreal, won a first round before the Superior Court of Quebec. This orders the owner Henry Zavriyev to continue to offer the services that make it an RPA until this file is studied on the merits this fall.
Like the tenants of Manoir Lafontaine, a rental building in Plateau-Mont-Royal, the residents of Mont-Carmel, on René-Lévesque Boulevard East, have had to show resilience in the midst of a crisis that particularly affects affordable housing in the metropolis.
Located in the heart of downtown, RPA Mont-Carmel has 216 rental units of various sizes. Many residents have lived there for years, and therefore continue to pay affordable rent despite this prime location. The acquisition of the building by the young investor Henry Zavriyev last December, however, upset the quiet life of the tenants still present in the building.
In the month following this $40 million transaction, the 28-year-old businessman, who entrusted the management of this building to the LRM Group, informed his tenants that the building would lose its vocation as an RPA. from 1er August to become a traditional rental complex. Residents would then see their rent increase by 3%, in addition to losing access to several services, such as the presence of a “panic button” in the rooms and a nursing assistant at all times on site.
Clinging to a clause in the deed of sale which mentions that this building must continue to be operated as an RPA, tenant Nicole Jetté, 79, began legal action last April before the Superior Court against the business of Mr. Zavriyev. In addition to bringing this case personally, the resident represents 56 other elderly tenants who are demanding the maintenance of the services that make this building a residence for seniors.
“The clause does not seem to allow an attentive reader to think that a month after its signature, [Henry Zavriyev] would take steps to free itself from the obligations it contains, ”raises Superior Court Judge Sylvain Lussier in a decision rendered Tuesday following a hearing held last week.
A reprieve
Judge Lussier thus granted a safeguard order forcing Mr. Zavriyev to keep all the RPA services offered in this building until this file is analyzed on the merits, on September 19th. This 22-page judgment, which The duty was able to consult, thus offering a reprieve to the tenants of the Mont-Carmel residence, who felt their anxiety rising as the 1er august. “The criterion of urgency is met”, decides the magistrate.
By the same token, this decision obliges the CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-Montréal to “provide” to the owner of the residence the certificate of conformity that the building needs to operate as an RPA.
“Mobilizing and having your rights recognized is ageless, we have proof of that today! This victory belongs to the tenants of Mont-Carmel, who have shown courage and tenacity,” rejoiced in a statement sent to the To have to the co-spokesperson of Québec solidaire, Manon Massé, while deploring that “it does not make sense that in Quebec, in 2022, seniors must fight in court to stay at home”.
Last May, an investigation by the To have to revealed that the investor Henry Zavriyev and his business partners have acquired since 2017 some forty buildings located in ten districts of the metropolis. The young man then owned more than 1,000 rental units.