These Châteauguay, Que., tenants say their landlord is cashing in by pushing them out

A group of tenants on Montreal's South Shore are accusing their new landlord of pushing them to leave their apartments and they say his behaviour is evidence of a business model that makes money at the expense of low-income, vulnerable people. 

They say their landlord, Yosef Rabi, bought the building at 144 de Gaspé Street West from a social housing non-profit in December, and tried to push people out, hike the rents and extract equity from the property as quickly as possible.

"He doesn't care about the tenants at all," Alain Gagnon, one of the tenants, said at a news conference on Friday. "He acquires buildings, he raises rents. The building increases in value and that's how he makes his profit."

Gagnon is one of 13 tenants who have filed proceedings with Quebec's housing tribunal, the TAL, either contesting lease cancellations they already signed, alleging they were invalid and abusive, or alleging harassment by Rabi.  

They are represented by lawyer Manuel Johnson, who specializes in cases involving tenants and renovictions, and Andréa Biron-Boileau. Johnson said they want the TAL to award punitive and moral damages to "send a message to the new owner that it's not right to try to convince people to move out when they have every right to stay in their homes."

The proceedings filed earlier this month with the TAL allege Rabi harassed and intimidated the tenants, telling them they needed to leave their apartments where they pay very low rents — some of them between $800 and $900 — because the building's wiring is a fire hazard and needs to be redone. 

The proceedings say Rabi misled the tenants, that he exaggerated the scale of the work that needed to be done, did not inform them of their right to stay in their apartments and pressured them into signing lease cancellations. 

The proceedings also say that since he bought the building, it has deteriorated: the heating failed in January, the building has not been cleaned, hot water heaters are not working and no snow clearing was done. 

A judge has yet to hear their case and their allegations have not been tested in court.

'No one was forced,' landlord says

In response to emailed questions, Rabi said he was not evicting the tenants, rather he was performing necessary repairs and had come to a "mutual agreement" with tenants to leave at the end of their lease. He said he offered compensation to some of them. 

"Not all tenants agreed to move out — some did, others didn't — but no one was forced," he wrote. "For those who choose to stay, we are planning to relocate them to other apartments within the building during the renovations. Once the work is complete, they'll be able to return to their original units."

He said he is not involved in any type of real estate speculation — buying properties with the expectation that their value will appreciate significantly in a short time — and said he would contest any lawsuit that argued the tenants were forced out, calling the accusation a lie that could not be proven. 

"We bought that building that was in a very bad shape and we are investing a lot of money into it to make it comfortable for our tenants and bring it up to the norms established by the various codes governing this type of building," he wrote. 

'Clearly it's financial speculation,' lawyer says

Rabi acquired the building at 144 de Gaspé in December, buying it from SOLIDES, a non-profit housing developer that focuses on social housing and building and maintaining properties for low-income tenants.

SOLIDES sold the property because they were in a financial bind, their interim director-general, Elie Gravel told the Soleil de Chateauguay in January. 

Rabi bought the property for $4.6 million on Dec. 17, 2024 — using a numbered company, 9529-8162 Quebec inc., for which he is the sole director.

Property records show that same month, Rabi took out a $3.2 million mortgage on the property with Westmount Capital Mortgage Corporation Inc. at 25 per cent interest per year. 

"If you're paying 25 per cent interest you're going to want to sell as soon as possible," said Johnson, who represents the tenants who filed the lawsuit. "Clearly it's financial speculation that's involved. I think that's pretty clear." 

On April 30, 2025, a few months after Rabi bought the building, he took out a different mortgage, this time with Computershare Trust Company of Canada, for $4.74 million at 10 per cent interest. He used that mortgage to pay off the earlier 25 per cent mortgage.

Property records show Rabi owns or co-owns at least 18 properties, most of them in Montreal. The mortgages on those properties, according to publicly available records, show a pattern of buying properties and taking out mortgages at very high rates — sometimes 25 per cent like in the case of 144 de Gaspé — against the value of the property. 

Johnson said that, in general, real estate speculators who borrow at high rates are interested in flipping their properties quickly, or at least are interested in clearing out tenants who are paying low rents.

"To me it's a red flag for an operation of real estate speculation: 'I'm going to take the credit, I'm going to leverage it, raise the rents by getting the old tenants out who are paying low rent,'" he said. "That's going to raise the value of the building. Then you can go and borrow new money on the new value of the building."

Landlord 'acted fraudulently' in different TAL case

In April, the TAL ruled against Rabi, saying that he "acted fraudulently and in a deliberate manner toward a tenant." It is unclear at which building the tenant lived. 

In that case, a tenant receiving a rent supplement from the Office municipal d'habitation de Montréal (OMHM) was told her rent was increasing and that her heating and hot water would no longer be included in the rent — she was told she would have to leave her apartment if she refused. Rabi had sent her a letter suggesting that the rent increase came from the OMHM, when it had not.

The housing tribunal judge cancelled the increase, awarded the tenant damages and went further, saying "the landlord's behaviour was inexcusable and reprehensible because he tried to take unfair advantage of a vulnerable person." The judgment was rendered by default because neither Rabi nor a representative appeared.

Michel Dormoy, a tenant who has lived at 144 de Gaspé for four years, said he refused to sign documents cancelling his lease because rents are too high elsewhere. He currently pays $850 a month for his apartment. 

He said he's taking part in the tenants' lawsuit because he wants to stay in his apartment. 

"I hope we win. I can't afford $1,500, $1,400 a month. I'm going to be on the street," he said. "It's a bad situation."

Gagnon, the other tenant, who is on a rent supplement program, said he wants punitive damages for the stress he says he has endured. But he said he has already secured a different apartment thanks to the local housing office and is moving out at the end of the month.

"In a certain way, they already won because … they're raising the rents so the building has more value," he said. "They'll make lots more money on that."