Montreal tenants told to vacate homes without notice in ongoing Roominex property dispute

Tenants who have been renting rooms from the online agency Roominex were contacted on Thursday and told they had only a matter of hours to vacate or else their belongings would be seized.

In an email obtained by CBC, the company told tenants living at a property on René-Lévesque Boulevard and another on Côte-des-Neiges Road to leave that same day.

"The past few months have been very difficult for some of you in terms of services rendered. We are sorry for the inconvenience that may have caused you," reads the email.

"At this time, your leases are terminated. All contracts and financial management go back to your respectable landowners. Roominex ceased representing you in any cases."

Roominex is a Montreal short-term rental agency that sublets rooms from local landlords and rents them out, often to students and travellers.

One international student living at the René-Lévesque property, who CBC has agreed not to name because he is concerned that going public would affect his immigration status, said that he paid his rent up to July in advance.

"Their whole system was kind of messed up and they had no clue what they were doing," he said. "They were just trying to make money out of people."

Landlords fed up

The eviction is part of an ongoing dispute between Roominex and the landlords who actually own the buildings in question.

The owner of the house on Côte-des-Neiges Road, Maan Malouf, told CBC that Roominex owes him thousands in unpaid rent on the property.

Electricity to the property was cut on May 7, even though tenants were still living there.

Malouf said he settled his Hydro account for the building and closed it. 

Hydro-Québec told CBC that the power would be restored once Roominex takes back the account and settles any outstanding bills.

This is not the first time Roominex has gotten into trouble.

Roominex founder Christian Levasseur was fined by Quebec's rental housing regulator, the Régie de Logement. in 2015 and 2016.

Ted Right, a tenants' rights advocate, said tenants cannot be ordered to leave in a matter of hours like that.

"[A contract] can only be cancelled with both parties, or within the time or ...limits or rules within the law," Right said. "It could be two months, it could be one month, depending on the length of the contract."

The landlords of both properties told CBC that they are willing to work something out with the tenants who are already living in the buildings.

When CBC initially reported on this story, on May 16, Roominex replied to an interview request with a one-line email statement, which read: "the matter is with the lawyers so we cannot elaborate."

Roominex has not agreed to comment any further.