Tenants confused about eviction rules, Montreal housing advocates say

Tenants in Quebec can be evicted more easily than they might think, often leaving people who are told by their landlord they have to vacate their homes not knowing what to do, says a social rights worker for Project Genesis, a housing advocacy group based in Montreal's Côte-des-Neiges neighbourhood.

Margaret van Nooten says tenants have a lot of misconceptions about their rights under the province's rental laws when faced with what they believe is an unfair eviction.

Many tenants think it only happens "to people who are very irresponsible, who don't take their obligation seriously," said van Nooten.

However, landlords can obtain an eviction order from the Régie du Logement, Quebec's rental board, for late payment of rent — sometimes with as little owing as $20 or $30, she said.

For people whose rent eats up half or more of their income, the onus to pay on time and in full can be particularly challenging, van Nooten said. The mistiming of a pay cheque or a family allowance payment can make a tenant on a tight budget late on their rent.

In other cases, the landlord may want a longtime tenant to vacate because they are paying rent below market value, she said.

Tenants' rights lawyer Daniel Bitton said that landlords sometimes will want to clear out an entire apartment building to do renovations, in order to raise the rent.

"Tenants don't know they're allowed to stay there, at least until the end of the lease," said Bitton.

Even then, Bitton said, people can stay beyond a lease, if the landlord failed to provide them with written notice before the automatic renewal date — six months prior to the end of their lease.

'Right to peaceable enjoyment'

That's the case for four tenants of a building in Mile End, who told CBC News they're still living there, even with construction being carried on around them, because they did not receive proper written notice to vacate.

• Mile End tenants say life in apartment intolerable since new owners took over

They say the owner who took over their building last fall has removed locks on exterior doors, allowed garbage to pile up, and has done "everything possible to make us feel that we don't belong," one tenant said.

According to the website of Quebec's rental board, both tenants and landlord have the right to the "peaceable enjoyment of the premises."

Rental board spokesperson Denis Miron said based on that right, a landlord cannot harass a tenant, particularly not to pressure them to vacate their apartment.

"In such a case, a lessee who suffers from his or her lessor may demand that the lessor or any other person who has harassed them be condemned to punitive damages," Miron told CBC News.

Bitton recommends keeping records of emails, notices, copies of cheques and other correspondence, and having witnesses or neighbours back up any claims against the landlord that a tenant may have.

The tenant with the strongest case to fight a repossession of a dwelling is an elderly person on a limited income who has rented their home for 10 or more years. In that case, the law prohibits the owner from forcing the tenant to leave, unless that owner or the owner's beneficiary is also older than 70.

Project Genesis's van Nooten said the rules are confusing, and tenants should contact the rental board and tenants' rights groups if they feel like their rights aren't being respected.

In the case of the Mile End apartment, the Comité Logement du Plateau Mont-Royal has gotten involved with the tenants in this case.

"Right now, it's 100 per cent illegal, the amount of pressure the tenants are enduring so that they'll leave," said Vicky Langevin, an organizer for that group.

She called it one of the worst cases she's seen in her advocacy work.

The company that owns the building did not respond to multiple interview requests from CBC News.