Quebec Housing Bill 31 – A Juridical Approach to Deny the Right to Housing
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in Quebec City demonstration September 16, 2023 opposes the
elimination
in Bill 31 of a tenant's ability to transfer their lease to
someone else
On June 9, Bill 31, An Act to amend various legislative provisions with respect to housing, was tabled by France-Élaine Duranceau, Minister responsible for Housing in the Quebec Government.
Here are its salient features.
Lease Transfers
The bill
eliminates the possibility tenants have
had for some 40 years of transferring their lease to someone
else who
will continue to pay the same amount of rent that they have been
paying. According to the current situation in Quebec, a new
tenant is
entitled to the same rate and can
inquire of the Rent Control Board (TAL) what rate a former
tenant paid
and demand as their right the same rent.
As it stands, landlords can increase the rents in line with official inflation rates once a year. They have been demanding the elimination of tenants' rights, without which the right to housing is a dead letter. This would allow them to raise rents exponentially at the end of a lease, including when a tenant vacates a space and it goes to another person. This is one of the provisions most strongly objected to by the Regroupement des comités logement et associations de locataires du Québec (tenants' organizations).
Under the guise that it is not appropriate for governments to interfere with property rights, landlords will now be able to refuse a request to transfer or assign a lease to another person "for a reason other than a serious one" without going through the TAL. The TAL's requirements will prove to be a dead end for those seeking housing whose life is already a nightmare.
Notice of Increase
Bill 31 revises the provisions of Clause F of a lease. Clause F presently allows a landlord to raise rent for the first five years following the construction of a dwelling in amounts outside of the TAL's recommendations. "In recent years, we've seen tenants move into new units only to face a 30 per cent or 40 per cent increase in their rent the following year," David Searle, lecturer in the Department of Legal Sciences at UQAM points out. Bill 31 stipulates that a landlord's lease for a new building will have to include the increases tenants' will face over the first five years. It is presented as if this provides those seeking housing a more favourable situation because now the agreement they sign will include such increases. This is called providing balance between the interests of the tenants and the landlords.
Eviction
Demonstration in Rimouski
September 16, 2023, against Bill 31
The bill pretends to regulate evictions, but does not deal with the nature of evictions, including that people who can no longer afford to pay rent are put out on the street without recourse. Further people facing eviction are plagued by the visit of a bailiff and the ensuing costs of paying the bailiff and for the recovery of their seized property. Under the provisions of Bill 31, when a tenant does not respond to an eviction notice, he or she will be presumed to have given notice of refusal to be evicted. It will now be up to the landlord to assert their rights before the TAL which is a tribunal to administer the law, not an agency to make sure vulnerable people are provided with housing!
What an insidious way for governments to use their positions of power and privilege to pretend they are doing something good for "everyone concerned." It is how what constitutes a criminal act should be defined and it will be one day if society's path to progress is to be opened.
Bill 31 sets out the terms and conditions governing compensation to be paid by a landlord when a tenant is evicted. For example, it states: "Reasonable moving expenses and an indemnity equivalent to one month's rent for each year of uninterrupted rental of the dwelling by the tenant, which may not, however, exceed an amount representing 24 months' rent nor be less than an amount representing three months' rent."
Meanwhile, those seeking a new place to live face rents way beyond their means and are in no way compensated by their so-called right to be compensated. As the representative of one tenants' organization put it: "If we lose a dwelling that is affordable and have to move to an apartment that costs $1,000 more per month, the landlord might give us $30,000, but in the medium term, we're still losing out. The bill is silent on the consequences of repossession or eviction in the context of a housing shortage."
Special Consultations
Special consultations on Bill 31 were scheduled September 14, 19 and 20. Eighteen advocacy organizations, cities, jurists and experts were to make presentations to the Committee on Planning and the Public Domain.
This article was published in
Volume 53 Number 10 - October 2023
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2023/Articles/M5301017.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca