Carmelino Vizza has been owner of residences in Montreal for 37 years and member for several years. At 73 years of age, Mr. Vizza has had all kinds of problems with his tenants but never at such a point: One of his residences on Papineau Street was abandoned in a state of total insalubrity by its tenants.
Mr. Vizza contacted the APQ so that his story might be heard and so that this makes it possible to change the laws. You will notice by looking at the joined photographs that Mr. Vizza does not exaggerate the state of insalubrity in which his dwelling presently is.
“I cannot believe that there are people who live in such conditions,” says Carmelino Vizza, who rents some residences since he arrived in Montreal several years ago.
When he entered in this apartment which he had rented for two years to a couple with a child, after having seen water streaming in the basement of the building, he could not believe his eyes.
The kitchen was dirty and blackened with moulds.
Recently immigrated into Quebec, the family did its laundry there manually which is why water ran out to the basement.
The apartment must be completely redone because all the rooms are infested by the mould.
“I intervened as well as I could to make them realize what they did, because there was a young child who lived with them,” says Mr. Vizza.
It goes without saying that relations quickly became tense, forcing Mr. Vizza to undertake all the possible legal recourse to expel the tenants and thus decrease the damage.
Indeed, one often denounces in the media the owners as being bad owners who let the parasitic infestations propagate themselves, but what happens when it is a tenant who damages the dwelling?
The damage for this small apartment will undoubtedly rise beyond 10 000,00 $.
“It is like with everything, he says, there are good and bad owners and tenants. The problem, he adds, is that if the tenants now have recourse against the bad owners, it is extremely difficult for an owner to separate himself from a tenant who makes his dwelling unhealthy. ”
According to Mr. Vizza the Rental Board referred him to the inspection service of the City requiring them to come to observe the insalubrity of the premises.
Mr. Vizza issued a complaint in the district of Villeray/Saint-Michel/Parc-Extension in August 2009 to finally receive the visit of an inspector in June… Too late, the tenants slipped away last month, leaving the dwelling in this condition, but by paying their rent.
Carmelino Vizza thinks that this kind of situation would not arise if the owners could request from their tenants a safety deposit of one month’s rent at the time of the signing of the lease.
It is this position which the APQ claims since many years. Mr. Vizza is unfortunately a sad example of the lack of conscience of the tenants.
The APQ makes it a point of thanking Mr. Vizza for his collaboration. We need owners willing to speak with the media in order to allow that our message is transmitted. Indeed, several media reported this history making it possible to advance this file a little more.