On January 23, the Journal de Montréal published an article entitled “We are angry”. “Tenants want to ban evictions for housing expansions”(1) in which the mayor of Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, Pierre Lessard-Blais, sent a written statement to the Journal. He promises to completely ban housing mergers as soon as the next borough council meets on February 5, calling it an “invisible phenomenon for municipal authorities.”
The paragraph below stated that “Less than a dozen permit requests per year are sent to the borough to carry out a housing merger in a rental building, says the statement sent by the press secretary of the Projet Montréal staff office, Béatrice Saulnier-Yelle.”
For the Association des Propriétaires du Québec (APQ), the borough of Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve is aiming at the wrong target: small rental housing owners buy -plexes to start their life as homeowners. They will resort to repossession of housing to live there themselves or for their children or parents to live there.
Their needs evolve and as a building owner, they have the opportunity to expand their apartment for better family coordination.
And for less than 10 expansion requests per year, the borough will deprive thousands of families of the opportunity to enjoy their property that they have purchased and whose ownership rights are amputated by regulations that should only apply to people who do not respect the well-being of their tenants.
The boroughs want to reduce the rights of rental property owners because a minority of repossessions for expansion are in bad faith? Instead of penalizing the entire population, it would be better to rethink the system and find innovative solutions to penalize those who abuse the system.
Finally, these measures must allow the rental stock to evolve and better meet the needs while allowing the entrepreneur who owns it to plan and establish his business plan as he sees fit.
The Association des Propriétaires du Québec (APQ) will send its recommendations to the borough before the municipal council meeting on February 5, hoping that the position of small rental housing owners, who are also important players in the borough, will be heard.
(1) https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2024/01/23/on-est-en-colere-des-locataires-veulent-interdire-les-evictions-pour-agrandissement-de-logement
Prohibiting the expansion of housing: Interfering in property rights for a minority of refractory people
