A permanent odour has been emanating from this apartment for some time; the tenant never wants to open the door and he never puts out the waste basket. One gets worried then. It all ends with the opening of the apartment, and the surprise of finding a true dump.
Your tenant could have caught “the Diogenes syndrome”. Such individuals accumulate in an excessive way a great number of various objects, including garbage, up to the point of living under conditions of morbid unhealthiness. Usually, this problem does not occur on its own, the tenant tends to neglect himself and to withdraw from all social life. These people also tend to deny their problem.
This disease is also often associated with compulsive obsessive disorders, of hyperactivity or with a deficit of attention.
The Diogenes syndrome tends to reflect a more serious problem of mental health and can quickly involve important problems for the health and the safety of the tenant and also, which is worrisome, for the safety of the building. This problem is likely to develop if the tenant is not quickly treated. You will notice that, very often, these people are alone and without family.
Unfortunately, by combining the lack of mental health resources in Quebec, the de-‘judiciarisation’ of several criminal files and especially the lack of financing of the establishments specialized in mental health, several people requiring special care in mental health and this, systematically, must thus find a home.
The first thing to be done as an owner, on a purely preventive basis, is to make as much as possible in the cases which seem to you at risk, an annual or bi-annual visit of their apartment. The absence of verification helps to create the problem. A refusal of access very often indicates a problem. Insist, send a written notice and take steps with the Régie du logement if need be.
When you discover a situation of the kind, it is desirable to quickly take preventive measures with the fire prevention service, the CLSC, or better still, with a member of the family able to intervene.
Know that you will not be able to take personal initiatives like evicting the tenant or cleaning the apartment yourself except for a written agreement to this end between you and the tenant and in the circumstances, a witness.
In this kind of case, prevention is always the most effective approach.
In any case, do not hesitate to consult a lawyer in order to make the most effective decisions in these situations because the ‘judiciarisation’ of this kind of file is not always the most useful means.