According to us it is urgent that the Government of Quebec takes necessary action to shorten waiting delays before this court, which is an unacceptable situation that Quebec landlords and tenants alike must experience.
Certain solutions, though, have been proposed to seriously begin to shorten delays for holding hearings before the Régie du logement and among these are non-payment cases that could be settled without a hearing before the Régie or, as is often the case, when the tenant does not show up.
In the majority of non-payment of rent cases, the presence of the parties is not required. Our system must be alleviated, however, for the landlord as well as for the tenant. If we can recuperate the time spent on hearings for non-payment of rent, waiting delays will be reduced for both parties so that litigation can be heard.
The Law holds that the lease be terminated if payment of the rent is more than three weeks overdue. If the tenant wants to be heard by the court he could indicate this by mentioning the raisons he wants to invoke and the Régie can then call the parties to a hearing. The tenant would thus have the possibility to be heard. In the opposite case, to convoke the parties to a hearing would not be useful.
However, this measure, full of logic, should have been applied a long time ago already and we invite Minister Nathalie Normandeau to proceed.
Even the Ombudsman has taken action exhorting the Régie du logement and the Government to put this measure into practice, as long as the fundamental rights of the parties are respected.
Meanwhile, the Régie du logement sets goals at the level of these delays for the different cases to be heard. Its last annual report shows us once more that « good will » is not enough and that it takes concrete action on the part of the Government to provide the means that could really make a difference.
Presently, landlords and tenants must still bear serious prejudice because of the inertia of our leaders.