The TAL Annual Report: Increase in delays and the number of files for non-payment of rent

Unsurprisingly, cases for non-payment of rent remain the most filed cases at the Administrative Housing Tribunal (TAL) in 2022-2023.
(See tableau 1)

Non-payment cases account for 49.35% which is almost half of the cases!
When almost 1 in 2 cases represents a case that could be settled without a hearing, this reinforces our proposal that a case be heard for non-payment of rent only if the defendant wishes to present a defence, based on the Small Claims principle.
A non-payment of rent case could be heard at a hearing only if the defendant wishes to present a defence. So, the defendant, in this case the tenant, will have a default judgement against him without further formality in the absence of the filing of a defence.

And we note that the delay for non-payment of rent files has increased slightly, from 1.6 months to 1.8 months.

But it is the number of files submitted and heard that is rising sharply and does not bode well for landlord-tenant relations.

That’s 23.1% more files submitted with the Administrative Housing Tribunal (TAL) in 2022-2023. Which is huge!

And for non-payment of rent files it is 20.2% more.
Requests submitted and revived – Non-payment of rent
(See tableau 2)

The Association des Propriétaires du Québec (APQ) hopes that the Government, which has read this report, will make the same observations: the TAL’s resources must be increased with the addition of new administrative judges and the implementation of a new hearing process in order to make justice at the TAL more accessible.

For the APQ, there are 2 other points of concern.
First, a sharp increase in the number of pending requests at the end of the annual report, on March 31, 2023, or 23.42% more!
(See tableau 3)

And also the number of requests closed for lack of proof of notification increased from 4,542 to 5,360 in the last report.

Finally, the Association des Propriétaires du Québec wants to highlight that, contrary to what is conveyed by tenant associations, the files submitted for repossession of housing and for eviction remain stable or are even declining, contrary to popular belief.
(See tableau 4)

The Association des Propriétaires du Québec (APQ) will continue to monitor the evolution of the data and see whether concrete actions will be taken before March 31, 2024 in order to give results in the next 2023-2024 report.