Montreal, June 29, 2022 --- The Association des Propriétaires du Québec (APQ) draws up a portrait of the situation during moving day.
We often talk about dirty housing, theft, unpaid rents, low vacancy rates, but as D-Day approaches on July 1, what exactly is the current situation?
Theft in dwellings
Every year, rental housing owners have to run to a hardware store in order to buy materials to make the necessary repairs, but also to replace stolen objects.
“Door handles, light bulbs or toilet seats are objects that regularly disappear during moves. Whether it is an “oversight” or for fear of running out of these items in their new housing, some tenants unfortunately leave with objects that do not belong to them,” says Martin Messier, President of the APQ.
According to respondents to our APQ survey, to the question: “Among the choices below, check all the objects that have already disappeared during moving days”, the top 3 stolen objects are:
|
Light bulbs |
24.88% |
|
Light fixtures |
20.20% |
|
Smoke alarms |
11.58% |
And among the individual answers, some are more difficult to imagine than others: electrical outlets, bedroom doors, and: “The tenant exchanged my refrigerator in brand-new condition for an old defective fridge”.
“No matter what the stolen object may be, the owner has always suffered damage and his only recourse is to draw up a formal notice to claim the damages and to submit a request to the Administrative Housing Tribunal. For us, intentional damage done to housing should be treated as a criminal offence,” adds the APQ.
Non-payment and re-renting
Here are quickly a few questions:
|
Among your tenants who move on July 1, 2022, do you have unpaid rents for the month of June 2022? |
Yes |
13.7% |
|
Do you have units whose tenants have to move on June 30 and who have told you that they no longer want to leave? |
Yes |
5.47% |
Housing not rented because of work to be done
According to respondents, 29.74% have problems to have this work carried out in order to put the housing back up for rent quickly.
Among the causes stated, it appears that the manpower shortage and the meteoric rise in the prices of materials are responsible. There are several challenges for rental housing owners:
|
Prices of materials |
49.61% |
|
Availability of materials |
40.16% |
|
Lack of cashflow |
34.65% |
“The Government should develop new renovation assistance programs, not just for green works or those that only affect -plexes. We need a program adapted to the buildings because the Québec rental stock is aging. In the context of rental scarcity, we must maximize the number of available housing units,” concludes Martin Messier, President of the APQ.
448 répondants, Marge d'erreur 5%, niveau de confiance 95%
Sondage effectué par vote électronique du 16 au 27 juin 2022