Nancy Richard Larivière, a beneficiary attendant and single mother of two children, received a cold shower a few days ago, when her landlord sent her a notice of a particularly high rent increase.
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As of July 1, her accommodation will no longer cost her $1,480 per month, but $2,200. This is an increase of almost 50% totaling $720 per month.
The resident of Saint-Joseph-du-Lac, in the Laurentians, is not the only one to have received this bad news. All tenants in a group of buildings belonging to the same owner also learned that their rent would soon cost them much more.
Faced with such an increase, Nancy Richard Larivière will have no choice but to move her family, only a year and a half following their arrival in this accommodation.
“In times of a pandemic, to relocate myself, to do all that with the children, to change schools, to change friends, it really stresses me out a lot, as much for them as for me. I really did not expect that, ”she said in an interview with TVA Nouvelles.
“I live with anxiety every day,” added the single mother.
A practice permitted by law
This increase in rent is however legal, since the housing of Mrs. Richard Larivière was built less than five years ago. The owner therefore has a clause allowing him to increase his rents as he wishes.
This provision was introduced to promote rental construction.
“The legislator has planned to allow the builder to rent even if the project is not finished and to ensure that he can subsequently increase these rents”, explains the director general of CORPIQ, Benoit Sainte-Marie
To see the full explanation, watch the video above.