A couple denounces an “abusive” rent increase following being visited by a bailiff in their residence in Saguenay.
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Just a week following signing their lease in April 2021, Madeleine Dufour and Bertrand Lavoie felt they were no longer welcome in their new condo, located in the Arvida sector of the borough of Jonquière.
“They no longer wanted to rent us,” said Ms. Dufour.
They still decided to move in as planned on July 1, 2021.
“One of the landlords offered us a thousand dollars to buy out our lease. We refused, because we had been confirmed at the Régie du logement that our lease was legal,” explained Ms. Dufour.
It was last month that they received a rent increase notice of regarding $800 per month, raising the price of their condo from $1,275 to $2,000 per month.
“We were in shock, admitted Ms. Dufour. So much that I didn’t understand at the time. I thought it was a $200 increase, but Bertrand quickly made it clear to me that the rent would cost us $2,000 a month starting in July.”
Their owners would, once once more, have given them no justification.
“There is a reason behind that, but we don’t really know it,” mentioned Bertrand Lavoie.
The owners might have increased the price of their rent as they saw fit if they had ticked clause F of the lease, since the building was built less than 5 years ago, but they did not do so, as in document testifies.
Reached by telephone, one of the owners defended himself by invoking this clause, but when he understood that he had forgotten to tick, he indicated that the file was closed since the couple had told him that they did not want to renew. their lease.
The couple denounced the situation to the elected officials of Saguenay last week at the municipal council.
“In a situation like that, the only solution is to denounce, insisted Mr. Lavoie. It’s like incest: when everyone around knows it, but no one talks, it continues.
At the office of the mayor of Saguenay, we are told that they have sent the information to the Minister of Housing, Andrée Laforest, so that she can follow up with the administrative housing tribunal.
But since the couple has already told their landlords that they are leaving their condo, the city can’t help them any further.
“We no longer trust our owners,” said Madeleine Dufour.
The couple prefers to leave rather than contest the increase, even if they do not know where they will stay from July.
His research has yet to yield any results.
“It’s a lot of stress for us,” he said.
