2024-03-20 04:00:00
Vulnerable seniors who took their landlord who wanted to evict them to court are encouraging tenants to resist investors and assert their rights.
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“The owners cannot do what they want and intimidate us, we must not let it happen. The tenants must fight, otherwise they will always win,” says Edward Fell, 70 years old.
Last year, of the eight tenants in his building, seven had received two eviction notices from their landlord, who informed them of his intention to make expansions, as reported The newspaper.
They then decided to open files with the Administrative Housing Tribunal (TAL) to contest their eviction and prevent their landlord from putting them on the street.
After three months of waiting, the tenants nervously awaited their hearing last Friday to present their arguments to the judge. They haven’t slept for almost a year, worrying every day about finding themselves on the street, confides Louisa Kump, 65, who has lived in her home for eleven years.
“We never believed in his expansion project, we know that what he [le propriétaire] always wanted is to put us out,” explains the one who gets around with a cane.
Some tenants even say that the landlord offered them an agreement not to leave their accommodation.
“He told us that if we agreed to pay double the rent, we could stay here,” says Mekredij Bronsezisn, 70, who has lived in his apartment for 38 years.
Grand absent
When an owner wishes to evict tenants to enlarge or subdivide the accommodation, it is he who bears the burden of proof.
“He must demonstrate to the judge that he has hired an architect, that he has concrete plans, that he has the money to do it, in short, that his project is very real,” summarizes André Trépagnier, of the Comité d action of Parc-Extension.
But the owner, who bought the building in 2021 for $1.22 million, before reselling it to his own numbered company for $1.6 million a few months later, did not appear in court .
To request the postponement of the hearing, he indicated that he was not able to come because of a dentist appointment for his children via a loudspeaker call to Judge Michel Rocheleau.
The latter pointed out during the hearing the lack of seriousness of the landlord, who had not taken the trouble to find a lawyer to represent him, despite several months to do so.
Relief
Although the decision has not yet been rendered in this case, the tenants were confident, even if the fear of being evicted persists.
“We may have won for a year, but we still have this sword of Damocles hanging over our heads. He will perhaps try again next year and we will have to come back to court again,” thinks Ms. Kump, who will receive in a few weeks the decision of the TAL regarding the refusal of his eviction.
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