Montreal, May 25, 2022 --- The Association des Propriétaires du Québec (APQ) can only oppose the new provisions that Bill 37, An Act to amend various legislative provisions mainly in relation to housing, will impose and which will also further reduce the rights of rental housing owners in Quebec.
Clause F: from 5 to 3 years
The framework of clause F to set the rent for the first five years of a new building is already well regulated. It is in no way necessary to shorten this period and thus further reduce the rights of housing owners at a time when Quebec must stimulate investment in real estate.
First of all, the Association des Propriétaires du Québec (APQ) would like to remind you that this clause is important in a rental market context where the price of rent is controlled and where, moreover, the maintenance of the price of rent is associated with the dwelling and not with the tenant.
“This clause is necessary in its full duration of 5 years to stimulate construction and to allow adequate marketing in a situation where the expenses of the building are not known but only estimated,” says Martin Messier, president of the APQ.
For the Association des Propriétaires du Québec (APQ) this clause is useful and it considers that, if a landlord abuses this clause by excessively increasing the rent, no tenant will want to stay and no new tenant will want to sign a lease. It is the law of the market that must apply.
These are once again changes requested by tenants that restrict the rights of Quebec rental housing owners.
“The price of rent is over-regulated in Quebec, we live with outdated rent calculation methods that the government refuses to modernize, preferring to change from time to time regulations that are for the benefit of tenants,” adds the APQ.
At each request for a reform of the laws of the Administrative Housing Tribunal (TAL) one hears that the regulations are complex to modernize and that a complete reform is being studied. But what is really done about it?
Tenants in Private Seniors’ Residences (RPAs): unjustified constraints
The changes that the bill will make are in direct contradiction with the difficult operational management situations experienced by some residences.
The bill does not take into account the reality of several buildings by requiring the maintenance of the rent, all in a context or major work that must be carried out with a rent adjustment that, for work carried out in 2021, gave returns of more than 50 years!!!
The Association des Propriétaires du Québec (APQ) will follow up on this bill, which has only one week available for analysis. But we will actively participate in these consultations, as we have done through the transmission of our recommendations to the Ministry.