The Québec Landlords Association (APQ) can only concur with the concerns raised by Québec's Protecteur du Citoyen both on the issue of the time delays for cases cases to be heard, as well as the order in which they are heard.
These issues have been part of the APQ's demands for several years now. The ongoing shortage of commissioners to hear cases constitutes the crux of the problem, which is directly related to the Rental Board's limited budgetary resources.
As the Rental Board is designed to be a court of access for the population, it should be able to process and hear cases quickly. « The APQ is asking the Rental Board to increase the number of commissioners in order to better deal with the present volume of cases, as well as for changes to the law dispensing it from having to hold a hearing in cases of non-payment of rent when the tenant fails to articulate a particular defence » states Martin Messier, President of the APQ.
« The irony of the situation is that that landlords and tenats both agree that the Rental Board needs more commissioners, but that it is still wanting for the finaNcial resources to do so » he added.
For its part, the APQ wishes to point out that for some landlords the wait for their case to be heard has now stretched to more than year. It goes without saying that the landlords are the ones who are the most affected by these delays, and not the tenants.
In certain cases, the time waiting to be heard causes all parties concerned more annoyance and inconvenience that the problem that is being litigated.