www.jugements.qc.ca<\/a> of tenants who have faced eviction by Montreal\u2019s social housing department, the office municipal d\u2019habitation de Montreal (OMHM), since last January. Previous searches via the internal R\u00e9gie du Logement computers show OMHM evictions at roughly 600 tenants per year for 2011, 2010 and 2009.<\/p>\nAlmost half of the cases appeared to be well-founded in that tenants owed more than $1000. Roughly 20% looked obviously suspicious given that tenants seemed to be evicted for late-payment of interest or previous rental board fees after commissioners declared other OMHM claims unfounded. These are the cases in which tenants were evicted for $16, $66 and $74.<\/p>\n
Given that the non-profit organization manages 29,949 units containing upwards of 32,000 people, these totals represent a minimal turnover in stock, but we wondered how often the Regie du Logement sides with the landlord in cases that seem unfounded.<\/p>\n
We decided to examine 62 cases from September and October 2011 in detail. Rents for these cases ranged from $172 to $802.<\/p>\n
The rental board sided with the landlord (OMHM) 94% of the time, or in 58 of the 62 cases. These included several cases in which tenants avoided eviction by paying their rents in full by the time the rental board hearings took place.<\/p>\n
Thirty nine tenants (63%) were evicted for owing less than a month\u2019s rent. In four cases, tenants lost cases even though large differences between the original claim and the amount owed when evicted made it evident that they were paying down debts over time.<\/p>\n
One man was forcibly moved into a one-bedroom apartment after his wife and three children left him, even though he wanted to stay in their four-bedroom apartment to be able to co-parent his children. His request for a two-bedroom apartment was also denied.<\/p>\n
Another tenant was evicted for keeping a dog after being told to get rid of it.<\/p>\n
Ten tenants were behind two months\u2019 rent when they were evicted, while another seven owed three, four and five month\u2019s rent when they were evicted. Together, they made up only 1% of the cases.<\/p>\n
In every single instance, including the four in which the OMHM\u2019s claims for eviction were rejected, the rental board commissioners ordered tenants to pay rental board hearing fees.<\/p>\n
Note: This article appeared in the Suburban on October 10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A recent study by the Suburban discovered that the OMHM regularly tries to evict tenants for less than $300, while others owe thousands of dollars before being brought to the rental board. It\u2019s not clear why some tenants get more time to settle their debts than others, but the practice does not seem to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"0","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journalism","post-wrapper","thrv_wrapper"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2buQs-jI","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1163,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/wo-day-eviction\/","url_meta":{"origin":1222,"position":0},"title":"Two-Day Eviction for Low-Income Senior","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"December 1, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Lasalle\u2014On Monday, November 28, one of the tenants in the low-income seniors building at 760 Gamelin came home to find an envelope attached the door handle with an elastic band. Inside was a one-page eviction notice in French requiring the apartment to be fully vacant by the end of today\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "LaSalle"","block_context":{"text":"LaSalle","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/lasalleposts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1176,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/evicted-omhm-tenant-appeals-rental-boards-5-eviction\/","url_meta":{"origin":1222,"position":1},"title":"Evicted OMHM Tenant Appeals Rental Board’s $5 Eviction","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"December 15, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The tenant evicted from a low-income seniors building in Lasalle, and forcibly removed as we went to press last week, asked the Court of Quebec for permission to appeal Monday, thanks to the efforts of attorney David Ghavitian. \u201cIt\u2019s on the eve of the holidays and they\u2019re putting my client\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "LaSalle"","block_context":{"text":"LaSalle","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/lasalleposts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1189,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/questions-about-rights-of-low-income-tenants\/","url_meta":{"origin":1222,"position":2},"title":"OMHM versus Danny Palladini Raises Serious Questions About Rights of Low-Income Tenants","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"July 4, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The next hearing in the case of Montreal\u2019s municipal housing authority (OMHM) versus Daniel Palladini will take place at 9 a.m. on Monday, July 9. It happens in room 2220 of the D wing at the Quebec Rental Board main office in the Olympic Village, 5199 Sherbrooke Street East. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Island Report"","block_context":{"text":"Island Report","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/island-report\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1174,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/tenant-evicted-for-5\/","url_meta":{"origin":1222,"position":3},"title":"Tenant Evicted For $5","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"December 8, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"LaSalle\u2014A bailiff handed another eviction notice directly to a tenant at the low-cost seniors\u2019 residence at 760 Gamelin last Tuesday. This time, the notice came with an English translation. \u201cEviction notices come from the bailiff, but our policy is to send a translation with the French version,\u201d said OMHM spokesperson\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "LaSalle"","block_context":{"text":"LaSalle","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/lasalleposts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1180,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/two-more-days-scheduled-for-eviction-case-omhm-versus-daniel-palladini\/","url_meta":{"origin":1222,"position":4},"title":"Two More Days Scheduled for Eviction Case: OMHM versus Daniel Palladini","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"January 19, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Thirteen of the almost 200 seniors living in the Manoir Roger-Bernard low-income residence in Pierrefonds spent another day at Quebec Rental Board hearings in the Olympic Village last Thursday. They are attending hearings because the Office Municipal d\u2019Habitation de Montr\u00e9al (OMHM) is trying to evict resident Danny Palladini. Several tenants,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Island Report"","block_context":{"text":"Island Report","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/island-report\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1512,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/two-tier-justice-at-the-rental-board\/","url_meta":{"origin":1222,"position":5},"title":"Two Tier Justice at the Rental Board","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"March 7, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Property owners can evict troublesome tenants in three months or so, and yet it takes two years or more to force negligent landlords to make repairs or heat apartments properly. So found two community groups\u2014Project Genesis and POPIR-Comit\u00e9\u2014after examining 14 years of rental board annual reports and conducting an access\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cultural Identity"","block_context":{"text":"Cultural Identity","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/cultural-identity\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"slomodemo","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/slomodemo.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1222\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}