An article of Bill 31 abolishing tenants’ rights to transfer leases will be included in final version of proposed law
Posted November 29, 2023 5:27 pm.
Last Updated December 1, 2023 5:28 pm.
An article of Quebec’s Bill 31, which removes a tenant’s right to transfer a lease, will be officially included in the final version of the proposed law – after it was passed at the land planning commission Tuesday.
“The loss of the right to lease transfer will have direct consequences,” says Cédric Dussault, of RCLALQ, the regrouping of housing committees and tenant associations of Quebec. “There will be even more tenants on the street and tenants will go even poorer.”
He says the timing couldn’t be worse.
“In the midst of the deepest housing crisis in the history of modern Quebec when the imbalance between owners and tenants has never had such serious consequences, taking away rights from tenants makes absolutely no sense,” Dussault said. “This has been said and repeated extensively: the withdrawal of the right to transfer a lease will only make the situation worse.”
Advocates, as well as the City of Montreal, had argued lease transfers are a crucial tool in preventing ‘abusive’ rental hikes.
Tenants like Stephenie say it’s almost impossible to rent in Montreal and lease transfers have helped her.
“A lease transfer can be a very positive system with lots of protections to the property owner already, like in both cases they were in full communication with me to take my personal information so that they were safe and everything was respectfully done,” she said. “There was no problems and I just wish for that these laws to have limits.”
“By abolishing the lease transfers, the Minister and the Legault government are complicit in the human tragedies that are multiplying and that will continue to multiply across Quebec,” said Yaya Baumann, Front de Lutte pour un Immobilier Populaire (FLIP). “One need only to consider both the crisis of eviction and homelessness that are intensifying in recent years.”
The parliamentary study into Bill 31 continues and it’s expected to be presented for adoption at the National Assembly in the coming weeks.
A protest is planned for Saturday afternoon at Parc Metro.
