Requests for rent increase revisions at Quebec’s housing tribunal (TAL) more than tripled in the last five years, according to the TAL’s data.
Between 2019 and 2020, the TAL fixed 6,451 households’ rents – that number went up to 21,238 between 2023 and 2024.
Advocates say that’s no surprise and goes to show how bad the housing crisis has gotten in the province. They expect the trend to continue, especially since the TAL approved an average increase of 5.9 per cent this year, the biggest single-year rent hike guideline in the last 30 years.
If a tenant refuses a rent increase, it’s up to the landlord to open a file with the rental board (TAL), which will then set the rent.
Margaret Van Nooten of housing committee Project Genesis said the situation for tenants is “bleak” and many have been receiving increases that far surpass the TAL’s recommendations.
“The numbers really confirm what we’ve been seeing day to day basis, people are being faced with rent increases they cannot afford that are so much higher than they can afford,” she said.
“People are not seeing their income increasing by 6 per cent or 7 per cent or 8 per cent. We are seeing those kinds of [rent] increases being granted.”
Lawyer Manuel Johnson said tenants already having trouble making ends meet – with grocery bills and hydro bills also going up – decide to contest the rent increase because they have no choice.
“When people have nothing to lose, they’re going to they’re going to stand up a little bit more for their rights,” he said.
He stressed that rent increases are based on how much rents went up the previous year, creating an “inflationary speculative spiral” caused by the housing crisis.
According to data from the Angus Reid Institute from April 2024, 34 per cent of all Quebecers are renters. Almost half of Montreal’s residents are renting (46 per cent).
Measures with ‘real teeth’ needed
Increase refusal is one of the last lines of defence tenants have, said Van Nooten, with this being the second year since lease transfers became refusable.
“It really shows a very profound disregard, I would say, for tenants trying to make it possible for people to have a roof over their heads,” she said.
The results are visible, she added.
“Anybody who lives in Montreal and goes in downtown core, you can’t help but notice there are more homeless people.”
Both Van Nooten and Johnson said Quebec needs to implement rent control measures with real teeth and build social housing en masse, where rent is fixed based on a tenant’s income rather than on speculation.
Housing Minister France-Elaine Duranceau told journalists at the National Assembly Thursday that the government has been increasing housing supply.
“The impact will be felt gradually,” she said. “We built 3,000 units last year, 6,000 this year and next year 9,000 so that’s more than 24,000. And those are only units supported by the provincial government.”
She urged cities that were granted special powers under her latest housing law to take matters into their own hands and work with private developers to increase the housing stock.
But Johnson said market housing won’t make units more affordable as rent control measures don’t apply to new homes for the first five years.
“This kind of supply side economics theory is not going to work,” he said.
“To control the housing crisis, we need public housing … That’s the only solution I see in the medium term. In the short term, the government should intervene or put a cap on those rent increases.”
He said even the currently recommended 5.9 per cent goes beyond inflation.
Van Nooten added that with the little amount set aside for housing in Quebec’s latest budget, “there’s no respite in sight.”
TAL is backlogged
Johnson said his firm receives dozens of calls daily relating to rent increases – so many he has to turn people away.
He said the TAL is “completely overloaded” and does not have the capacity to hear all the cases being opened. With some landlords asking for “exorbitant” increases going up to 50 per cent, Johnson said it’s only going to get worse.
“It’s the busiest court in Quebec, and with these huge rent increases, it’s just going to get busier and busier every year, which means that justice will be delayed,” he said.
He said there are “horror stories” where some people are still waiting for a hearing on their rent increase from 2021 “because they tend to pile up.” Once the case is closed, tenants then owe their landlord years of retroactive rent payments.
Duranceau said she added more judges to the TAL, but Johnson said it’s not enough.
“The only one who can stop the wave is the government by putting barriers, but this government is clearly has a pro landlord bias … they have no political will to stop this speculation, which is fueling the jet fuel for the housing crisis,” said Johnson.
With files from CTV News Montreal’s Angela Mackenzie
