Tenants’ union hopes for better
A new tenants’ union is trying to act when the toothless Tribunal du logement does not.
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Kate
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Ephraim 13:54 on 2022-07-29 Permalink
Well, it’s a good way to ensure that no one wants to rent apartment to anyone anymore. The problem with these kinds of things is that they never seems to be any balance. You have to offer the landlords SOMETHING in return… their heating has gone up, their electric has gone up, the maintenance has gone up, the mortgage has gone up… they too have bills to pay. This also is not making a difference between mom and pop landlords and corporate landlords. And even then, not all corporate landlords are bad ones. Not everyone is a Shiller.
Ian 16:24 on 2022-07-29 Permalink
I pay my own electricity and heating, and my landlord inherited the building – there hasn’t been a mortgage since the 80s. Should my rent be lower than a tenant that is paying their landlord’s mortgage? Because it isn’t… we all pay market rate unless we don’t move and don’t get renovicted.
If your landlord finishes paying their mortgage, should your rent go down? It doesn’t, of course. Conversely if the mortgage goes up, why should your rent?
There’s a reason rents have doubled in Mile End over 10 years, and it’s not because costs doubled.
Ephraim 16:51 on 2022-07-29 Permalink
There will always be market factors. There are two people in the equation. CPI went from 122.3 to 145.6 in the last 10 years. But the question isn’t really CPI… it’s what would that money bring elsewhere. The TSX for Jan 2011 – 13443 and for Jan 2021 – 21222.
No calculating… $1000 in rent then by CPI should be $1190.50 today. But by TSX, that $1000 would be worth $1578.66
The problem is that of course the value of the home has gone up too. But people don’t see that. Also, we don’t know what the outlays have been for maintenance, nuisance, administration, etc. But basically who would invest in property if your return went up only 19% in 10 years, when you could have had 57.86% in 10 years.
MarcG 17:06 on 2022-07-29 Permalink
@Ephraim: It sounds to me like you’re arguing that people’s homes shouldn’t be treated as business investments.
MarcG 17:12 on 2022-07-29 Permalink
Same problem applies to food, education, healthcare and anything else that people need to live: it’s unethical to subject it to the whims of the marketplace.
Ephraim 18:39 on 2022-07-29 Permalink
@MarcG – I’ve never been a landlord, as such. My parents were… and they hated every minute of it. From the tenant opening windows in the winter, the tenants running out on them and not paying their rent and to the phone calls at 11PM to plunge their toilet. The next house… they looked for a bungalow, to never have a tenant again.
Personally, I have no opinion on the subject really. I just expect that a landlord is going to want the kind of return they would get if they bought a stock index fund, at a minimum. I mean why bother with all that work if you could just buy HBAL or ZBAL and have none of the hassle.
steph 06:59 on 2022-07-30 Permalink
The point of a tenants advocacy group is to protect tenants and their rights. I’ve been loved and hated by different landlords. The landlords that loved me, loved me because I played by the rules. The landlords that hated me, hated me because I played by the rules.
Ephraim 07:43 on 2022-07-30 Permalink
@steph – This particular tenancy group is asking for two unrealistic demands: a total moratorium on rents, including not paying rents for at least 3 months (with no discussion on how landlords are supposed to pay their bills). An extension of leases until the end of September (obviously with no concern to the many factors involved, including that their children will have to be registered in the wrong school)
If this was simply about rights, it wouldn’t be a discussion at all. And my problem with these kind of things is that you need to open with something that is reasonable… not paying rents and extending leases without regards to their effect on the mom and pop landlords is playing havoc with their lives as well.
Kate 09:08 on 2022-07-30 Permalink
Ephraim, they have to make pushy demands, because they’re going to get nowhere if their only demand is for the Quebec government to defend the rights that tenants already have (in theory) but lost a long time ago in practicality.
Ephraim 11:11 on 2022-07-30 Permalink
@Kate – That doesn’t work. When you start with unreasonable… every just labels you a kook/nutter and never talks to you. You have to give people room to negotiate. With those demands… no one is going to even sit down with them… they have just been written off as nutters… it’s the equivalent of a troll… no point of even replying
Blork 11:48 on 2022-07-30 Permalink
That SALM manifesto is from March 2020 and their most recent blog post is from May 2020. Are they even still active or is this just a burst of activity from 2+ years ago that has since fizzled out?
MarcG 12:17 on 2022-07-30 Permalink
They are active on Instagram and held a demo at Cogir HQ in June https://www.instagram.com/slam.matu/
Blork 13:07 on 2022-07-30 Permalink
The manifesto in Kate’s link is from a group called SALM (Syndicat Autonome des Locataires de Montréal). The Instagram link is from a group called SLAM (Syndicat de Locataires Autonome de Montréal). Are they even the same group?
MarcG 14:11 on 2022-07-30 Permalink
I don’t believe they are.
Blork 14:56 on 2022-07-30 Permalink
Smash that blork.org subscribe button for more Montreal news fact checking.
MarcG 16:20 on 2022-07-30 Permalink
Is the link in the article (I don’t see it) or is that an error of Kate’s?
Kate 16:22 on 2022-07-30 Permalink
The article shows a photo of a poster from SLAM.MATU. I clearly linked to the wrong group earlier, sorry.
Bob 02:47 on 2023-08-07 Permalink
Landords always speak as if they were indispensable.
If the balance of power changes, landlorda will realize how useless they are.!
Actually, they are an enormous nuisance because they form the group which lobbies ferociously against public housing. …
Sorry to say to those who refuse to understand : There cannot be a neutral commentary on this issue Either you promote tenants’ rights, including the right to protect the wage they earn against landlords’ avidity and greed, or you relay landlords mantra about “their’ expenses … why should tenants care about landlords’expenses? Do landlords care about heirs?
Come on!