The Québec Landlords Association is questioning the wisdom of the RCLALQ for demanding the creation of a compulsory lease registry. The Association is concerned that such a registry would serve no purpose and would only create added costs for tax payers.
According to the Association, Québec’s rental housing laws are some of the “harshest and most restrictive in the world for owner’s of residential rental buildings.” The Association fears that these excessively pro-tenant rules discourage rental building ownership and investment, and are ultimately harmful to the tenants themselves.
A lease registry could aid in the oversight of rental regulations. However, the Association would like to see some of those regulations abolished– like the requirement that the price of the last rent paid is maintained. “A current tenant is protected, but further still, the tenant may ask for the rent to be reduced even though they freely negociated the amount and the terms of the lease, which is a contract,” according to an APC statement. “This trampling of the parties’ freedom to contract is simply outrageous.”
“These situations should be left to balance themselves out through the law of supply and demand,” the statement continues. “If the rent for a dwelling is too high, no one will want to rent it and the landlord will need to lower the price accordingly.”
The latest report by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation confirms that rents in Québec are on average the lowest in Canada.
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Disclaimer: The information provided in this post in not intended to be construed as legal advice, nor should it be considered a substitute for obtaining individual legal counsel or consulting your local, state, federal or provincial tenancy laws.