As July 1st approaches, owners are not shy about requesting an illegal deposit on classified ad platforms. With the housing crisis, some tenants feel obliged to pay such a sum to be able to find housing, denounce Montreal housing committees.
La Presse counted 59 housing offers where owners clearly made illegal demands on tenants. To achieve this result, we searched for an afternoon the Greater Montreal offers present on the Kijiji and Facebook Marketplace platforms during the week of June 10.
A 5 ½ for rent in Saint-Laurent at a cost of $2,500 per month is posted on Facebook Marketplace. The counters are a little dated, but the rest of the apartment is modern, notes La Presse in the photos. The accommodation is close to a few bus lines, but not to the metro. “Deposit required,” it says in black and white in the accommodation offer.
These are just a few examples of requests made by owners on housing listing sites. Four of the five owners contacted on this subject did not respond to the messages sent. One said she was unaware it was illegal, and changed the offer shortly after.
“It’s incredible how the owners get the short end of the stick,” laments Benjamin Ahier. The 55-year-old man who works at the port of Montreal says he had to pay three months of rent in advance in 2023 to obtain his accommodation, which he has occupied since last year. “It cost me almost $10,000,” he says.
For him, paying this deposit was a way of guaranteeing his housing.
Asking for a deposit to guarantee the integrity of a home is illegal in Quebec. But it is an authorized practice in the rest of Canada and the United States, indicates the Corporation of Real Estate Owners of Quebec (CORPIQ). Tenants, however, have the right to offer a deposit of their own free will, if they deem this necessary.
A landlord can, however, require that the first month’s rent be paid in advance, once the lease has been signed.
“[Tenants] become desperate for an apartment so will consciously put aside the fact that it is an illegal demand and agree to pay,” observes Angel Sun-Veilleux, who works at the P.O.P.I.R. housing committee, which advocates for tenants in the Saint-Henri district.
“People who hope to find housing realize quite quickly that it means paying a deposit or not having housing,” underlines Margaret van Nooten, speaker at the Genèse housing committee, in Côte-des-Neiges. The latter notes an increase in this type of practice among owners.
Margaret van Nooten believes voluntary deposits are “a source of inequality”, since some tenants can afford to offer a deposit voluntarily, while others cannot.
This is a reality that hits newcomers even harder, who often have no one who can guarantee them or who have no credit history.
These new arrivals must therefore find a deposit or pay a deposit, explains Me Julien Delangie, lawyer specializing in housing law. “They find themselves faced with a choice that is not a choice,” he explains.
Me Delangie does not notice an increase in this phenomenon among his clients. “It’s rare, unfortunately, that people go to see a lawyer as a result of this,” he says. He specifies that many tenants are afraid to enforce their rights, for fear that it will tarnish their image in the eyes of future owners.
Asked about the deposits required to rent accommodation, CORPIQ said “it does not recommend that its members require one from prospective tenants”.
For the Quebec Owners Association (APQ), the deposit should be made legal in Quebec. “The problem is that the law does not allow it,” says Martin Messier, president of the APQ. The latter thinks that if a tenant needs to recover a deposit, he can very well do so by contacting the Administrative Housing Tribunal.
He explains that the reasons which push an owner to ask for such sums are multiple, but he mentions in particular negligence and damage caused by animals.
