After rooming-house fire, red tape may block CDN-NDG from taking action against landlord

The landlord of an illegal rooming house in Côte-des-Neiges earned a sharp rebuke from the borough after a weekend fire left 36 people temporarily homeless, but bureaucratic rigmarole may block Côte-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grâce from taking action.

Borough Mayor Sue Montgomery said the owner of the Linton Avenue apartment building will be fined and "made an example of," but the legal processes now in place won't make that easy.

"You can't make a mockery of the city's regulations anymore," Montgomery said Monday.

She blasted landlords who are turning apartments into rooming houses without permits, saying they are taking advantage of vulnerable people who don't know their rights.

But there were previous complaints about the now-charred Linton building, and the borough proved toothless when it came to any intervention, said Claire Abraham, a community organizer at Project Genesis, a non-profit group which advocates for tenants in the borough. 

Abraham said that despite Montgomery telling CBC that the borough would fine the owner for breaking the law, there isn't much it can do at this stage. 

She said the borough needs to first issue a non-conformity notice to the landlord so he has a chance to take the needed steps to ensure his property meets regulations.

He'll need to ensure that zoning in the area allows for rooming houses, then get a certificate of occupancy, ensure rent conditions conform to regulations and have a permit for the transformation of the apartments into rooming houses, Abraham said.

She said that the current process requires the landlord to be formally advised of infractions and given a chance to fix them.

"It's deeply unfortunate that the borough doesn't have more power to react more strongly than this," she said.

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Dozens left homeless

The fire broke out Sunday morning in a building where about 25 units had been subdivided and rented out by room.

The smoke detector in the unit where the fire started was not working. People fled the building Sunday morning through an unlit stairwell, Montgomery said.

The Red Cross took care of 36 people who were forced from their homes, putting them up in hotels. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

The city's property roll lists Habibur Rahman as the owner of the building. When contacted by CBC, he confirmed he is the owner but denied allegations that he is running it as a rooming house.

He said he rents the apartments to individuals, and if they are subdividing the rooms and renting them out, he knows nothing of it. 

Lease-free rooms hard to find

Several people lived in one unit and paid $400 to $500 each per month for a room or part of a split living room.

Some residents are worried about the borough mayor's hardline stance.

James McKinnon lives in a rooming house across the street from where the fire happened and pays about $500 per month for a room.

"It's hard to find a place that I can just pay by the month, without a lease," he said.

What's the law say about rooming houses?

Some of the rules around rooming houses can be found the city's bylaw concerning dwelling units.

Included are provisions that there must be a toilet and shower for every five people, and each person must have a living area of at least nine square metres, or seven square metres if there is a common space for tenants.

Depending on which article in the bylaw violated has been by a landlord, fines can range from $200 to $2,000 for a first offence, and from $400 to $4,000 if the landlord is a corporation. Repeat offences can result in fines up to $20,000 for a corporation.