Another Montreal borough bans short-term rentals to help protect tenants

Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve is the latest Montreal borough to impose a ban on short-term rentals as the city faces mounting pressure to crack down on illegal Airbnbs following a deadly fire that killed seven people.

On Monday, the borough voted to forbid any new commercial touristic accommodation on its territory in order to help protect tenants and the city's rental stock. 

The mayor says the bylaw doesn't apply to owners with existing permits or people renting out their primary residence.

"It is still possible for someone in their main residence to use Airbnb, say, when they go on holidays," said Pierre Lessard-Blais, the borough mayor for Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. "However some anonymous company cannot buy many buildings and kick people out of their apartments for Airbnb use."

Despite needing to pass further readings and be officially adopted by borough council, the bylaw took effect Monday. 

The move does nothing to help Jean-François Raymond, a longtime resident in the borough who was handed an eviction notice in December of last year. His landlord plans to convert his apartment building into short-term rental units for tourists — a move that can't be undone by this new bylaw.

"I feel very bad because I have to leave all my neighbours, I have to leave the place that I live in for 24 years," said Raymond. 

"I feel like I'm a garbage bag because they threw me away just for making an Airbnb and putting more money in their pocket." 

Raymond protested the eviction alongside other building tenants and tenant advocacy groups. Their situation made headlines and drew attention from lawmakers such as Quebec's housing minister.

Lessard-Blais says Raymond's predicament was a driving force behind the ban on short-term rentals in the borough. 

"It's terrible, it's unfortunate, but it was legal. It was not moral, but it was legal," he said.

"[Raymond] managed to make things move." 

'Major loopholes'

Cities like Montreal have rules outlining where short-term rentals are allowed. Some of the city's boroughs, including Lachine, Saint-Laurent, Verdun and, now, Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, have banned them where possible.  

Lessard-Blais says the new bylaw in his borough makes it simple for inspectors to fine rule-breakers. 

"There's no zoning laws or exemptions or anything: if it's in the borough, if you don't have acquired rights and it's not your main residence … You shouldn't have an Airbnb."

But those rules haven't deterred illegal operators in the past. 

As of March 22, more than 90 per cent of short-term rental units in the city listed on Airbnb were not authorized, according to an independent watchdog called Inside Airbnb. 

Airbnb pledged last month to disable non-compliant listings and add a mandatory registration field to force hosts to register their certification number. 

But as of last week, different advertisers in Montreal offered dozens of homes bearing bogus licence numbers, such as 29 homes with the certification number "123456" in different areas of the city.

"There are major loopholes," said Cédric Dussault, a co-spokesperson for the coalition of housing committees and tenants' associations of Quebec (RCLALQ). 

Dussault says there is "no verification whatsoever" to authenticate whether a dwelling is in fact an operator's primary residence and there are no safeguards to prevent the use of fake licence numbers.

Dussault says short-term rental bans, such as the one introduced in Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, are a good plan in theory, but they can only work if they are properly controlled by the provincial government — which he says is the only government that will be able to enforce the bylaw. 

"We're looking for the provincial government to make sure that what it said it would do, it will really do," he said.

"Regulation could be put on paper, but if it's not applied, it has no effect."