Undisclosed previous rent: a Judge invents a sanction

In several recent judgments of the Régie du logement condemning tenants for non-payment of rent or lease termination, the reimbursement of legal costs has been refused to landlords when the administrative judge, Marc C. Forest, found that clause G of the lease had not been completed.

However, the law does not disclose any penalties against a landlord who fails to complete section G of the lease, unless he or she has entered false information. The fact that the old rent is not indicated allows the tenant to make a request in rent fixation within two months of the start date of the lease, but nothing more.

Judge Forest stated in his decision that: "More than 70% of landlords do not complete this section and the Tribunal believes that action must be taken to ensure that landlords meet their obligations. If they have nothing to hide, they have absolutely nothing to worry about completing this section. If they do not, it may be because they have no interest in doing so and the Tribunal must act, in the absence of a penalty in the law, to penalize landlords who are at fault. However, in a survey conducted by CORPIQ in 2014, more than 58% of owners always mentioned completing Section G when signing a lease.

In these cases, the fact that Section G had not been completed had nothing to do with either the application for non-payment of rent or the application for reimbursement of legal costs.

CORPIQ notes that this type of decision has been repeated multiple times and therefore invites its members to inform us promptly of any such situation.