Adoption of Law 16 creating the Tribunal Administratif du Logement T.A.L.

CORPIQ expects a significant decrease in the volume of pending cases, currently 27,000, at what will become the T.A.L.(Housing administrative tribunal). On December 5, the National Assembly of Québec adopted Bill 16, which has been under study at the parliamentary committee since May.

The new functioning of the T.A.L. should substantially reduce not only the voluntary, but also the involuntary situations that delay the course of justice, CORPIQ hopes. Awful records were set in the past year with 11,873 postponements, 3,563 adjournments and 2,250 requests for retraction by tenants.

Among the many new dispositions, CORPIQ welcomes favourably the obligation to provide a change of address to the court (otherwise a request for retraction will be rejected), the possibility of ordering someone who appeals abusively to pay damages, the introduction of pre-hearing and management conferences , as well as the offer of free conciliation sessions.

However, these and other new measures will have little or no impact on the approximately 40,000 cases of non-payment of rent introduced each year in court. Even if the T.A.L. was able to reduce the administrative waiting time before the hearing by one or two weeks, a landlord has already lost a whole month's rent as soon as the process is started. Also, only 6% of landlords recover all rents due through the court.That is why CORPIQ, which participated in the parliamentary consultations, called for an addition to Bill 16 to legalize security deposits. The official opposition introduced an amendment to this effect, but the government rejected it. Minister of Housing Andrée Laforest justified her decision by explaining that such a measure was still under consideration and required more consultations.

On the other hand, CORPIQ is pleased with the adoption of several measures in Bill 16 aimed at good financial management in the divided co-ownership sector. Condo syndicates will have to keep a maintenance logbook and obtain a study of the contingency fund establishing the amounts necessary for this fund to be sufficient to pay for major repairs and replacement of the common areas. The contribution of co-owners to the contingency fund will depend on the results of the study.