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Petition against legal construction mortgages
The Association des consommateurs pour la qualité dans la construction (ACQC) is launching a petition on the website of the Quebec National Assembly asking the government to amend the law allowing a contractor or workers to register a legal construction mortgage on the building where he or she has performed his or her work.
By registering a legal mortgage under article 2724 of the Civil Code of Quebec, the contractor, workers, or subcontractors oblige the landlord to either pay or to undertake at his or her own expense a recourse in front of the court to release his or her property from this claim. This includes situations where the owner has nothing to be ashamed of, such as when the owner refuses to pay for work that has not been done properly or when the contractor has not paid its employees or subcontractors.
The ACQC therefore asks the government to:
- prohibit the registration of a legal construction mortgage for a claim of less than $15,000, the maximum amount eligible for small claims;
- that a legal construction mortgage no longer allows the seizure of a building serving as the owner's main residence to secure the payment of a debt of less than $20,000;
- that a legal construction mortgage be presumed abusive when the work carried out by the contractor contains defects, deficiencies or does not respect the rules of the trade, so that damages can be claimed.
CORPIQ supports this initiative and invites its interested members to sign the petition. The CAQ had committed, before the 2018 elections, to change the rules regarding legal mortgages. The Quebec government has an obligation to respond in writing to a petition, or else it must submit it for study by a parliamentary commission.
The personal information of the signatories of a petition on the National Assembly website (name and email) remains confidential