Unpaid rent: he has been waiting for his hearing for 4 months

A landlord from the Rimouski region has been waiting for more than 4 months now for his first hearing on several cases of unpaid rent. The requests for hearing were filed in October but will not be heard before early March. Meanwhile, the tenants of different dwellings have been living there since last summer without paying!

Although the Régie du logement has always had far too long waiting times, the situation in Bas-Saint-Laurent region seems even more problematic, where a blatant lack of logistics and human resources causes the offices to be open once to twice a week at constantly changing hours. This situation has significant financial consequences for landlords who have to deal with unpaid rents while waiting for their case to be heard. The major part of these losses is attributed to the judicial system supposed to protect them.

CORPIQ invites landlords dissatisfied with the Régie du logement waiting times to fill in the Complaint Form of the Québec Ombudsman. Only 180 complaints were filed last year. CORPIQ believes this figure is the result of too few landlords being aware of this service.

Average time for cases of unpaid rent:

• In Québec city: 1.4 month
• In Rimouski: 2.0 months.