Unable to execute his judgment because of a Judge’s Error

A Quebec City property owner is disheartened.

The bailiffs that he contacted cannot execute the favorable court decision ordering the tenant to pay $1 865.00 in unpaid rent and damages to his housing unit. The reason is that the administrative judge, Jacques Cloutier, made a mistake while writing his decision; he put down «Bertilli» as the tenant’s surname, while his real name – and the one registered by the landlord in the filed request – is Bertelli…

Since March, the landlord has asked the Régie du Logement three times to correct the mistake, but had received no reply, except that the judge was on leave for an indefinite period. He was invited to make a formal request for correction and pay a fee of $73.00. With the tenant no longer living in his housing unit, the owner might have to wait another two years before being heard again.

In May, the Auditor General of Quebec filed a condemnatory report that exposed the Régie’s poor administrative deadlines to process cases. Pressure is mounting on the Minister of Municipal Affairs, Martin Coiteux, to proceed with the court’s reform.