Rent transfer, a very common practice?

Landlords are concerned about the growing number, they say, of tenants choosing to give up their leases.

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According to a survey by Property Owners of Quebec (CORPIQ), one in four landlords will experience a rental transfer, an unprecedented number.

Just last year, we were talking about 10% of the owners. “There, it jumped all the way to 25%,” said Benoit Saint-Marie, CORPIQ’s general manager, in an interview with TVA Nouvelles.

However, the latter warns that by using this practice, tenants are playing a dangerous game.

“It is a worrying phenomenon, I say, for the quality of housing and, in the medium term, for the prices in force in Quebec,” he said.

If tenants begin to overuse the lease assignment, landlords can decide to increase tenant rents, Mr. St. Mary believes.

“These are the owners who were very friendly by granting small raises [à leur locataire]. There the landlord asks himself: if the tenant has waived his lease and is not able to recover the amounts he did not necessarily pay in the increase [à son locataire]He says to himself: What did you do there?

For tenant associations, the waiver of lease contracts is not only a right, but also a tool to counteract rising rental prices.

“Waiver of the lease, it must be said, is enshrined in law, and is the right of the tenants. In times of housing shortage, it can also be used as a self-help strategy. The law already provides for the possibility of determining rents when changing tenants. The problem is that even if that Mandatory, many landlords, not to mention the majority, do not fill out this section of the lease,” says Veronique Laflame, spokesperson for the People’s Action Front in Urban Reorganization (FRAPRU).

This practice is also widespread in social networks, where there are a large number of pages and accounts dedicated to the allocation of leases.

Some real estate leasing companies are also seeing a rise in the popularity of rental assignments.

In fact, there is clearly a demand. The tenants are willing to contact us so we can help them set the lease,” explains David Blouin, president and founder of Blouin Real Estate Rental.