Responsible Landlord and Rental Registry Certification
FHCQ advocates for exemption for housing co-ops
June 10, 2022
The Federation advocated that housing co-ops be exempted from the application of the Responsible Landlord and Rents Registry certification during the consultation on the City of Montreal's project.
While praising Montreal's objective, the Federation is concerned that the proposed regulation will apply not only to private landlords, but also to housing co-ops, which are already heavily regulated by operating agreements with their funders and by the Co-operative Act.
According to the Federation's Executive Director, Patrick Préville, this clause makes no sense for co-ops, which are self-managed enterprises in which tenant members must also assume the responsibilities of landlords, managing their housing projects.
Certification of the condition of the building and its units
Under the Co-operatives Act, housing co-ops are already required to conduct a building health check every five years. The Federation believes that requiring co-ops to do the same for the City, as proposed in the by-law, would be duplicative and provide no additional assurance that co-ops are being maintained in good condition.
Rent Registry
The FHCQ also opposes the requirement for co-ops to report their rents so that they can be recorded in a public register. To subject housing co-ops to rules designed for the private market where a landlord can arbitrarily impose a rent shows a lack of understanding of the very nature of a housing co-op. The Federation recalled that in co-ops it is the occupants who collectively determine the amount of their rents according to the budget adopted at the general assembly.