Tenant terror

BY RAFFY BOUDJIKANIAN

raffy.boudjikanian@transcontinental.ca

As a court battle looms between a Dorval tenant and landlord, the latter told The Chronicle the relationship with her lessees has turned into a nightmare.

Cardinal Avenue resident Anna Elamar presented a litany of allegations against the tenant -- including two separate hit-and-runs on her car and that of her son, a physical assault on another son, and refusal to pay rent for the last three months.

The most recent incident occurred on May 2, Elamar said. "(One of the tenants) just simply walked over, slapped (my son's) hands really hard. He kicked him a couple of times in the legs," said Elamar. Her husband ran to protect the boy, and at that point the tenant stopped attacking, she said, instead attempting to provoke the father while another tenant held a video camera in order to record the potential reaction.

However, the father kept his cool and called 911, Elamar said. Though an ambulance arrived in eight minutes, it took an hour for police to show and take a report. "(The police) said they're going to charge him," Elamar explained. However, after verifying with nearby Station 5, officers did not arrest him, she said. She still expects him to be charged.

Moreover, Elamar alleges that on April 25, the same tenant rammed both her car and her older son's vehicle on two separate occasions during the day. When her older son's car was hit, right outside of their home, she alleges, the tenant fled the scene and told police it was Elamar's son who had hit him.

She said problems began with the tenants in February, when her husband went to check up on their rented home, a bungalow next door to theirs. He noticed several problems with the house, she said, including a plumbing snafu. According to Elamar, the bathroom drains had been somehow re-routed toward the basement, leading to water leaking there, among other problems.

She said her husband hired a plumber for repairs, but the tenants refused to let the Elamars in for a check-up afterward.

Elamar alleges the driveway of the rental bungalow was filled with several vehicles, and a lot of junk had been left in the backyard. She produced photographic evidence, and said the tenant illegally started to dig up their rental bungalow's backyard for a swimming pool project, and then abandoned it.

When The Chronicle went to investigate last Wednesday afternoon, a broken-down truck, missing doors and the left wall of its container, sat in the driveway. A plot of earth lay uncovered by grass in the backyard and the skeleton of a gazebo stood forlorn and incomplete in the backyard.

A history

Elamar showed The Chronicle copies of judgments obtained at the Régie du logement du Québec, the provincial authority settling disputes between landlords and tenants. The documents each indicate a man named Jean-Marc Frénette, with various associates, was found guilty of not paying his last three months of rent to various landlords over the years. Only one former landlord returned telephone calls for comment, and did not want to have their name revealed due to safety concerns.

The unnamed landlord said though the judge's ruling agreed Frénette owed them money, he never paid up. "I wish this guy (the current landlord) had asked me. I would have told him not to rent the place," the previous landlord added.

As the Régie is a strictly administrative tribunal, there are no mechanisms to enforce payment. "Rental contracts are open contracts," said spokesperson Jean-Pierre Leblanc. If a landlord is unable to convince a person to pay, he said, he may use other resources at their disposal, like a friend, family member or bailiff. Leblanc added police authorities do not have the right to pursue lessees in Quebec.

Interestingly, though Elamar said Frénette is the tenant allegedly behind the hit-and-runs and physical assaults, the name of Annie Montpetit is on the lease for the Dorval bungalow.

Elamar said Montpetit claimed Frénette would co-sign the lease eventually, but never did.

Tenants charge back

With more than simply rent at stake, the Elamars and Montpetit are headed to a hearing in June. Reached by phone, Montpetit said she could not comment much beforehand. "All I can say for now," she said, "is that the landlord tried to legally evict me in order to give the bungalow to her son." Montpetit said the Elamars tried to evict her in March, but could not do so, because their deadline was end of December 2007.

Montpetit added she was confident in her evidence, citing pictures and "video of the landlord harassing me."

Elamar said Montpetit unjustly accused her husband of slapping her, calling police on April 22. She said her husband was not even near Montpetit that day.

Station 5 media relations officer Liliana Belucci said she could not comment on individual cases.