Tenants “disgusted” with real estate investors

Tenants who are victims of evictions by large investors are “disgusted” to see them act with complete impunity even though they have been putting hundreds of tenants on the street for years.

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“We live in fear, we have nowhere to go if we get evicted and no one protects us,” laments Caroline Leclerc, 47, met during a tenants’ demonstration on Thursday.

Last January, real estate investor Henry Zavriyev, well known for his mass evictions, bought the building in which she has lived for ten years. In just a few months, eleven of the fifteen households decided to leave right away.

“I understand them leaving, it’s difficult for morale, [c’est stressant de] fighting is a lot of time and investment. He won’t have me,” explains the woman who pays $600 for a studio in downtown Montreal.

The story is the same for Hana Denucci-Gagnon, 25 years old. The same real estate investor bought her building last month and several tenants have already been evicted, she explains.

“I’m angry, angry to see that he’s been doing this for years and that he can continue,” says the young woman.

No change

Yasmine Belam, president of the Ville-Marie Housing Committee, was ousted in 2019 by Henry Zavriyev, whose eviction methods were beginning to become known. This is because this thirty-year-old owns more than 1,000 doors in Quebec and is notably at the origin of hundreds of evictions in seniors’ residences (RPA) like those in Mont-Carmel, and in apartment buildings with many vulnerable tenants.

“Five years later, I can’t believe we’re at the same point. There is something that is not working, there is a lack of law or a lack of supervision,” she laments.

“It’s not normal for people to experience the same thing as what I experienced five years ago,” she continues.

Véronique Laflamme, from the Popular Action Front for Urban Redevelopment (FRAPRU), believes that Henry Zavriyev is the example of the impunity that reigns.

“These are renovators who ruin the lives of tenants who have often been evicted fraudulently. Right now, it’s the Wild West, the situation is deteriorating month by month and the consequences of inaction are very serious,” she denounces.

Government Responsibilities

For Cédric Dussault, co-spokesperson for the Regroupement des logement committees et des associations de tenants du Québec (RCLALQ), the different levels of government must act against this type of investor.

“They have responsibilities. The City of Montreal has much greater powers than what they currently exercise, such as imposing very steep fines in terms of sanitation or even doing the work themselves and sending the invoice, and ultimately expropriating the owners,” explains he.

Henry Zavriyev had not responded to our questions at the time of going online.