Montreal kicks Airbnb renters out of condemned apartment building

Montreal officials had to kick Airbnb guests out of a Pointe-Saint-Charles apartment building that was deemed unsafe for inhabitation in 2018.

At least 14 people were forced to vacate 2520-2530 Centre Street this week. The locks were changed and notices were put up in the windows

Evicting residents, be they short-term lodgers or long-term renters, is becoming an all-too-familiar scene at the unassuming, beige building on a bustling street lined with shops and eateries.

Late last year, CBC News learned people were paying $33 per night to rent a unit through Airbnb despite the fact that city inspectors had determined the building posed a risk to human life more than two years ago.

Montreal officials first evicted all the tenants inFebruary 2018 rather than let them live in a water-damaged buildingamong rats, insects and squatters a building that lacked safe emergency exits.

Still, owners listed units on Airbnb even though the prohibition on renting apartments had not been lifted and the building was considered uninhabitable.

Airbnb removes listing again

When CBC News discovered the property was being rented to Airbnb guests back in November, the landlord's lawyer said the building had been renovated since the 2018 evacuation.

Regardless, Airbnb removed the listings shortly after CBC News reached out for comment.

Nearly six months later, the city says Airbnb guests were again renting units even though the building is supposed to be vacant.

"The way this owner has operated, it's been completely outside of code, and outside the law," said Craig Sauv, a city councillor from the Sud-Ouest borough. "And we can't have this in Montreal, you know?"

He said it is "mind-boggling" that a property owner would just keep "doing whatever the heck they want" with such a "blatant disregard of the safety of people and what the city's rules are."

Montreal is considering further legal action against the owner, Sauv said.

Lawyer accuses city of abusing power

The numbered company that owns the building, 3971147 Canada Inc., is planning to fight back.

The company's lawyer, Jean-Jacques Beauchamp, said the city offered to buy the building last year, but the owner doesn't want to sell.

Beauchamp said he wonders if Montreal is now trying to force the sale by cutting electricity to the building and kicking everybody out so the owner can't make any money off the property.

"Sometimes they're right, the City of Montreal, but this one is an abuse of power," he said. "They want to torpedo the usual process of negotiation between parties of good faith."

The owner will discuss the situation with Montreal officials next week, Beauchamp said.

As for Airbnb, it is "urgently investigating" the issue, according tospokesperson Sam Randall, who said, "the listings and host in question have been removed from the platform and the reservations relocated."