Next to shiny Airbnbs, Montreal tenants face construction, mice and fire hazards

Mice chewed through paper-thin walls inside the Guarantee building on St-Laurent Boulevard, mould flourished and pipes leaked near wires in the building's large lofts; the tenants say they get sick often. But through Montreal's busy tourist season, visitors came and went.

Five tenants told CBC News they first became concerned after the fire in an Old Montreal building that killed seven people last year. They said they worried about the short-term rentals in their own building and suspected it was unsafe.

But their landlord, they say, does little to improve the building and instead greenlights construction to turn apartments into short-term units.

According to the Montreal fire department's inspection reports, the building has multiple fire code violations. City inspectors have also flagged problems with cleanliness in the building.

For months, the tenants complained about the problems to various government agencies, but the issues in the building persisted.

The tenants say the poor living conditions, the construction and pressure from their landlord, Simon Rossdeutscher, to raise their rents, are pushing them to leave but they fear their units will be transformed into short-term rentals if they do. They say they want to preserve the nature of the building, which has been home to working artists for decades.

Those short-term rentals, which were, until recently, listed on Airbnb, advertised large spaces for as many as 12 guests, some of whom were sleeping in windowless rooms, erected without permits, inside loft apartments.

The building is located in one of the few parts of the city where short-term rentals are allowed to operate if they are registered.

Tenants sent CBC News pictures of the units and links to Airbnb postings that advertised newly renovated apartments and boasted about the bohemian nature of the building.

A city spokesperson said licences were issued for four short-term rentals in the building, but CBC News confirmed that at least five units were advertised for rent on Airbnb. A city inspector noted in May that more units seemed to be primed for short-term use.

A spokesperson for the Plateau-Mont-Royal, where the building is located, said the borough is investigating possible illegal short-term rentals in the building.

Thousands of dollars in fines

The advertisements for the units listed on Airbnb showed clean, renovated apartments.

Meanwhile, tenants said they ran into a maze of bureaucratic red tape when they tried to flag their concerns with the short-term rentals and the general state of the building.

Edson Niebla, a digital artist who has been living in the building with his partner since 2020, reported the rentals and concerns about the construction taking place throughout the building to Airbnb, Revenu Qubec, the Rgie du btiment du Qubec (RBQ), the landlord and the city.

Inspectors with the borough and the fire department inspected the building in 2023 and earlier this year. The fire department inspections were part of a blitz in the aftermath of last year's deadly Old Montreal fire, known as Operation Vulcain.

Since April 2024, the fire department has issued thousands of dollars in fines to the landlord for offences ranging from problems with the building's fire evacuation routes to porous firewalls.

Borough inspectors have also threatened the landlord with fines for failing to maintain the building and for a lack of ventilation in the units' kitchens and bathrooms.

Some issues first flagged by fire inspectors a decade ago like problems with fire doors separating the exit routes from the rest of the building were still outstanding. "During a fire, the absence of a closing mechanism on the fire doors would cause the propagation of smoke and hot gas in the corridors and would slow the safe evacuation of occupants," a fire department inspector wrote in June 2014.

More than 10 years later, inspectors noted the problem persists.

WATCH | Many government bodies responsible for building's issues:

Should short-term rentals be allowed in buildings with fire code violations?

5 days ago

Duration 3:21

In an aging Montreal apartment building, some tenants are asking whether newly renovated units should be allowed to be used as short-term rentals on sites like Airbnb. The owner has been fined several times for code violations, while parts of the building tenants live in are in visibly poor condition.

Borough inspectors found issues with multiple units in the building, including a lack of ventilation and vermin. They struggled to contact the landlord, according to the documents obtained by CBC News, and they ordered him to make repairs to the building.

"Generally I feel, now, unsafe," said Illiez Planche, a longtime tenant.

"In the past it was more feeling that things weren't up to code, there were some elements that weren't particularly healthy to live in but I didn't give it that much thought."

As recently as late August, follow-up inspections from the fire department showed the owner still hadn't made all the necessary repairs. CBCNews did note that between July and October, the landlord installed new emergency exit signs.

Around the time the inspectors were looking into the building this summer, construction was ongoing in some vacant units.

The workers were erecting windowless bedrooms similar to those found in Airbnbs already operating inside the building and the construction was being done without the proper permits.

Documents show that, in May, city inspectors visited the building and informed the landlord that construction was being done without permits in his building; he replied that he was not responsible for work done in the building in 2024. The inspectors told the landlord that any work done in the building was his responsibility.

The construction caused major disruptions in some apartments. It caused water to leak and debris to fall from the ceiling it was also noisy and the tenants said the work often took place late at night, early in the morning and on weekends.

"The construction made it unbearable to go about our daily life," Planche said.

Construction ended over the summer after city inspectors visited the building and posted notices on the units' doors ordering the work to stop.

In July, tenants invited CBC News to come inside their apartments. The thin walls of one unit had holes and bite marks, and the building's common areas appeared to be in a state of disrepair with walls, ceilings and floors bearing cracks and stains. Other units had mould growing on the ceilings and irregular electrical wiring. Used drug paraphernalia littered the halls.

On another visit in October, CBC News noted the mould in one tenant's apartment was covered with anti-mould paint. But water pooled at the bottom of an elevator shaft and tenants said mice were still a consistent problem.

The tenants also showed CBC News a photo of a dead mouse that they said lay in the hallway for months.

Despite this, the landlord continued to request rent increases from the tenants.

Property records show Rossdeutscher, the landlord, owns numerous buildings. He has a history of being litigious with his tenants, though not always successfully.

Records from Quebec's housing tribunal show Rossdeutscher regularly opens cases against his tenants, often for non-payment of rent, but some of his cases have been rejected by judges.

CBC News reached out to Rossdeutscher for comment and called and emailed his company, H & S realties, but did not hear back.

'Too many cooks in the kitchen'

While reporting this story, CBC News journalists like the tenants were directed from agency to agency, trying to find answers about the problems with the building and the short-term rentals.

That's because numerous agencies have oversight responsibility for different aspects of the building.

The RBQ is responsible for ensuring the building is up to code, and the city is responsible for ensuring it meets fire safety standards and municipal habitation requirements but those are handled by different city departments. The Commission de la construction du Qubec is responsible for making sure construction is done according to provincial standards. The Corporation de l'industrie touristique du Qubec is responsible for accrediting vacation rentals, but Revenu Qubec has the power to inspect and investigate illegal short-term rentals. The City of Montreal is also piloting a task force to limit these rentals.

Marie-Claude Parent, one of the inspectors for Montreal's task force, said the city wants to crack down on illegal short-term rentals. But she said it can be challenging to hold landlords accountable.

She said the task force has to work in parallel with "many, many" boroughs and agencies on the municipal and provincial levels, making accountability a lengthy process that mostly results in fines.

She acknowledged that some landlords make high profits from their rentals and can easily pay fines to continue operating.

A spokesperson for the city said it has "limited legal tools" at its disposal and is looking into other ways to enforce regulations around short-term rentals.

David Wachsmuth, Canada Research Chair in urban governance at McGill University in Montreal, said short-term rental hosts evade authorities because there are "too many cooks in the kitchen."

Landlords "have so far been betting that they're not going to get fined. And probably they've been winning that bet. The enforcement here in Montreal just hasn't been that good on this issue," he said.

After CBC News asked authorities about them, the short-term listings were taken down from Airbnb's website although CBCNews has noted that the listings reappear on the website periodically for short periods of time, usually overnight or on weekends. The construction, which tenants say started last summer and caused damage to other lofts, has also since stopped.

"It's been a very frustrating experience because no one wants to take responsibility for what's happening," said Niebla. "Everything we love about living here, it's gone."

"We're all on edge because we know that anything that we do wrong, they're immediately going to try to kick us out," he added.