by KRISTIAN GRAVENOR

On September 18, Frederic Pron was back at home in France, trying to line up a place to stay in Montreal. He answered an Internet advertisement on a site called www.logis-montreal.com, for a one-month lease on a furnished basement flat in NDG. Upon arriving, Pron was directed to an office at 1201 Ste-Catherine E., where he signed a contract for a unit at 2209 Prud’Homme, below Sherbrooke. What he didn’t know was that the apartment was initially leased, for $350 a month, to another Frenchman who had moved to France for a year. Logis-Montreal paid the tenant $500 a month for the place and subsequently rented it out in turn to Pron, furnished, for $750 a month.

A few days after settling in, Pron bumped into his new landlord, Giuliano D’Andrea, who was shocked that his apartment had been rented out to a total stranger. D’Andrea believes that the agency acted illegally in renting the unit out without his knowledge. “Nobody can contract out the apartment except for the landlord,” he says. “What a tenant can do is go to the landlord and say, ‘I’d like to sublet to such-and-such a person.’ The landlord can do a credit check and do what he has to do to see if they’re capable of paying.”

D’Andrea—believing that the agency was impersonating the landlord—complained to police, changed the locks and rented Pron a larger apartment upstairs for $550. “The apartment market is tight and now agencies are basically fleecing people,” D’Andrea comments. “We’re seeing the profiteering element coming into the re-rental of the units.” Pron feels that he was misled by Logis Montréal, who had him paying more than double the actual price of the lease. “I’m glad I’ve got a place now, but I plan to do what I can to get that $400 back too,” he says. No charges were laid, but the case is being pursued at the rental board.

But Franck Landrau, a tourist agent who runs the Logis Montréal apartment agency on the side, says that the Pron case was an exception because he usually deals with landlords “99 per cent of the time.” Landrau justifies the $750 price-tag for the $350 apartment, saying, “It’s the market price,” adding that extras such as utilities, phone, and Internet connection came with the deal. The raised price also incorporated the risk he faces in not renting the place out. “If I don’t rent it out, I lose.”

Royal rental reamings

Short-term apartment rentals are a fast-growing local industry that sees landlords rent out apartments at prices that might shock many Montrealers. For example, the Web site www.toutmontreal.com touts a 11/2 in Old Montreal that goes for $3,600 per month. A two-bedroom apartment near Lafontaine Park is available for $1,450, while a one-bedroom apartment near Sherbrooke metro is listed at $2,900 a month. The landlord of that apartment, who lists a New Hampshire contact number, justifies his asking price: “It’s a nice place. It’s furnished. It’s an elevator building. That’s what I’ve been asking and that’s what I’ve been getting.”

Since Bill 127 was passed two years ago, any owner that rents a dwelling out for less than 31 days is deemed to be participating in the tourist trade and must obtain a license from the Corporation de l’industrie touristique du Québec (CITQ). The CITQ evaluates the place and awards it stars based on quality. The CITQ will have finished evaluating 5,000 Quebec locations by the end of the year and will post the individual ratings on the Quebec government’s tourism Web site, www.bonjourquebec.com. Those caught operating such short-term rental places without a Tourism Québec license, which costs $190 a year plus $4 per rental unit, might face the wrath of a team of inspectors, who could issue fines from $750 to $2,700, according to CITQ rep Anne-Marie Perron.

Meanwhile, Article 1870 of the Civil Code theoretically protects those who sublet apartments for longer periods from being gouged by a money-minded tenant. According to Rental Board lawyer Ginette Chartrand, “A sub-tenant can ask the court to fix the rent to the lowest rent paid in the last 12 months.” A Rental Board judge, however, could deem the higher price justified if services or furniture are included in the deal . :