By Joel Goldenberg
The Suburban

The March Côte St. Luc council meeting was nearly filled to capacity, mostly with tenants from 5755, 5765 and 5775 Sir Walter Scott and 6565 and 6575 Kildare Road who are concerned about their mysterious new owners.

Councillor Mike Cohen wrote on his www.mikecohen.ca blog that the five residential buildings were recently sold by CLV Group for $40 million to new ownership, listed as Immeubles Galleons S.E.C., located in Laval.

“It is unclear who actually heads this enterprise,” the councillor added. “One name kept coming up; a developer I have worked with in my day job. When I reached him he insisted that he was originally a prospective buyer. ‘I flipped the offer to another investor prior to closing,’ he said.” Cohen confirmed to The Suburban that the developer he was referring to was Henry Zavriyev, a well-known owner of numerous properties in Montreal.

Cohen also said the tenants fear the new owners will proceed with renovictions — evicting tenants to renovate units. This prompted many of the tenants to attend the council meeting.

Kildare resident Alexander Errore told council that in the three weeks following the change of ownership, dramatic changes have taken place for the tenants, such as “confusing and inaccurate information via memos posted in hallways. Emails and calls regarding rent payment, emergency contacts and service to two private cell phone numbers provided have been sporadically answered or not answered at all.”

Errore said that two onsite building managers, identified as Mr. Avi and Mr. David, “have been knocking on doors, attempting to get tenants to vacate their apartments with offers and manipulation instead of concentrating on properly transitioning from the former owners.”

The resident alleged that the two men are employed by Zavriyev, “who the media has dubbed the ‘king of renovictions.’

“His battles with seniors residences and apartment buildings are well documented in the media over the last several years. We have already created an informal tenants association and have received legal consultation.” The Suburban has contacted Zavriyev and we await his reply.

Errore added that “we are not convinced that the City of Côte St. Luc wants the next well-publicized battle against renovictions to happen within their quarters.

“Other than the amendment to the construction permits regarding renovictions, is CSL planning any other safeguards against the practice of renovictions?”

Errore was referring to a bylaw amendment passed by CSL late last year, saying “prior to the issuance of a permit for major works that require evacuation, written documentation must be provided demonstrating the fact the tenants have agreed, in writing, to either temporally relocate or voluntarily vacate their dwellings during the work. Tenants who have agreed to temporarily relocate must have been presented with a clear expected timeline for their return. The contact information of each affected tenant must be provided.” The bylaw also says “the building permit shall become null and void if any documentation or information provided during the permit application process is found to be misleading, untruthful, or inaccurate.”

Deputy Mayor Dida Berku, who was a longtime tenants lawyer, said she has “lived through this experience with many other tenants associations” in other areas of the city.

“We’re very sensitive to this issue, we understand the dynamics. But there’s a role for the courts and the Rental Board, and there’s a role for the city. The city applies bylaws in a fair and regulated fashion. We are not going to intervene in relations between landlords and tenants. You as tenants have to protect and fight for your rights. I understand you have a tenants association and you hired a lawyer, and that’s what you need to do.”

Cohen said the residents did not come to the meeting “in vain. I am sure that, whoever the owners are, they’re going to be well aware of the fact that, unlike other buildings where people have woken up when it’s too late, you have woken up before anything has officially started….We’re going to do everything in our power to back you up, and if that means sending our building inspector over there on a weekly basis, because there’s a problem, we’ll do it.”

Other residents called on CSL to take some type of action, but Berku reiterated that they should mobilize. n