nspection

By Joel Ceausu
The Suburban

Montreal’s housing inspection scheme was raised at CDN/NDG council this month, with resident Sylvia Rodriguez asking Loyola councillor and executive committee associate member responsible for housing and sanitation Despina Sourias about her announcement of an inspection blitz.

“Could you provide an update on the outcomes of this inspection blitz?” she wrote. “Specifically, what were the main issues identified and how has the city and borough addressed them so far?”

Borough Mayor Gracia Kasoki Katahwa responded for Sourias, who was absent from the July 2 council meeting. “Generally, the city has done preventive inspections in 28 buildings and 4,900 apartments in our borough. We noted that four of the buildings that counted 550 apartments needed further inspection that we have already done, and in one of the four inspections that we did the landlord was issued a ticket on the spot.” Other landlords were issued warnings and given 30 days to do repairs.

When problems are noted by inspectors, says Katahwa, the city contacts the owner “and we work with them to make sure that they make the corrections necessary. If they don’t, we give them fines that get more expensive if we need to go back to tell them to do the work, or to do the work on schedule.”

The borough waits 30 days after an inspection to give them the time to do the work, she adds, “except if it’s really urgent matters.”

Darlington councillor Stephanie Valenzuela asked for more details about the 28 buildings. “Can you give us a rundown of the buildings that have been inspected? In which district? And what is the plan for the next buildings that will be inspected over the next few months?” Katahwa said she could not provide that information on the spot, “so we’ll get back to you with more precise information.”

Valenzuela told The Suburban, “if we have a list of really bad buildings under terrible conditions, I want to see the list of those buildings and a plan for the next few months, especially if I’m aware of properties in my district on the list.” She also questioned when inspections began. “We have 12 borough inspectors but the city’s Service de l’habitation, which is completely different, has an entire plan dedicated to the worst buildings in the city. Hopefully I get an answer before the end of summer,” she scoffed, suggesting the lack of available information “goes to a lack of transparency that impacts my district.”

The Suburban asked the borough to clarify. As part of the city’s responsible landlord initiative, inspectors do preventive inspections across the borough without regards for district, explained borough support staffer Itai Azerrad. “The methodology is to start with the bigger buildings of 100-plus apartments and then inspect smaller ones.” The 28 properties cited were in the CDN-NDG pilot phase from January to May 2024. “These inspections allowed us to see the state of the building to either give a fine right away and/or refer it for another more in-depth inspection operation (Blitz) when certain criteria are met.” The plan moving forward, he says, is to do the same with six-plus unit properties. n