A Montreal landlord wants to replace 100s of tenants' heating systems. Here's why many are resisting

Some residents in this block of apartment buildings are in a standoff with the owners over a new heating system. In some cases, residents are stopping workers from entering their units and installing the new system, with some even losing access to hot water in the process. This is a document that I placed. Elodie Fortuné put this sign on her door, telling workers not to enter her apartment. She believes that by changing the heating system from centralized gas to electricity, the landlords are changing the conditions of her lease. That contract says the owners cover the costs of hot water and heating. But under the new system, all those expenses will end up on her hydro bill. I'd like to point out that my rent is three-quarters of my budget. So if there is this work, the constraint of people who come and go to my house, so that when everything is fixed, I have exorbitant bills, how do I get by? CBC reached out to Norgate Quebec Inc., which owns the 70-plus buildings that make up the Norgate apartments. In a statement, a spokesperson says that if a lease stipulates that hot water and heating are included, that the owners will reimburse residents for those additions on their hydro bill. But the Saint-Laurent Housing Committee says many tenants don't believe that will actually happen. This front here is the new landlord. Director Maria Vasquez says many residents have lost trust in the new owners who bought the buildings in 2024. This summer, dozens of tenants contested what they called abusive rent increases. She says the owners also tried to make residents responsible for all heating and hot water costs during lease renewals. Vasquez says while they now promise to reimburse tenants for those costs, residents must have a say in how that happens. We're going to make a document, a very clear document. Now everything is going to be reimbursed this way and this way, and both parties sign. That's the only way. Vasquez also says that a few residents have lost their heating or hot water. She says the building managers are telling tenants that they need to let them install water heaters and electric baseboard heaters as they decommission the centralized system. They say that if workers aren't allowed in, the existing services will no longer work. You see the intimidation here to make them to accept this. In a statement, a spokesperson for Norgate Quebec Inc. says that neither the owners nor the management company are intimidating residents. They say that the existing hot water and heating system are obsolete and need to be replaced. They add that the company reimburses the extra Hydro-Quebec electricity costs by comparing the bill with the same period the year before. They say if that's unclear or if money is still owed, tenants should contact them. Housing lawyer David Searle says that what the law says on the topic isn't so black and white. He says typically tenants must allow building owners to carry out work if there is proper notice. He says if tenants believe that the landlord is not respecting the conditions of their lease, they can ask the housing tribunal to investigate, but they might not be able to stop the work from happening. It would require her research to look into how this specific situation has been treated before. On the one hand one can understand where they're coming from, you know, they have this expectation of a lease being breached. On the other hand, one can also expect that they're going to be confronted when and if they complain about their lack of heating, they're going to be confronted with their own lack of Lack of collaboration. But the Coalition of Housing Groups, RECLAC, says residents are right to be upset over the proposed reimbursement system, saying it creates a power imbalance. Is the company really going to make a personalized calculation for each home? It seems really ambitious to me. If the tenant is not happy or does not make the same calculation as the owner, it is the owner who has the power to refund or not. It's what residents like Fortuné want to avoid. Exhausted, but not done fighting, she says while she isn't against the work itself, she is against the way the landlord is going about it. And until that changes, she isn't backing down.