As soon as he owns a new building, the “serial renovator” Henry Zavriyev threatens to evict about fifteen tenants who have no intention of giving it up and leaving the apartments, some of which they have lived in for more than 20 years.
• Also read: “Ever since he bought the building, we’ve been living a nightmare”: Tenants are fighting back against a “super renovator”
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“I live with my 70 year old mother, my 20 year old daughter and her 6 month old baby. There were four generations to replace, who will help us? Even if I accept money to leave, I’m a total failure,” says Marie-Lise Tranquille, who has lived in her apartment on Rue Poupart in the Ville-Marie neighborhood of Montreal for 21 years.
Two days after Henry Zavriyev bought their building, Ms Tranquille and her neighbors began receiving visits from the henchmen of the young 29-year-old property investor, known for his “renovation” practices.
He owns more than 1,000 doors in Quebec and is responsible for hundreds of evictions at senior residences (RPA) such as those at Mont-Carmel, Château Beaurivage and the Seigneurie de Salaberry. In addition to RPAs that he intends to renovate and turn into luxury rental apartments, Zavriyev also attacks apartment buildings in Saint-Laurent, Anjou, Ville-Marie, Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie, Le Plateau-Mont-Royal.
“In three weeks [un employé de Zavriyev] came to me three times to encourage me to go,” says Ms. Tranquille, who pays $600 for her 4 1/2.
Since then, she worries every day about a new visit or a call from one of Mr. Zavriyev’s employees.
The same applies to his mother Lise.
“A 4 1/2 in Montreal is $1,500! I don’t even get that amount a month! We’re not rich,” she protests.
The latter also refuses any amount of money from Mr Zavriyev to urge her to leave. The latter would have offered certain tenants up to $20,000.
“I don’t want to touch the money made from poor people like us,” she added angrily.
dollars to quit
Mathieu Parizeau-Hamel was also quickly called by one of Mr. Zavriyev’s employees.
“He asked me directly how much I wanted to go. Several of us got calls and two out of fifteen neighbors accepted an offer,” says the student with a DEP in Welding.
Every month he pays his roommate $820 for a 4 1/2. Impossible to find an apartment at this price in the neighborhood now. With a quick search, the same size apartments in the neighborhood won’t rent under $1400.
“It would force me to go live with four or five people and that’s not what I want!” explains the young man of 29 years.
Clara Loiseau / JdeM
Keenan Poloncsak, his wife Maude and their 15-month-old granddaughter Fjord want to stay in their apartment on Rue La Fontaine in Montreal and are ready to fight their new landlord, Henry Zavriyev, who wants to evict them.
For their part, Keenan Poloncsak and his wife Maude are hoping to find a way to stay in the 4 1/2, for which they pay $570, where they have lived for 11 years and where their 15-month-old daughter Fjord was born.
“We’re not ready to leave, we want to stay in our neighborhood. There is nothing anyway, or everything is too expensive,” explains the man, who says he was able to set up his small bookbindery thanks to his low rent.
loss of quality of life
Tenants were also surprised to see decontamination work in their backyard starting March 27.
“It ended up in a two meter dig for absolutely nothing. We have a huge hole full of garbage that wasn’t there before, no safety corridor when requested by the Montreal Fire Department,” explains Maude Poloncsak.
Clara Loiseau / JdeM
Tenants were surprised to see decontamination work in their backyard starting March 27. After being overturned by heavy machinery, the yard has been in this state for almost a month.
For those tenants who have seen Henry Zavriyev’s methods of edging out his other Montreal tenants, there is no doubt that this is a technique to marginalize them.
“They uprooted my entire vegetable garden that I had tended for three years without asking. They picked it up with an excavator,” regrets Frédérique, a tenant who has lived there for four years.
After several complaints to the City of Montreal, the plaza was finally backfilled with gravel on Friday. According to a tenant, city officials were present to ensure the work was carried out.
New rules
Tenants were also given an 11-page document detailing the 24 new rules they must follow when renewing their lease, which Le Journal was able to see.
In particular, it can be read that a tenant with animals can only keep one “if he can prove this with a medical certificate […] the need to preserve the animal […] for animal therapy reasons.
However, tenants have the right to extend the lease by objecting to the landlord’s new terms. All together they have also chosen to stand lest their new owner achieve his goals.
“We know this is just the beginning, but we won’t let go of it,” exhales Fabien Collet, who has lived in the building for four years.
Contacted by Le Journal, Henry Zavriyev did not answer our questions.
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