Photo credit: Alex Drouin – Monvicto.com
Tired and angry, the community of Saint-Albert turned to the courts to force a developer to complete work on the houses she had left abandoned for too long.
“We cannot tolerate a building being unfinished and not moving [du côté de la propriétaire]“We have taken legal action,” complains Mayor Dominique Poulin.
On July 17, the municipality filed an application at the Montreal courthouse for a Supreme Court injunction against the owner of company DD 955.
According to the legal document, she is the “owner of the buildings” on Rue Lacharité.
In 2018, he held talks with the community about building apartments there. He was granted building permits in the same and following year.
However, “the conditions for carrying out the work contained in these permits were not met or even completed on time,” says the introductory question.
A dangerous construction site
We can currently see that foundation work has begun on two properties. On another property there is the unfinished construction of a building with six residential units.
“Now deserted, uninhabited and uninhabitable, [l’immeuble] is no longer maintained and poses a threat to life and safety,” the court document states.
“Given the dangerous condition of the three stairwells as well as the three guardrails serving the abandoned building, the site remained dangerous and unsafe,” it also reads.
When monvicto.com traveled to the scene, it also noted the danger of the stairs.
She remains silent
In November 2020, a first administrative offense report was sent to the owner “to draw her attention to the administrative offense of her buildings, but to no avail”.
“We want the work to be completed because we want to build housing there,” explained the mayor, whose municipality, like almost everywhere in Quebec, is affected by the housing crisis.
If the owner does not complete the work after the application for introduction, the municipality hopes that the Supreme Court will allow it to take possession of the premises to build new apartments.
The owner could not be reached for comment on this matter.
According to the commercial register, his company was automatically deleted for “failure to submit two consecutive annual update statements.”