Montrealers rally for tenant hit with nearly $5,000 lease cancellation fee

Tenant says she is being made to pay fees for an apartment she has never lived in

NewsbriefHannah Scott-Talib — Published December 1, 2025 0 minutes

Tenant Saima, who has been granted full name anonymity for safety reasons, said she is being forced to pay nearly $5,000 in lease cancellation fees, despite having never set foot in the apartment. 

According to Saima, she and her three-year-old daughter have been living at a shelter in Montreal while searching for a stable place to live. Saima added that she is also studying full-time at Concordia University.

Saima said the lease issue arose as a result of miscommunication between her and her social worker, her agent at the rent supplement program (PSL) in Quebec, and the building’s landlord. The PSL program, primarily reserved for low-income families and individuals, allows for applicable tenants to pay rent at 25 per cent of their family income.

“I had looked through so many houses in Montreal to find anybody that can accept my PSL subsidized program,” Saima said. “I couldn’t find anybody that could give it to me because some people don’t trust [it], but it’s completely reliable.”

Saima said that, after seeing this property listed online, she was told by the landlord’s office agent that the landlord would accept her PSL conditions. She said she feels that she was misled into signing the lease before PSL agents could verify that the property complied with their requirements.  

She said her PSL agent later told her that the apartment was incompatible with the subsidized rent program, leaving her with a lease for a unit she never visited. She was also left with the responsibility of paying three months of non-subsidized rent to formally cancel the lease. 

The Nov. 29 picket line, organized by the Montreal Autonomous Tenants Union (MATU), began at 11 a.m., with attendees holding up signs and banners and handing out informational flyers. 

According to Levi, a member of MATU who was also granted full name anonymity for safety reasons, the picket line was a next-step action following unsuccessful communication between the union and the property owner.

“We had a great turnout,” Levi said. “The goal was to show awareness to the situation that’s going on, and to have tenant solidarity with the other tenants in the building as well.” 

Levi added that some of the other tenants in the same building had stepped up to help organize this event in support of Saima. 

Moving forward, Levi said that MATU plans to do more outreach to tenants under Saima’s landlord, to build the campaign and further raise awareness. 

“The more tenant solidarity we can have throughout the city, the more that we take back control of our own lives and our homes,” Levi said. “We’re so subjected to the whims of people that we never meet, and they act like where we live is their home, but it’s ours.”