Montreal duplex dispute leaves family in a trailer, tenants facing uncertainty

Armelle Foka has been living with her nine family members in a trailer in Montreal’s Ahunstic neighbourhood for the last two weeks after buying a duplex whose tenants have decided to stay while they await a decision from Quebec’s housing tribunal.

Foka said she purchased the two-unit property in late 2025 and notified the tenants that she planned to move into one of the units with her children and let her parents move into the other after the lease expired on June 30.

She said as a sign of good faith — to show she fully intended to move her family into the home — she didn’t renew the lease of the home she was renting. But when July 1 came around, the tenants stayed.

Now, Foka is living in a rented recreational vehicle — parked outside her property — because she says she can’t afford to go anywhere else. She said her family, including her children ranging in age from four months to 11 years, have had to use public bathrooms and rely on water from around the neighbourhood.

The tenants also say they have nowhere else to go and worry they could end up on the street.

“We’re forced to live on the street because we can’t live in the duplex I bought because the tenants refused to leave even though I followed all the procedures, the law, the regulations, and the deadlines,” Foka said, standing in front of her trailer.

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When Montreal moving day came and went this summer, the tenants in the Ahuntsic building that Armelle Foka purchased in 2025 opted to stay. She sent notice to them that she intended to repossess the property by the end of the lease on July 1. When she didn’t get a response, she filed a repossession request with Quebec’s housing tribunal.

Reposession request challenged

Foka said she received no response from the tenants when she notified them of her plans to move into the duplex, so she decided to file a repossession request with Quebec’s housing tribunal, the Tribunal administratif du logement (TAL).

The tenants challenged that reposession request in front of the tribunal and are awaiting a ruling.

In an email, TAL spokesperson Denis Miron told CBC that dwelling repossession requests are treated as urgent and that the judge has three months to issue a decision. The hearings for two files related to the case took place on May 25.

For Foka, the duplex represents everything she has worked for. 

“It’s all my savings,” she said. “This property is everything I have.” 

She explained that she did not expect the process to take so long.

“This situation is very, very difficult for us ….We don’t have enough space, it’s hard to sleep.”

‘If the court says we have to leave, we’ll do so’: tenants

Liset Cabrera, one of the tenants living in the duplex, said the last few days have been “very horrible.” She said she and her family have been dealing with online harassment since her story made the news.

“We’re not acting in bad faith, we’re not bad people; we’re just waiting for the court’s decision,” Cabrera said.

“If the court says we have to leave, we’ll do so.”

Cabrera noted that, as tenants, her family and upstairs neighbours also have the right to take all the necessary steps to challenge the repossession request.

“We appeared in court in May and the judge was very clear in stating that we wouldn’t have a decision before July 1,” she said.

Cabrera also pointed out that her partner has been living in the unit for 10 years.

Tenants within their rights, lawyer says

According to housing lawyer Kimmyane Brown, the tenants are within their rights to remain in the property until the TAL rules on the dispute.

She said the tribunal “always” informs both parties of potential delays and tells them a decision may not be issued before July 1. 

“When you buy a property in the midst of a housing crisis, those risks come with it,” Brown added.

“I think this puts [Foka] in a very vulnerable situation and she had other ways to show the court that she’s acting in good faith and she really intended to move in the dwelling.”

Catherine Lussier, co-ordinator with the tenants’ rights group FRAPRU, said “from both perspectives, this shows how difficult it is — even though there are currently more housing units available on the rental market in Montreal — to find housing that fits one’s budget.”