How to dig up DIRT on your landlord

On this episode of Metropolis, host Kalden Dhatsenpa interviews Rose, a housing rights organizer with the Comité de Logement de La Petite-Patrie, about a practical new resource she co-authored: “How to Investigate Your Landlord.”The guide aims to equip tenants with the tools to research landlords before signing leases, empowering them to recognize potential red flags and avoid harmful situations.

Rose explains that in housing justice work, it is common to encounter landlords who use deceptive tactics to force tenants out or justify steep rent increases. These abuses often go unpunished due to weak enforcement mechanisms, leaving tenants vulnerable The current rental market in Montréal is a sort of wild west where bad actors operate with relative impunity.

A 2020 study by the Comité found that 85% of renovation projects involving repossession or eviction were never completed—suggesting that many landlords use renovations as a pretext for removing tenants. Such findings highlight the scale of fraudulent practices and the lack of consequences for those responsible.

Rose argues that part of the solution lies in tenant education and proactive investigation. By understanding their legal rights and researching a landlord’s history—such as past disputes, code violations, or patterns of eviction—tenants can make informed decisions and reduce the risk of exploitation. The guide outlines methods for gathering this information and stresses that awareness is a key defense against abuse. Such information scraping can make for strong arguments if disagreements with your landlord ever escalates to the TAL (Tribunal Administrative du Logement)

Ultimately, Rose’s message is clear: tenant empowerment begins with knowledge, and knowing a landlord’s track record can be as important as understanding the terms of a lease.