Patricia McIntyre was getting ready to ring in the new year with family and friends at her home in Île-Bizard when there was a knock at the door.
To her surprise, she was greeted by a bailiff who handed her a pair of envelopes. Inside there was a stack of papers from Revenue Québec explaining in detail how she had violated the province’s short-term rental rules and that she and her husband were now facing fines of $3,750 each.
“To me, this is very predatory and the government is acting in bad faith,” McIntyre says.
McIntyre never actually rented out her home, but in the lead-up to the Presidents Cup, hosted at Royal Montreal Golf Club last September, she decided to post it online with a short-term rental website that was recommended by the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA). With large crowds expected and streets closed to traffic, she thought it would be a good opportunity.
She didn’t have a tourism registration number, or CITQ, and says the site, Rent Like A Champion, never gave her any indication that she might be breaking local laws. But she knew that if she rented, there would be taxes to pay.
“If we would have [rented], yeah, I’d call the government and find out what the protocol is, how do we proceed,” she said.
“But just for simply putting your house on a website, to me it’s shocking that they can get you for this.”
Multiple homeowners who posted but didn’t rent targeted
McIntyre has since learned that she is not alone in her frustration. She says she knows of at least nine other homeowners in the area who were targeted by Revenue Québec investigators during the lead-up to the Presidents Cup. None appear to have successfully found someone to rent their house.
Aisha Lasarni paid $250 US to post her home on Accommodation For The Event — a site based out of Ireland that caters to golf fans looking to stay close to golf tournament venues.
She was served papers this week and was stunned to see that the province was coming after her and her husband for a total of $7,500. Lasari says she only posted her home because she was hoping to leave town during the tournament to avoid the crowds and traffic.
She also says she didn’t know she was violating provincial rules.
“I mean we’re not used to renting houses here,” Lasari says. “We’re not downtown where we have condos where there’s the Jazz Festival, where we rent out our houses, where we’re infringing on the housing market,” she said.
Like McIntyre, Lasarni’s house was not rented.
“It’s not a slap on the wrist of $500 [that says], ‘hey, you should have known that you need a permit.’ I mean for a garage sale you need a permit but you don’t need a permit if you’re thinking of having a garage sale.”
Revenue Québec accused of acting in bad faith
The case files that Lasari and McIntyre received outlining their offences are dozens of pages long. There are photos of the listings, their home from multiple angles and pages of notes taken by Revenue Québec investigators.
“It’s not right. It’s unjust. I mean how can you do this to people? I’m sure they spent thousands of dollars creating these files against us,” McIntyre says.
In Lasari’s case, there is also a photo of a text message showing someone, possibly a Revenue Québec investigator, inquiring about the availability of their home.
“To be honest, it felt like it was a bit of an invasion, some kind of an entrapment. Like they went through such an effort to investigate our little island, a little island that is not used to seeing any tourists,” Lasarni said.
The pair says they understand that short-term rentals are creating issues in some parts of Montreal but argue that homeowners in Île-Bizard are not who the government should be focusing its resources on.
Revenue Québec spokesperson Mylène Gagnon says fines for violating the Tourist Accommodation Act range from $500 to $50,000 for individuals and that the rules are listed on the government’s website. Any failure to display a registration number on a listing, even if the lodging is not rented, is subject to fines ranging from $1,000 to $10,000.
Lasarni says she understands that being unaware of a law is not a valid excuse for violating it, but she argues that since Île-Bizard is not an area that typically has many visitors, that the agency could have acted with more empathy and at least tried to warn residents that they needed a CITQ number instead of silently building a case against them.
“What happened to caring for your citizens? I mean show a little care,” Lasarni says.
Borough could have warned us, residents say
McIntyre also maintains that the borough of Île-Bizard–Sainte-Geneviève could have done more to prevent the situation.
“The City of Montreal did send us letters indicating where we were allowed to park, in my case indicating that my street would be locked down, so I don’t see why they didn’t warn us at the same time,” she said.
Borough Mayor Doug Hurley says he is aware of the situation but declined to comment further because the issue falls under the jurisdiction of the provincial government.
Revenue Québec says it can’t say exactly how many homes were investigated for violations in Île-Bizard during the Presidents Cup because it does not break down its data by municipality.
According to the agency’s website, there were a total of 702 inspections in Montreal between April 1 and December 31, 2024. Some 223 cases were filed leading to 193 convictions and $984,527 in fines collected.
“They should have an obligation to simply warn us and tell us, ‘you’re not within the confines of the law and you have 24 hours to remove your house from the website.’ I guarantee you 100 per cent of us would have removed our homes,” McIntrye says.
The PGA confirmed to CBC that they do have a relationship with Rent Like A Champion but declined to comment any further on the situation. Rent Like A Champion did not respond to CBC’s request for comment.
Accommodation For The Event founder and accommodation manager, Brian Higgins, said that in his opinion, it is “in poor taste” for the government of Quebec to fine his clients, especially if they don’t successfully rent their home.
He added his site is in no way affiliated with the PGA and added that this is made clear in the terms and conditions every user agrees to before posting.
McIntryre, meanwhile, has a message for any homeowners who may have posted their homes for rent without a registration number in the lead-up to the Presidents Cup and have not yet been fined.
“It’s too late,” she said. “Please reach out to us. We’re trying to group together.”
