House inspection campaign

The City of Montreal’s Department of Municipal Evaluations will proceed to update its database on the condition of some 200,000 residences in the island – nine years after the last update. The Real Estate Assessment Act stipulates that all cities of Quebec must verify the information they have on file regarding residential dwellings which must be carried out every nine years.

What is to be evaluated? Only the land and exterior condition of the property since it would be an arduous task to visit the interior of buildings Monday to Friday from 8:00 to 18:00 given that majority of residents work. Technicians and evaluators of the Department of Municipal Evaluation will arrive at the homes of residents with an identity card issued by the City of Montreal. Photos of the property and the land it stands on will be taken. If the inspection shows that the results differ substantially from the results of the last inspection nine years ago, appointments can be taken to discuss these results in detail. An example would be if a detached single family dwelling was converted into a duplex. “With this inspection campaign, our goal is not to create problems or inconvenience homeowners. It is simply a verification of our data and not an evaluation of the property”, assured Patricia Lowe of the City of Montreal’s public relations department.

“The evaluation is spread out over a period of four years and I think that is appropriate; it gives us sufficient time to update our data”, Mrs. Lowe said. Since the inspection will be carried out only outside of the property, it was decided to implement the inspection in two phases: the first from May 1 to June 30, 2008 and the second from May 1, to June 30, 2009. The City would like to have a quicker idea of the condition of the dwellings; this is the reason for the two-year blitz. We’d like to assess the outside sections of buildings on a massive scale”, Francine Godin explained, residential appraiser for the City of Montreal.

The only objectives of this campaign are the validation of data relating to residential properties and the occasional issuance of a certificate of change of the property’s value. Yet Mrs. Kokonya confirmed that the Borough regularly issues violation notices and warnings resulting from complaints – as in the case when a building is in an unsanitary condition.

Serge Boisvert