Mireille Lefrançois lived in the building next to Isabelle Gagnon's for four years. It has six apartments and is owned by the same owner, Karim Oliver Kamal. She spent her ordeal in a dormitory rented from him. But the “straw that broke the camel's back,” she said, was turning three units in the building into apartments rented on Airbnb.
When he came into the building in 2018, Mme Lefrancois quickly noticed problems with the toilet in his home. “The latrines are regularly getting clogged for four, five days. » The windows were not equipped with mosquito nets, so insects freely entered the apartment in the summer. She said that she waited for two years to finally install these mosquito nets.
After the water damage to the neighbors who moved out of the building, Mme Lefrancois observed that his apartment was renovated from A to Z. “For months, we put up with construction noise… and then, it was Airbnbs. Noise at all hours of the day. Fixed parties. »
Of the six housing units in the building, Mireille is supported Lefrançois, three have been converted to rent on Airbnb. She said she spotted the apartments on the Airbnb website, and tenants in a neighboring building, Isabelle Gagnon and Jason Bouchard, also confirmed to us.
Mme Lefrancois sent us a screenshot of one of these apartments on the Airbnb site, dated October 2022. She said she recognized it as the accommodation of one of her neighbours. She stated that the man presented as the landlord of the apartment, with a supporting photo, was one of the building managers. We tried to find the ad, but it has disappeared from the Airbnb site.
Isabelle Gagnon and Maxime Pilon included these illegal rentals in their appeal to the Administrative Housing Tribunal, which asked them to “order the landlord to stop illegally renting neighboring apartments as tourist accommodation”. Short-term rentals such as Airbnb are prohibited in the Verdun district unless the residence is the landlord's main residence.
“We have all seen the comings and goings of tenants. We talked to people. They themselves told us that it was rented out on Airbnb, Mme French. We saw IKEA furniture delivered, then saw the same furniture advertised on Airbnb. » Isabelle Gagnon adds: “We see the owner's employees coming to hide, to supply Airbnbs through the alley. »
Who is Karim Oliver Kamal?
Karim Oliver Kamal is a professional poker player who has been playing in international circuits since 2015. In 2018, he earned his biggest lifetime win at a tournament in Kahnawake: $210,000.
In addition to this career in poker, Mr. Kamal owns several businesses in real estate and investment.
Through these companies, he acquired 14 apartment buildings in four boroughs of Montreal. Press. These buildings have a total of forty houses.
