Quebec’s energy regulator is considering how rental housing owners should be notified when their tenants terminate hydro contracts. Smart meter technology now gives Hydro-Québec the ability to disconnect power immediately, and it proposes doing so on the account holder’s chosen day to end service unless landlords have registered in advance to take on the costs.
However, Quebec’s largest rental housing association argues that the default assumption should favour landlords. It suggests any hydro service cut should be delayed for at least one month, or until April 1 if a contract is terminated during the winter months, unless the landlord indicates otherwise. In that interim, costs would automatically be charged to the property owner.
“If a tenant cancels the hydro and leaves in the winter, the pipes could freeze and break,” says Hans Brouillette, director of public affairs with CORPIQ (Corporation des propriétaires immobiliers du Québec).
Under current rules, property owners are notified seven days in advance of any hydro service cut, giving them the option to cover electricity payments until the unit is reoccupied and a new tenant assumes the hydro contract. Hydro-Québec is calling for a website-based registry to take the place of this formal notification process.
As proposed, landlords would pre-register their properties and — if they choose to — an agreement to automatically assume any contracts that tenants in those properties cancel. Registered owners would also receive notification by email when one of their tenants cancels hydro service, but much of Hydro-Québec’s administrative burden would be alleviated.
“Property owners have to know that a website exists that they need to register on,” Brouillette observes. “If Hydro-Québec doesn’t know who the property owner is, which is 20 per cent of cases, or if the owner isn’t already registered, the electricity will be cut off as soon as the tenant stops service or payments.”
In 2015, CORPIQ successfully appealed to the provincial Régie de l’énergie to lower the fee to reconnect hydro service after tenants have terminated their contracts. It was reduced from $361 to $50, largely in recognition that Hydro-Québec expends little effort to provide the reconnection service. The Régie de l’énergie has not yet delivered a decision on this issue.
