The Affordable Housing Renovation Program offers subsidies to owners of buildings containing six or more dwelling units to encourage them to renovate their buildings, mainly to:

• Extend the usable life of the building
• Improve tenants’ quality of life
• And encourage ecological transition

Your application will be considered eligible:

1 - If your building has at least one third (1/3) of the dwelling units leased at affordable rents.

• An affordable rent is one that is lower than or equal to the rent amount stated in the Additional information document (see below), according to the size of the unit.
• For example, for a building with six dwelling units, at least two units must have affordable rents. For a building with seven to nine dwelling units, at least three must have affordable rents.

2 - If at least half the units are occupied.

3 - If the building contains six dwelling units or more, and five storeys or fewer, and was built more than 20 years ago.

If these criteria are met, you can submit an application for the building. Important: File review fees apply as soon as an application is submitted.

Inspection

Once your application is deemed admissible, the city will conduct a mandatory inspection to determine whether the condition of your building qualifies you for the program.

This inspection is based on a standardized rating grid that rates your building on a scale of 1 (excellent condition) to 6 (very poor condition). To be eligible, your building must obtain a score of 3 or 4, which means that its condition is neither too good nor too bad.

Particular cases

Exceptions apply to cooperatives, housing non-profits and rooming houses.

To receive financial assistance, you must:

• Hire a building professional (for example, an architect) to plan the work, prepare plans, and certify that work was done according to plans and specifications.
• Obtain any permit and authorization required from your borough prior to beginning the work.

Under this program, you cannot:

• Transform the units into non-residential spaces, subdivide or enlarge them
• Convert a dwelling into a divided or undivided co-ownership (condominium)
• Illegally evict tenants
• Cause the building to be vacant
• Submit invoices or bids that do not show the real amounts paid
• Submit leases that indicate rent amounts different from the real amounts asked

For three years following the last subsidy payment, the city may ask you to provide documentation that will let it check on these obligations and other program conditions.

If any one of the conditions is not met, the subsidy will have to be reimbursed, in whole or in part.

If a subsidy is granted for work on your building, the city will notify the tenants. You must deduct all subsidies obtained, regardless of their source, from the total cost of the work before calculating the rent for each dwelling.

Work in occupied units

The program covers work on the exterior of dwelling units. If you must have work done within a dwelling, you must make every effort to allow tenants to remain in their units, and minimize the inconveniences to them.

For example, if you have to decontaminate for mould, you will have to rehouse tenants, or offer them compensation. In all cases, you must rehouse them in the dwelling once renovations are completed.

After inspecting your building, the city will identify the components that qualify for the renovation subsidy:

• Heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC)
• Interior construction
• Electricity
• Envelope (including exterior cladding)
• Interior finishes (floors, walls, ceilings)
• Foundations and crawl space
• Built-in and accessory furnishings (counters, cabinets, etc.)
• Openings (doors, windows, etc.)
• Plumbing
• Projections (balconies, exterior staircases, etc.)
• Structure
• Roof
• Specific work intended to protect the building against sewer back-up or to improve the level of thermal insulation

Components deemed eligible by the city represent renovation opportunities. You can choose to renovate one or more of them according to your needs and priorities.

Mandatory work

If your building has an oil-fired boiler, central furnace or water heater, you must replace it as part of your work. You must also replace the private portion of a water-service entry if it is made of lead.

Renovations that involve health and safety may be required, such as fire alarm system upgrades, fungal decontamination or extermination if there are pests.

The maximum subsidy is:

• $14,000 per dwelling for eligible work
• $2,800 per dwelling for eligible fees
• $500,000 per building for all eligible work and fees

Payment of the subsidy

The subsidy is paid when all renovations have been completed.

For example, if the contractor has finished renovating the roof, the professional can document that all roof-related work has been finished. You can then apply for the subsidy for the roof.

All mandatory work must be completed before you can request a payment related to non-mandatory work.

To apply for the subsidy, you must:

1. Fill out the on-line application form
2. Fill out the necessary Supplementary forms (below)
3. Submit, by regular mail, the payment by cheque of the review fees
   155 rue Notre-Dame Est
   Montréal (Québec) H2Y1B5

If your application is admissible, we will send you a confirmation letter and will contact you to inspect your building.

Application review fees

You must pay review fees of $300 + $56 for each dwelling unit, up to a maximum of $1980.

This amount is not refundable, even if the qualification inspection determines that your building is not eligible for the program.

• PDF file Reno Program for affordable housing - Forms to attach to the financial aid application
• PDF file Reno Program for affordable housing - Additional information document