This is Part 1 of a CTV News Montreal investigation into tenants’ allegations against a social media influencer-turned real estate investor. Read Part 2 here and Part 3 here.
A Montreal woman is taking her former landlord to Quebec’s housing tribunal and seeking more than $60,000 in damages, alleging she was the victim of a disguised eviction orchestrated by an influencer-turned-real estate investor.
Because the tenant sharing her story feared going public could compromise her future ability to secure an apartment and requested anonymity, CTV News is identifying her by a pseudonym, “Michelle.”
“I’ve never felt more scared than when I was dealing with this,” said Michelle.
Michelle, who was paying $842 a month in rent, agreed to vacate her apartment and put all her belongings in storage for a three-month period while renovation work was underway.
She later discovered her landlord, Magali Cuvillier, started a new lease with another tenant once the renovation work in her unit was completed and set the rent at $1,400 a month.
Cuvillier blamed an email “misunderstanding” for the series of events that unfolded and ultimately left Michelle searching for a new place to live.
In the application filed with the rental board, known in French as the Tribunal administratif du logement (TAL), Michelle alleges she suffered “the violation of her Charter rights to the enjoyment of her property” because of the “bad faith” of her landlord.
‘This is going to be a renoviction’
Michelle moved into a one-bedroom apartment in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve in July 2023.
According to land register records obtained by CTV News, the building was sold to a numbered company in February 2024. Through judgments from the TAL and documents provided by tenants, CTV News has linked that numbered company to Cuvillier and her partner, Edouard Martin.
Michelle’s lawyer, Manuel Johnson, said operating through numbered companies allows landlords to protect themselves, by shielding their personal identity. The strategy also creates a legal barrier between the individual and the property, which can make it more challenging to trace ownership directly to the person responsible for the purchase.
“It’s very difficult to lift the corporate veil. But the administrators of the companies are very familiar to the housing committees,” said Johnson.
Johnson added that raising the rent for apartment units after acquiring a building is lucrative on two fronts.
“Obviously, that increases the monthly income, but most of all it increases the value of the building. It’s the quickest way to add value to the building without that much investment and we’ve seen this time and time again,” said Johnson.
According to Michelle, tenants quickly suspected there would be changes following the sale of the building.
“My neighbour said to me, ‘This is going to be a renoviction. Because this is not a fancy place. These new people are coming in. They’re going to try to make it fancy,’” Michelle recalled.
‘French-Canadian influencer’
Cuvillier, a 33-year-old from Morin Heights, built a following online after moving to Colombia, becoming fluent in Spanish and posting videos of her experiences embracing Colombian culture.
In 2019, she was invited to be an emcee at the Expo Latino festival in Calgary, dubbed Western Canada’s largest Latin festival.
In promotional material for the event, Cuvillier was described as a “French-Canadian influencer” and “social media icon in Colombian culture and around the globe” who “always communicates happiness and positive vibes, elevating others, adding a little flavour everywhere she goes.”
Ultimately, Cuvillier chose to settle in Montreal and reinvented herself as a real estate investor.
Email mix-up
Michelle said she asked Cuvillier and Martin to deal with an electricity issue in June 2024. She alleges they used that request as a pretext to ask her to vacate her unit, so they could do more work on it.
“They said that electricity is only one thing wrong, along with a lot of other stuff. We need to redo a lot of it. The walls are bad, the roof is bad,” Michelle said, adding Cuvillier asked her to leave the apartment for a three-month period, with a return scheduled for January 2025.
Michelle agreed to move out temporarily with all her belongings, and Cuvillier agreed to cover the related moving costs, plus the equivalent of the difference in rent for three months.
In November 2024, while living with a friend, Michelle reached out to Cuvillier to inquire about the planned return to her apartment. Michelle told CTV News she was stunned when Cuvillier provided her with a list of the work that was completed, and informed her rent would be going up by nearly $600.
“This was insane. All of a sudden, I obviously freak out, because you don’t know if this is legal. You don’t know what’s going on,” Michelle said.
According to Michelle, when she met with Cuvillier and Martin in person, Cuvillier claimed she’d tried to get in touch repeatedly by email but had mistakenly used the wrong email address.
“And then she goes on to say, ‘Because I didn’t hear from you, I actually lined up a different tenant for January 1st. So I have someone who is willing and ready to move in January 1, if you decide that $1,400 is too much for you.’”
Michelle provided CTV News with access to her email exchanges with Cuvillier.
In an email dated Nov. 29, 2024, Michelle advised Cuvillier, “I will be staying in my apartment till July at the least, as I have an active lease”.
She added, “When I receive the normal rent increase notice, I will be in contact regarding next steps.”
Later that evening, Cuvillier responded: “Alright, understood.”
But 10 days later, when Michelle followed up, it was a different story.
“She explains that she had misunderstood my email, and she has already rented it out to someone else. The way that she said she misunderstood it was that it was unclear. That since I used the verb ‘stay’ in my apartment, that meant I wanted to stay here, in this [temporary] apartment.”
Johnson, Michelle’s lawyer, told CTV News his client was essentially trapped.
“In these kinds of situations, if the owner signs a lease with a third party – and that third party is in good faith – and that third party moves in while the original tenant is evacuated, the Tribunal will not force the new tenants to move out, so that means you’ve lost your dwelling,” Johnson said.
CTV News reached out to Cuvillier for her version of events. She declined the interview request but provided a statement through her lawyer.
“This case is currently before the courts (…) It will be up to the Tribunal to render a judgment. Our only comment is that there was some confusion in the email exchanges.”
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