Can a Montréal Condo Syndicate Restrict Long-Term Rentals?

Ontario and many US associations are built around a board that must be told, or must approve. Quebec's co-ownership framework is built around the declaration, a contract that binds every owner, and the Civil Code puts a ceiling on what it may contain. A restriction on an owner's rights is valid only if it is justified by the building's destination, characteristics, or location.

"Destination" is the building's intended character as the declaration and its context describe it: a quiet residential building, a mixed-use building, a building marketed for short stays. Courts have accepted that calm, tranquillity, and security can define a residential destination, which is why a clause limiting very short rentals usually survives while a clause aimed at something else may not.

The Court of Appeal has drawn the line in a way that helps landlords. In a challenge to one building's by-law, the court treated a minimum lease term as a permissible rule of exercise, consistent with a residential building. It treated a ban on companies renting out apartments, and a cap on how many units one owner could hold, as going too far, because those rules denied the right to rent instead of regulating how it is exercised. The result was partial: the short-term limits stood, the two blunter restrictions fell.

One caution: the ruling concerned one building's by-law and facts, so it shows how the test is applied, not a guaranteed outcome.

For a landlord holding a unit through a numbered company or owning several units, the practical point is stronger. A syndicate that tells you "companies can't rent here" or "one rental per owner" is making a claim that has already failed in at least one reported case.

Amending the declaration needs a three-quarters majority of owners under article 1097. Changing the destination of the immovable is harder: article 1098 requires the approval of three-quarters of the owners representing 90 percent of the votes.

The line between the two matters in practice. In the 2025 Court of Appeal case, a syndicate passed a by-law by simple majority setting a 32-day minimum rental in a building whose declaration expressly authorised short-term rentals. The court held that this effectively changed the building's destination, and that without the 1098 double majority the by-law was invalid, even though its aim, reducing noise and disturbance, was legitimate.

A rule that contradicts the declaration may be weaker than it looks.

A rental of 31 consecutive days or less, for payment, needs registration with the CITQ whatever the property type and however occasional the use. The CITQ's guidance says a condo can be registered, but only with written authorization from the syndicate on a mandatory standardised form, renewed each year.

Registration also depends on municipal compliance. Municipalities can restrict where short-term rentals are allowed and for how many days, and the CITQ does not set out Montréal's rules itself. A Montréal owner therefore has two further checks beyond the declaration: the borough's rules for the address, and the syndicate's willingness to sign.

The syndicate's signature gives it a practical veto here even where the declaration is silent. A standard long-term lease falls outside this process.

An owner who leases a private portion must tell the syndicate within 15 days, giving the tenant's name, the term of the lease, and the date the tenant received a copy of the building's by-laws.

This is a notification, not a request for permission. It also contains an instruction in disguise: the owner has to give the tenant the by-laws, since the notice records when that happened. A tenant is generally bound by the by-laws once they have been given notice of them.

Substantive review means an editor checked this article against the current text of the Civil Code of Québec provisions on divided co-ownership, the 2025 Court of Appeal decision, and CITQ guidance. What a specific Montréal building's declaration, amendments, and by-laws provide, whether a rental clause is valid on its facts, and what the borough requires for short-term rentals at a given address depend on that syndicate's own documents and the borough; verify current requirements with the syndicate, its manager, or a Quebec co-ownership lawyer before relying on this for a specific leasing decision. This is general information, not legal advice. Corrections: compliance@platuni.com