A Landlord Nightmare / sleazy Marc Barchichat Operations

In the summer of 2006 'Le Girouard Inc.' administered by Marc Barchichat bought the apartment building I lived in at 2290 Girouard Avenue in Montreal. Marc Barchichat was immediately a bad landlord, barging in asking questions and asking for the rent - even though we had already given a check to the previous landlord. The first day we met him he told us that starting in October there would be major major renovations and that the rent on our 4.5 would be raised from $510 to around $850.

Marc Barchichat's next harassment was to tell us that we couldn't mail him the rent as we had been doing with the previous landlord, and as it was stated we could do in our lease. His goon, Salvador, would show up regardless of whether someone had already cashed our check and rudely demand the rent. It even occurred that his goon would lie and say that they hadn't received the rent - and one time I gave them a second check, only to have both checks cashed!

At first, nothing broke in our apartment. A generous tenant cleaned the hallways for free and things didn't seem much worse than under the previous landlord. The only added stresses were the rude and arrogant minions acting as though the tenants didn't have any rights. Then, in November of 2006, our toilet began to run continuously and I realized just what a bad landlord Marc Barchichat really was. Even after I called him many times nothing happened. Then, in January 2007, I sent him a registered letter asking him to fix the toilet. Nothing. I decided eventually to just keep the bathroom door shut.

Now, you might be wondering why I didn't just fix the toilet myself... I suppose I could have - but it was an old fashioned model with no tank and I just figured that it was the landlord's obligation.

By August 2007 I was fed up. I had contacted Barchichat many many more times and there were excuses and promises but the toilet still hadn't been fixed. I went to the Regie de Logement, a rental tribunal, and opened a case against 'Le Girouard Inc.'. Thus began the seemingly endless wait for a hearing. I also decided that I wasn't going to hold back at all - I would start calling Marc Barchichat all the time, even (and at the time it seemed incredible) every day! I began by calling weekly. Eventually Marc did send a plumber to check out the situation and it appeared that the toilet needed to be replaced. Then... nothing happened! We were getting into October. My parents were coming for Christmas, the toilet had been broken for almost a year and I was really getting frustrated. I started to call Barchichat every day. The lies that he told then became more obvious. For instance, he told me that he had called Decarie Plumbing. I then called Decarie Plumbing myself and was told that he had never called. So, I kept calling Barchichat - at all hours of the day. He would try to avoid my calls - so I would switch it up: first call from my cell, then from my home phone, then from skype. I would leave angry messages on his voice mail and with his hapless secretary. Barchichat eventually did call Decarie Plumbing but didn't give them the go-ahead to do the work. So I then began calling Decarie Plumbing every day! By this time it was winter and the plumbers were busy and then it was the Christmas holiday. (It now appears that Barchichat-administered companies owe Decarie Plumbing a bunch of money, and Decarie Plumbing is suing them for it.)

I had Christmas with my parents in the noisy apartment and it wasn't the end of the world. Then I resumed my incessant phone calls. In January 2008, more than a year after I had first informed my landlord that it was broken, my toilet was finally replaced! (By the way, at this point I was still waiting for my hearing at the Rental Board!)

Later, in March of 2008, Le Girouard Inc. was in default of its mortgage and a bank started receiving our rent checks. Another sleaze bag company called Le Cogir took over management of the building. Some time in late summer of 2008 Marc Barchichat had his douche bag boys rip out a bunch of the building's heating system. Well, that meant that everyone in the building lived without heat until the end of November! It was cold. The only reason that the heat was turned back on was that a bunch of tenants complained to the city and the city threatened the bank that they would evacuate the building if the heat wasn't turned back on.

Some time in the spring, don't ask me how, Marc Barchichat got control of the building through another corporation. This time it was called Sofilco Inc. owned by someone called Yves Clement. However, the intimidation tactics that we were subjected to as soon as they took control had Marc Barchichat's finger prints all over them. Before too long tenants spotted him in the building. Yves Clement sounded a little more respectful on the phone but he did not respond to tenants' complaints at all. For example, I called him when I realized that the fire escape had been bolted shut, turning our building into a genuine fire trap, and he did nothing. Every tenant in the building could have died if there had been a fire and neither he nor Barchichat cared. I called the Cote-des-Neiges/Notre-Dame-de-Grace (CDN/NDG) city housing inspectors (who were already very familiar with the building at this point) and they forced the owners to remove the bolts. Unfortunately the inspectors didn't seem to notice that one of the fire escapes was blocked by an industrial air conditioner.

Around this time Barchichat and his boys were busy completely removing the heating system from the building (again!), just in time for winter! They had no intention of re-installing a replacement. They used the threat of a winter without heat and hot water to get rid of the last remaining tenants. Well, it worked! There was a little bit of media attention right at the end but that was meaningless. The tenants were effectively forced out whether they wanted to leave or not.

Later, I was to learn that Barchichat had used exactly the same heating blackmail tactic at 1520 Docteur Penfield in 2006. The tenant won his case at the Regie de Logement and states that in the spring of 2006 the central heating was demolished and so come the fall they had no choice but to accept the installation of electric heating or else they would have to survive the winter with no heat!

Related Links

Reporter Dan Delmar has written an informed article about the situation. He's also written another story about Marc Barchichat focusing on a Beaconsfield ave. building. The tactics were almost eerily familiar.

CTV Montreal did a story about the building

L'actualites, a local french local paper, has a good article (pdf) on page 21 of the oct 21 2009 version of it's paper.

The gazette has written about slumlords and actions that the city is doing to combat them. We'll see about that.

Philippe Stenger

My research into the Le Girouard Inc. shows that all the money comes from a man named Philippe Stenger. Doing a simple phone lookup on Philippe Stenger - you can find an address: "1135 Boulevard Marie-Victorin, Boucherville, Québec, Canada". Type that into google maps, switch to street view,turn to your left, and voila: the fanciest McMansion I think I've ever seen!! We see how he lives, but he doesn't want to spend $200 to fix my toilet!

But who is Philippe Stenger? He may lives outside of Montreal but controls many buildings in the city, especially in the borough of CDN/NDG. Because of a number of corporations and administrators he is neatly hidden from all the mess and messy dealings. According to government documents his full name is Philippe Guillaume Rene Stenger. He is also the owner and administrator of the holding company Stenvest Inc. He uses the email stenvest@gmail.com. If anyone has any information about this man, please contact me.

The personal responses I've received have confirmed that Philippe Stenger is also active in real estate in Alsace, France. This is confirmed by google searches, that show that he is the manager of Entreprise Pierre Guillaume Stenger based in Strasbourg, France. A court document indicates that he has been a real estate professional for 18 years. Stenger is also involved with a Strasbourg company called Gestion de l'ill.

Digging a little bit more into Philippe Stenger there exist judgements against either him or his companies in both France and Quebec. In France: Entreprise Pierre Guillaume Stenger was found guilty of bid collusion in the construction of the european parliament in Strasbourg. Philippe (manager) is mentioned throughout the document. This judgement was upheld in the French appellate court.

Philippe Stenger is now involved in an international legal battle with French businessman Claude Hochner. Hochner lent Stenger money to build up what Hochner's lawyer calls a real estate "house of cards"! Hochner and Stenger have been battling in Quebec and French courts over the confiscation of Stenger assets in France and Hochner has recently seized Stenger's residence at 1135 Boulevard Marie-Victorin, Boucherville (municipally valued at $1.4M). Claude Hochner also lent Stenger money through one of his companies Financexperts S.A. It appears that all Philippe Stenger's assets are vulnerable since he personally guaranteed some of the loans. Hilariously, Stenger has pretended he blindly signed documents given to him by Barchichat! But the judge didn't believe him.

Philippe Stenger is Marc Barchichat's brother-in-law. This explains why Stenger has trusted Barchichat with the management of his affairs in Canada.

It appears that Claude Hochner initially became involved with these brothers when he sold them the apartment building at 4309-4311 Beaconsfield ave.

Other Buildings

Unfortunately, Barchichat and Stenger appear to be involved in at least 5 buildings. The money behind these buildings comes from either Philippe Stenger or Yves Clement.

1. 2290 Av. Girouard, H4A 3C3 Montreal. Barchichat's involvement was initially as administrator of the corporation 9166-6438 Quebec Inc. (also known as Le Girouard Inc.) The major shareholder was Philippe Stenger. Now the building is owned by Sofilco Inc. who's major shareholder is Yves Clément. Yves Clément, however, is a front for brothers Stenger&Barchichat for the 1520 Dr Penfield building. It appears that the Girouard building is in the process of being sold again, however.
2. Another building in NDG with the addresses: 4309-4311 Beaconsfield ave. and 6125-6131 Monkland. This building is talked about in the 2nd Dan Delmar article in the Suburban. It is owned by the corporation 9137-1195 Quebec Inc. which again has Philippe Stenger as its major shareholder and Marc Barchichat as its administrator. This building was previously owned by Claude Hochner.
3. 3550 Ridgewood. Until Sept 2010 wned by 9143-6329 quebec inc. which has the familiar Philippe Stenger, shareholder, and Marc Barchichat, administrator. This building's purchase order by Stenvest in 2004 had many legal complications. This building is currently in the process of default. As of September 2010 this building appears to be owned by Sofilco - likely fronted by for Stenger&Barchichat by Yves Clément.
4. 2110-2112-2114 st. denis near sherbrooke. owned by Placements Delavoie Inc. With once again Philippe Stenger, shareholder, and Marc Barchichat, administrator.
5. 1520 Dr Penfield. The building has a complicated ownership history similar, in a lot of ways, to 2290 Girouard's. This building is currently owned by 9206-0276 Quebec Inc. (also known as Le 1520 dr penfield) which until August 2010 had Yves Clement as one of its shareholders! But, up until March 2009 the building at 1520 Docteur Penfield was owned by a company called le mont-belliard inc. (mentioned in a cjad article, that discusses an investigation into a death caused by poor maintenance) owned by, who do you know, Philippe Stenger and administered by Marc Barchichat. This building is now controlled by Daniel Revah and Simon Levy - more mainstream Montreal condo developers.

Marc Barchichat / Marc-Emile Barchichat / Marc Emile Barchichat

Marc Barchichat also keeps moving his office!! He does this without telling anyone. We only found out about his new address by chance. Initially, when 9166-6438 quebec inc. bought 2290 Av Girouard his office was at 608-1010 Rue Sherbrooke O, then, without informing his tenants, he moved to 4309, rue Beaconsfield, apt 8. Now his office is at 1010 rue de la Gauchetière Ouest Bureau 1065 (according to the Barreau). Interestingly, Marc Barchichat's initial address on Sherbrooke O, is still the address of record for Philippe Stenger's Stenvest Inc - did he move to try to obfuscate the connection?

As a lawyer Barchichat has been disciplined by the comité de discipline du Barreau du Québec in 2007. He has also had a very long and drawn out personal bankruptcy filling.

Can you believe it, Marc Barchichat has moved his office again! As of June 2010 his new office is 1000 rue Saint-Antoine Ouest, Bureau 750 and his email is listed as marc.barchichat@barchichat.com. He seems to be using a new email address as well, in the past he often used his marc_barchichat@hotmail.com email.

City Actions

In the November of 2009 CDN-NDG borough council meeting I asked the borough mayor Micheal Applebaum how the city was following up with 2290 av Girouard. He told me, within this public forum, that the borough was following up with a lawsuit against 'le Girouard Inc.' for fines due to numerous violations of the city's housing code. Mr. Lafond, head of the borough's urban planning division, reassured me that someone from the city would follow up with me. With no response, on November 20th I sent Michael Applebaum a follow up email and have still not gotten any response. Michael Applebaum is the Montreal city executive in charge of housing.

Doing your own Research!

A lot of what I found out about these "characters" is accessible to anyone with an internet connection!

To find out what legal entity owns any building in Montreal go to:
http://ville.montreal.qc.ca/portal/page?_pageid=3077,3528875&_dad=portal...
From here, do a search for the street (eg. Girouard) and then it will have a list of links for all the available addresses on that street.

To find out which people are behind a company in Quebec go to:
https://ssl.req.gouv.qc.ca/slc0110_eng.html
Make sure not to include the 'inc.' in the name you search for.

To look up Quebec court judgements:
http://www.jugements.qc.ca/
You can search for company names here: such as 'Sofilco'.

To look up any Canadian court judgements:
http://www.canlii.org/en/index.php

To find out about ongoing Quebec superior court cases search:
http://www.barreau.qc.ca/roles/
Here you can look up, for example, 'Barchichat' as the lawyer name. The proceedings listed here are public and can be attended by anyone. It's interesting to see which corporations Marc Barchichat is representing.

To look up a lawyer's office address:
http://www.barreau.qc.ca/repertoire/
For example, this is a good way of finding out where Marc Barchichat's office is.

It is also possible to obtain all documents and even a recording of all the Regie de Logement cases. You just need to go to their offices and provide the address (eg. 2290 Girouard). I have been told that some of this information can be obtained online - but I haven't been able to figure this out yet.

You can also get information from the city of Montreal, including reports from the housing inspectors.

Update!!

Please check back frequently, as there are many new developments.

As of March 12th 2010, Sofilco Inc. (Yves Clement and Marc Emile Barchichat) has put 2290 Girouard for sale for $6 million. This listing does not list an address - and even posts the wrong postal code, H4B 1A1, and not the correct H4A 3C3. This selling price is triple the approximately $2 million that was owed to the bank when Le Girouard Inc. went into default. At the same time real estate agent Banny Bar is attempting to rent apartments in the building on craigslist. The prices are around double what were paid before previous tenants were forced out; ie $880 for a 3.5 rather than $410. Also heat and hot water are no longer included in the price.

Take a look at my article Why you shouldn't rent at 2290 Girouard!

But how do you know it's 2290 Girouard?

Take a look to the right at the picture posted on the real estate listing. This is a picture not of the building (which they suspiciously don't want to show) but of the view from a balcony of the building.

Now take a look at at google streetview taken with 2290 Girouard seen on the left and the same view that you see in the above picture. There is no doubt that it is 2290 Girouard that is for sale.

New Revelations

Following a new judgement against Marc Barchichat several new pieces of information have come out. These include:

• That Yves Clement is only a front man for Philippe Stenger and Marc Barchichat.
• That the Dr. Penfield building was flipped from Stenger&Barchichat to a 50-50 partnership between a 1. corporations controlled by Simon Levy and Daniel Revah and 2. Stenger&Barchichat fronted by Clement.
• That Simon Levy and Daniel Revah have had a major falling out with Stenger and Barchichat.
• That the goal of this new partnership is to turn 1520 Dr. Penfield into condos.
• That Marc Barchichat lied and tried to deceive his new "partners" Levy and Revah.
• That Marc Barchichat seems to be in trouble with the law probably with regards to conjugal violence.

According to tenants at 1520 Docteur Penfield the new owners, Simon Levy and Daniel Revah, along with the new building manager, Paul Znaty, have been very professional compared to Marc Barchichat and Philippe Stenger. When requested they have carried out repairs and have acted to accommodate the tenants.

This probably means that 2290 Girouard's new owner "Yves Clement" is also a front and that the real owners of 2290 Girouard are, once again, Philippe Stenger and Marc Barchichat.