Why this landlord is living in his restaurant basement

Stephane Poquet says his sleeping quarters in the basement of his Toronto restaurant remind him of his days in the French Navy. 

The makeshift bed is small, squeezed between shelves with construction materials and tools and a desk littered with a combination of personal and work items like deodorant and vitamins, paperwork and a security system. 

His pants are strewn across a pipe that hangs low from the ceiling. Other clothes are piled up on chairs and in a laundry basket on the cement floor. 

It's tight, dark, hot and noisy, thanks to the business phone ringing, ice machine whirring and the restaurant's air compressor humming. 

Poquet has been living in the basement for the last five months while awaiting a decision from Ontario's Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) after he applied to evict his tenant so he could move into the condo unit he owns, as he and his ex-partner sold their home last year. 

The LTB resolves disputes between residential landlords and tenants.

His tenant has continued to pay rent each month and does not have to vacate the unit unless the the board decides in Poquet's favour and orders them to do so. 

Poquet thought the basement abode would be temporary as he kept anticipating an imminent decision, which is why he hasn't rented a place on a monthly basis.

"It's just not home," Poquet said of the basement. "I worked so hard for 25 years doing this restaurant, and then suddenly I'm stuck here, sleeping in the basement." 

The LTB says the majority of its decisions take an average of 30 days after the final hearing, but Poquet has been waiting for more than 130 days while the board deals with a backlog of cases that, according to data up until 2022, had been taking longer and longer to resolve. 

Poquet was previously living with his ex-partner, who is his current business partner. The two were preparing to sell their home, and he had planned to move back into his condo near Toronto's Cabbagetown neighbourhood.

So, on March 2, 2023, he gave his tenant an N12 notice, which allows a landlord to evict a tenant if the landlord or their family member will be moving into the occupied rental unit.

The landlord must provide at least 60 days' notice; Poquet gave the tenant nearly 120 days and provided them with the required compensation of one month's rent, according to documents reviewed by CBC Toronto. 

On March 3, 2023, he filed an own-use eviction application with the LTB and a virtual hearing was scheduled for six months later in September 2023.