Résidence Mont-Carmel

I lived in this truly atrocious building for a single year of absolute hell, the vast majority of which time I eagerly awaited the expiry of my lease so I could finally escape from it. This place didn’t just have bad neighbours, it had every kind of bad neighbour to the nth degree. Including young and rowdy neighbours who’ll disrespect every basic rule and courtesy, including playing their music very loudly and constantly at all hours of the day despite the thin walls with zero sound proofing. I had to buy and wear noise cancelling headphones for virtually every waking minute in my apartment, plus a Bluetooth sleep mask for when I slept. But that’s just one type of bad neighbour. There’s also the bitter elderly neighbours who’ll call the police to waste their time and your’s over the slightest perceived offense in their view. In fact, be prepared to find yourself in the middle of a generational battle between these two groups as well as a legal battle between them and the property management company if you move into this building. This place isn’t just run by a bad landlord and his bad property management company, it’s run by one of the most notoriously awful in this city. Deeply dishonest. Totally non-responsive to communication. Extremely slow to make repairs. Even outright contemptuous of court. The person who showed me the building before I moved in pretended to not have the key to the pool room. It turned out the pool was closed for renovations and remained that way for most of the year I lived there. Likewise for the gym equipment. When I first moved in, the laundry machines were free. The other tenants abused their access to these machines to the point that finding a free machine to do my single weekly load was virtually impossible. Eventually, some laundry rooms were made senior’s only, with no sign indicating this change, while the others had their machines replaced with coin operated machines. I ended up doing my laundry at a private laundromat elsewhere in the city every single week for nearly the entire year I lived there. While I lived there, one of the three elevators broke down and stayed that way for months. It was still broken when I moved out. Initially, signs from the management were posted in French, English, and Spanish, which were then often defaced by bigoted Francophone graffiti or had everything but the French portions torn down. Eventually, the signs changed to French and Spanish only. Speaking of signs, the management will often post threatening signs treating their tenants like criminals, such as reminding you about the security cameras in response to some tenants leaving too much garbage in the halls. And speaking of treating tenants like criminals, sometimes at night private security officers prowl the hallways with their dogs. It very much felt like I had been sent to prison for a year. I wouldn’t wish living in this building to my worst enemy. For the sake of your sanity, I beg of you, live in any other building than this building. Don’t make the same mistake I did. Do your due diligence researching a building before you sign a lease and move into it.

New administration service is so kind. Staff atention is so warming. Nice building in downtown.

Beautiful, safe place. Excellent welcome from Assia. The restaurant at the residence had excellent food and service from Mélanie, the owner, along with Pierre. Thank you very much!

Good-sized rental units. Well located. Independent clientele. Community spirit despite limited organized activities. Accessible healthcare services (24/7 nurse and public family medicine group on the ground floor). Swimming pool.

Not the cheapest, but offers great services and care for older members of the society who still values active lives and appreciates living in the heart of Montreal's downtown.