About 40 people have been removed from a set of houses in Ste-Agathe-des-Monts owned by the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect Lev Tahor.
Ste-Agathe Mayor Denis Chalifoux said the city received a complaint on Thursday about there being a large number of people in two homes owned by Lev Tahor.
It turned out that members of Ste-Agathe’s Jewish community had set up a children’s day camp and were renting the homes temporarily.
However, Chalifoux said that In Ste-Agathe, it is illegal to rent a home for fewer than 30 days.
Lev Tahor’s approximately 200 members fled their Ste-Agathe homes in November 2013 amid a child-welfare investigation. At the time of its sudden departure, the sect collectively owned about 20 houses, said Chalifoux.
Some of the homes were seized for mortgage non-payment, while others were sold. Other houses were seized for non-payment of property taxes.
However, Chalifoux said the sect either sent a cheque or sent a representative to pay the property taxes on a few of the homes; those homes therefore remain the property of Lev Tahor members.
