The City of Montreal has issued a second evacuation notice for more than a dozen tenants of two buildings in Pointe-Saint-Charles.

The tenants were forced out for the first time eight months ago, and the buildings' owner said the city approved the two in August.

After inspections Wednesday morning, the city barred up the two buildings, one on Centre St. and one on Chateauguay St.

“We want to know why,” said Marie Valerie of 3971147 Canada Inc., the company that has owned the buildings for the past 50 years. “We have the papers that were saying that everything was alright and how come two months later you change your mind? That’s not right.”

Earlier this year, inspectors found structural problems, electrical issues, water infiltration, vermin and problems with the fire escape. 

According the company's lawyer, Melanie Chaperon, the necessary work was completed. The city sent them a letter in August stating “the issues were fixed to our satisfaction... and we have closed the file.”

“We received a letter Oct. 10… to say we have to visit, because we think we were wrong in August,” she said.

“We had no chance to discuss today. And they put notice on the front door of each building.” 

Even though the city gave the go-ahead in August, Valerie said the building has sat empty while they finish sprucing it up. 

“There’s nobody living in this building,” she said, adding that there were beds and personal items in some rooms because “we’re just decorating and us we use it to sleep.” 

One former tenant said that concerned her, because she has been paying $400 per month for a big space in a good location – and is worried about what happens next.

“Everybody knew this was a good place to live. Low rent, nobody bothered us,” she said.

Inspectors couldn't tell tenants why they were shutting the doors. 

“I don’t know exactly what they want today, you know, because for us, everything was okay,” said Valerie. “We have a report from our engineer and we have report from exterminator too.”

City officials offered this statement to CTV: ""The city of Montreal has required the owner to carry out various works to make sure the building healthy to live in. The city is still waiting for the owner's action plan to address all the issues that have been listed. An inspector from the city visited the site and found that the work requested was not done."

The owners and their lawyer plan to meet with the city later this month.