Heating Repair in Montreal: Electric Baseboards, Oil Furnaces, Plexes and Hydro-Québec

Three systems, three trades

Electric baseboards fail simply: a thermostat, a heating element or a breaker. In Quebec, that work belongs to a licensed master electrician who is a member of the Corporation des maîtres électriciens du Québec, not to a handyman, and the CMEQ publishes a member lookup. Oil and gas furnaces, boilers and hydronic systems belong to heating contractors who are members of the Corporation des maîtres mécaniciens en tuyauterie du Québec; gas appliances also require a technician certified for gas. Every contractor doing this work needs a Régie du bâtiment du Québec licence.

Before booking, identify what you have: baseboards with a thermostat in each room, a furnace with ducts, or radiators fed by a boiler. Tell the company which, because a plumbing-and-heating contractor will not touch your baseboards and an electrician will not touch your boiler.

Oil heating: the rules have changed

Quebec has adopted regulations restricting oil-fired heating: new buildings cannot install it, and in existing buildings the replacement of an oil-fired appliance with another oil-fired one is now restricted. The practical effect is that when an old oil furnace or boiler fails beyond repair, the replacement will usually be electric, a heat pump, or in some buildings gas, and the oil tank comes out. Ask the contractor to explain the current regulation as it applies to your building before agreeing to any oil-side repair that costs more than a service call.

Old oil tanks are a liability of their own: insurers in Quebec have age and condition requirements, a leak is an environmental cleanup, and removal should be quoted alongside any conversion. Programs from the province and Hydro-Québec have helped pay for oil-to-electric conversions; check what is currently offered.

Plexes, copropriétés and tenants

In a Montreal plex, each unit often has its own baseboards and thermostats, but some older buildings run one furnace or boiler for all units, with the landlord controlling it. If you rent, heating is the landlord’s obligation under Quebec’s Civil Code and the Tribunal administratif du logement’s rules; report a failure in writing and keep a copy, and do not authorize paid work on the landlord’s system. If you own a unit in a copropriété, the baseboards inside your unit are usually yours while a shared boiler is a common portion under the syndicat.

Exterior staircases and third-floor units matter to a heating call too: a furnace or heat pump replacement in a plex may need a crane or a disassembled unit, and the quote should say so.

• System type: baseboards, furnace, boiler or heat pump
• Which rooms or units are cold
• Thermostat and breaker checked
• Oil tank age and last inspection, if oil
• Whether the building is a plex, copropriété or rental

Repair, replace and the programs that change the math

A failed thermostat or element on electric baseboards is a small repair and rarely worth agonizing over. A major failure on an oil or gas furnace deserves both a repair quote and a replacement quote, with the replacement counting Hydro-Québec’s efficiency programs, which have offered financial help for heat pumps and other upgrades, and any provincial program for oil conversion. The terms change; get the current figures in writing from the contractor.

Ask for the estimate and the contract in the language you read, and check the RBQ licence, the CMEQ or CMMTQ membership and the liability insurance before paying a deposit. The Office de la protection du consommateur handles complaints about contractors who came to your door or who did not honour a written estimate.