Commercial Vacation Rental permits in non-principal homes set to expire in November

Derek Kilbourn

Sounder News

Gabriola and Bowen Island are the only two communities in the Islands Trust which have opted in to the Short-Term Rental Accommodation Act, which goes into effect province-wide on May 1.

This will bring in new provincial-level requirements for any short-term vacation homes – referred to in the Legislation as Commercial Vacation Rentals (CVR).

One of those requirements is that the rental property has to be the principal dwelling of the property owner.

The current Gabriola bylaws have a requirement that property owners take out temporary-use permits (TUP) to operate commercial rentals. This process will still be open to property owners, the change is that the property being rented must be the principal residence of the owner.

This past week, Islands Trust staff and Gabriola Trustees confirmed that this coming November 1, 2024, all commercial rental operations on Gabriola must be conducted at the principal residence of the owner.

Trustee Tobi Elliot confirmed this, “means that any current or in-stream TUP applications will either have to declare their Gabriola residence as their primary residence, or their TUP becomes void.”

Staff and Trustees did not say how many temporary-use permits are currently active on Gabriola, or how many are being operated in a non-principal home.

Staff said they are working on a plan to communicate the November 1 deadline out to anyone currently approved for a temporary-use permit, or in the middle of applying for one.

Municipalities with fewer than 10,000 people, regional districts and resort municipalities are exempt from the principal residence requirement but may request to opt-in by March 31 of each year, starting in 2024, to take effect Nov. 1 of the same year.  The Gabriola Local Trust Committee met the March 31 deadline, approving the motions at the Feb. 22, 2024 LTC meeting. The opt-in status approved by the LTC applies to the entire Gabriola Island Local Trust Area.

A confirmation letter of Gabriola’s opt-in status was received from the Minister of Housing – and was included in the April 18 agenda of the LTC. To date, 17 communities – including Gabriola –  have made the decision to opt-in to the Principal Residence Requirement, to preserve long-term rental options for people living and working in their communities, starting Nov. 1, 2024.

Premier David Eby spoke to the media this past week ahead of the new rules coming in commercial rentals.

Eby said, “the effect of short-term rental apps like Airbnb, VRBO and others has been the loss of thousands of long-term rental homes in the midst of a housing crisis, driving up the cost of housing for British Columbians. That’s why our government has created balanced new rules to crack down on speculators who are effectively operating mini hotels, while also ensuring homeowners can still rent out spaces in their principal residence. As we’ve already seen, these new rules are turning short-term rentals back into homes for people who live and work in our communities.”

According to the provincial government, the new rules are aimed at reining in the growing short-term rental market that is taking homes off the market. Analysis from short-term rental data analytics company AirDNA, from March 2024, shows that more than 19,000 entire homes in B.C. are being listed as short-term rentals for the majority of a calendar year.

Ravi Kahlon, Minister of Housing said, “We are in a housing crisis that requires strong action to deliver more housing for the people who live and work in our communities.

“The changes passed last fall to tackle the growing short-term rental challenges are already bringing more long-term homes back onto the market. As the rules for hosts and platforms come into effect, we are taking another strong step to deliver more long-term homes for people in communities throughout B.C.”

The new rules that will take effect May 1, 2024 are:

• The Principal Residence Requirement, meaning short-term rentals can only be offered in the principal residence of a host, plus one additional unit, secondary suite or laneway home/garden suite on the property.

• The Principal Residence Requirement will function as a provincewide floor…but local governments will still be able to use existing bylaws and introduce additional bylaws that are more restrictive.

• Non-conforming use of property will no longer apply to short-term rentals.

• Short-term rental hosts will be required to display a valid business licence number on their listing, where a business licence is required by a local government. There is no business license system on Gabriola, but there will still be a requirement to have a temporary-use permit through the Islands Trust to operate a commercial vacation rental.

• Short-term rental platforms will be required to share data with the Province.

• Local governments can request that a platform remove listings that do not display a valid business licence.

A first-of-its-kind in Canada, the short-term rental data portal has been created to support local governments with monitoring and enforcement of short-term rental regulations and will allow local governments to have the platform companies remove listings that do not comply.

The Provincial Short-Term Rental Compliance Enforcement Unit, which will be phased in beginning May 1, will also be able to conduct investigations into alleged non-compliance, which may result in administrative monetary penalties and compliance orders.

Administrative penalties for hosts breaking the rules can range from $500 to $5,000 a day per infraction, and up to $10,000 per day for corporations, depending on the infraction. This will be enforced outside of any local bylaw enforcement – such as that of the Islands Trust. Visitors and guests will not face any fines. The unit will also facilitate data sharing and requests to platforms to remove listings.