New short-term rental rules take effect across the B.C.

Kahlon (pictured) says every month, platforms are required to share the entire list of every single property listed as a short-term rental in B.C. to the province. Photo: Province of British Columbia / Flickr

B.C.’s new short-term rental law has come into effect. 

Starting May 1st, British Columbians will legally only be able to rent out their primary residence. In addition to their primary residence, they will also be able to either rent their secondary suite or an accessory dwelling unit as a short-term rental on the same property. This is a part of B.C.'s Short-Term Rental Accommodations Act.

Changes will also require renters to display valid local government business licence numbers, where business licences are required. 

The new rules apply to short-term rentals offered to the public through classified newspaper ads, website listing forums such as Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist, and platforms such as Airbnb and Vrbo. This does not affect hotels or motels.

The new Act also gives local governments stronger tools to enforce short-term bylaws, this includes raising the prices of fines for violating the city’s short-term rental bylaw.

In March of this year, the City of Nanaimo voted to increase fines from $250 to $500 per infraction, per day.

City of Nanaimo Mayor Leonard Krog said the new legislation comes as many municipalities were already changing their bylaws around short-term rentals to rules similar to the legislation. 

“It's a reaction, I think in the broadest sense to the impact that they were having on certain neighborhoods,” Krog said. “I mean many folks–I hate to say this– were just buying a big house, renting it out willy nilly, not how shall I say, ‘monitoring or managing’ the facility in an appropriate way. So you'd have literally party houses or piles and piles of vehicles parked in cul-de-sacs or whatever the case may be.”

Joe Pugh, host and producer of CHLY’s Midcoast Morning spoke with the mayor about short-term rentals in the city and the enforcement around them. 

In a staff report to the council from March of this year it was found there were only 291 short-term rentals approved for a business licence in Nanaimo as of the March 1st. But it was also found  that there were 980 active rental listings within Nanaimo’s city limits.

In the report it was found since 2022 there have been 62 complaints to the city regarding short-term rentals. Of those, 67 per cent were for unlicensed rentals.

Krog said the licences are needed to help limit negative impacts on neighbourhoods while ensuring fair competition amongst other short-term renters.

Currently in Nanaimo, the business licence fee for a short-term rental is $165 for the entire year.

Krog said the changes will allow for more space available for long-term rentals and see an increase in vacancy rates.

“If you're living in existing accommodation that a private dwelling basement suite, for instance, and the dwelling is sold, and you're punted out because the new owners are taking over the whole house, you could be going from $800 or $900 a month for a one-bedroom to $1,600 or $1,800 a month through for a one-bedroom accommodation,” Krog said.

He also said it would support seniors on fixed incomes to find accommodations who otherwise might become homeless.

Krog explained that like many municipalities, the city works on a complaint-driven process. 

“If you're doing something that may breach a bylaw on your property if your neighbours don't complain, and they're okay with it, we're not going to be sending people around to investigate,” he said.

He said the legislation will allow for proper management of the rentals and it’s good the province is stepping in and allowing local government enforcement.

“Because candidly regardless of the way business is done, if we want to have a fair system, you have to have rules and you have to have rules that are enforced against everyone,” he said. “When people take advantage don't play by the rules, it means quote-unquote, the honest folks are being dealt with unfairly.”

Krog said he hopes this new legislation will help residents find long-term permanent housing as more options are available.

“Hopefully we will see units come back into the marketplace, which will help with our housing crisis because there is no question that as one of the five fastest-growing regions in the country, people are looking to live here,” he said.

Pugh also had the chance to speak with the B.C. Minister of Housing Ravi Kahlon about the enforcement of unlicensed rentals.

Kahlon said local governments now have the ability through a new data portal to upload any rental they believe are not following the rules, whether that be not following the principal residence requirements or local government bylaws.

He said within seconds platforms such as Airbnb and Vrbo will have five days to review and remove any listing that does not follow the new rules.

“If they choose not to comply, platforms can be facing fines, significant fines, and if a host continuously tries to skirt the rules, they will face significant fines as well,” Kahlon said.

Kahlon said every month, platforms are required to share the entire list of every single property listed as a short-term rental in B.C. to the province.

In the legislation, platforms will share the information that will be kept confidential and not shared with the public. This information includes host name, address, and contact information, business licence numbers, listing details, and booking history.

“So the first phase is to have a local government raise with us the properties that they have identified in the middle of the month. We'll get a complete list of properties, and we'll be able to do some checks within the province,” Kahlon said. “And lastly, all the data will be shared with the Ministry of Finance, which has data right now on who has a principal residence and who has investment properties so that the two are being connected.”

So far the province has hired four people and has the funding to hire up to 15 in total for staff to actively monitor and take action on unlicensed rentals. As well the province has created digital tools to help find information online.

“We do believe we're going to be able to ensure that all these hosts are following the rules and the platforms are respecting local rules as well,” he said.

He said by the end of this year, the province will have a B.C.-wide registry that will require every single host to share information about their property, which he said will be able to take the enforcement to another step. 

He said as the new legislation comes into effect, the province is already seeing the impacts of it.

“We're seeing more rental properties becoming available in communities across the province,”  Kahlon said. “Of course, one policy won't solve the entire housing crisis, but we do believe by ensuring that some of these school homes that are being shifted are diverted away towards short-term rental coming back to the market.”

CHLY reached out to Airbnb for comment but they were unable to return the inquiry by the deadline.

Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.