Tag: short-term rentals

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Cottage Life

Fake rental listings skyrocket after City of Toronto makes registration numbers public

Photo by Shutterstock/Daniel Krason

A short-term rental advocacy group is claiming that online “pirates” are stealing registration numbers from the city of Toronto’s website and using them to post fake listings on Airbnb.

“The city attempts sweeping enforcement actions to take down pirates, but pirates easily repost fake listings by reusing the permit data the city leaves unprotected,” contests Fairbnbhosts.ca on its website. “Visitors can’t be sure if they are booking a pirate space or a legal operator.”

Since September 2020, Toronto has required all short-term rental operators to register with the city. This is to “prevent the proliferation of ‘ghost-hotels’ and protect critical rental stock by maintaining access for tenants to long-term accommodations,” the city said in an email.

Airbnb rolling out ‘anti-party’ technology in Canada and U.S.

As part of this process, operators receive a registration number from the city, which they use to set up their listing. But all 6,277 of these registration numbers are publicly available online, along with the first three digits of the short-term rental’s postal code. Scammers can access the registration numbers and use them to set up fake listings.

There’s a simple solution, says George Emerson, director of Fairbnbhosts.ca, which describes itself as a travel industry trade association protecting the interests of Toronto’s Airbnb operators. “The city says [the registration numbers are] how they verify with the booking platforms,” he says. “But if your website and my website want to exchange information, we don’t have to do that in a way that’s exposed to the public finding it. We do it on a secure shielded website. We would use a database. Every website has a database, and we would use that method to exchange information.”

Emerson adds that this is commonly done. “Computers verify large datasets all the time through secure ways without revealing identities.” But when he asked the city whether it could privately exchange registration information with booking sites, staff told him it wasn’t a priority.

The city is aware of the fake listings being posted. To combat the issue, it performs compliance audits using data discovery techniques. “The city compliance audits flag listings that have missing, inaccurate, or incomplete information that prevents the city from verifying registration status and operators who are not in compliance with the bylaw,” the city said.

But these compliance audits are part of what’s wrong with Toronto’s short-term rental regulations, Emerson argues. When setting up a listing, the rental’s information must match the city’s registration data. “The address mismatches are so tiny, like whether there’s a ‘St.’ or ‘St’,” he says.

Other incorrect listing information includes operators using nicknames instead of their full name as listed on government-issued IDs, using incorrect postal codes, adding in building names rather than street addresses, not including unit numbers, or placing unit numbers in the wrong field.

If a listing’s information is flagged as incorrect during a compliance audit, the city will take the listing down. When the city flags a “pirated” listing, it may also take down the legitimate listing, penalizing an operator who’s following the bylaws.

“No other type of business gets this kind of a shakedown, this kind of level of harassment,” Emerson argues.

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Cottage Life

Should Ontario regulate short-term rentals? Here are the pros and cons

Photo by Billion Photos/Shutterstock

Municipalities from across Ontario have taken different approaches to regulating the short-term rental industry, and now, with many local governments taking action, some are wondering if it’s time for the province to get involved. The move to provincially regulate short-term rentals wouldn’t be entirely unprecedented—Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island have both implemented their own form of short-term rental regulations. 

Jelena Vuckovic, a short-term rental owner in Tiny, Ont., says she would like to see short-term rentals regulated at a provincial level as a way for the government to eliminate unnecessary confusion between jurisdictions.

“Currently each municipality has the ability to regulate STRs in any way they see fit and regulations range from complete bans of STRs, to no regulation at all,” she said, in an email. Ontario could implement province-wide short-term rental health and safety standards to fill in regulatory gaps among municipalities, says Vuckovic. 

Steve Pomeroy, a senior research fellow at the Centre for Urban Research and Education at Carleton University, says there could be pros and cons to Ontario introducing province-wide short-term rental regulations. 

The main benefit, Pomeroy says, is that the province would have stronger authority to back up the legislation. “If someone is contravening a provincial law, the recourse is usually a little bit stronger than it would be for breaking a municipal bylaw,” says Pomeroy.

Provincial regulations could also ease the financial burden for municipalities, says Pomeroy. For instance, the province could absorb the responsibilities and costs of operating a short-term rental licensing program. While local governments typically charge fees to offset the cost of licensing programs, Pomeroy says he suspects the revenues generated by licensing fees often don’t cover the cost of running and enforcing the program itself. 

While the potential for the province to absorb responsibilities from the municipalities exists, Pomeroy says the inverse has been more common of late. “The provinces are downloading responsibilities to municipalities, particularly Ontario,” he says, noting that most municipalities lack the financial resources to take on extra duties. 

A lack of resources among local governments means enforcement of short-term rental regulations could still remain an issue, regardless of the province’s involvement, says Pomeroy. 

“It’s not the kind of thing we want to have the RCMP or provincial police coming around enforcing. It’s a bylaw enforcement kind of function, which tends to be staff at the municipal level,” he says. “The challenge really for the municipalities is having the resources to do it.”

Nova Scotia currently operates a provincial short-term accommodation licensing program. The province works with private hosting sites to ensure compliance and collects the data for municipalities to use while enforcing their own short-term rental and zoning bylaws.

Vuckovic says she thinks the Nova Scotia system would be fitting for Ontario, and could potentially take a load off overburdened municipalities. “I honestly think that’s gonna solve so many problems,” she says. “Not just for us, but for the smaller townships and towns. They don’t have the money, they don’t have the manpower to be doing this. And honestly, they should not be doing it themselves, this is too big.”

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Cottage Life

Appellants say Tiny Township’s STR rules insufficient for addressing ‘ghost hotels’

Photo by Franco Francisco Maria/Shutterstock

Community members in Tiny are pushing back against the township’s new short-term rentals regulations. Two separate appeals have been filed with the Ontario Land Tribunal over the new zoning bylaw changes that were approved by the township in October to assist with the new short-term rental regulations. The changes include a definition for short-term rentals, parking standards for rental units, and a ban on renting out accessory structures such as bunkies.

The appeals were filed by Good Neighbours Tiny, a group promoting “family-oriented residential neighbourhoods”, and the so-called Tiny Township Association of responsible short-term rental owners. 

“When you have both sides appealing the regulation, in this case, the zoning bylaw, it likely means that you didn’t do your job well and you failed to bring forth the regulation that actually fulfills its purpose and intention,” says Jelena Vuckovic, of the Tiny Township Association of Responsible Short-Term Rental Owners.

Jelena Vuckovic and her family during Christmas at their cottage in Tiny. Photo courtesy of Jelena Vuckovic

Vuckovic has owned a property in Tiny since 2020 and has been renting it out periodically to earn supplemental income. “We are just trying to stay afloat in this economy, put our kids through school, and make financial decisions that make sense for us now and when we retire,” she says. 

Vuckovic would like to see Tiny strengthen its current bylaw enforcement to bring problem rentals under control. “I think most of the complaints and issues can effectively be resolved by implementing and enforcing the existing regulations already at the Township’s disposal such as noise bylaws and building and fire codes,” she says.

Debbie Galbo and Jennifer Hierholzer of Good Neighbours Tiny also filed an appeal against the township’s new zoning regulation. They are neighbours in Tiny and both live next to a rental property which they say has housed many large and noisy groups over the last year. “It’s been a nightmare,” says Galbo. They’ve had to deal with garbage and parked cars filling up the street, and countless noise disturbances. 

Good Neighbours Tiny would also like to see the township strengthen bylaw enforcement. They would like to see bylaw officers accessible on evenings and weekends, to better deal with excessive disturbances. “We can tell you we don’t need bylaw on Tuesday at noon,” says Hierholzer. “Generally the bylaws are not being broken during the day, it’s in the middle of the night.”

Shawn Persaud, the director of planning and development at Tiny, says the new zoning bylaw doesn’t permit tourist establishments in residential areas, but it does codify where short-term rentals are permitted. “Basically, they’re permitted in all residential areas,” he says. This is something Galbo and Hierholzer would like to see changed. As they see it, there should be a separate classification and ban on short-term rentals being operated as so-called “ghost hotels” which they define as properties owned and operated for the sole purpose of short-term renting. “They should have had clear definitions of the ‘ghost hotels’ so they can shut them down immediately,” says Hierholzer.

Persaud says short-term rentals were legal before the bylaw, but the changes introduced by the Township are a move to regulate the industry. “Our interpretation is short-term rentals have always been permitted in Tiny Township,” says Persaud. “However, we needed to regulate it because it was getting out of hand as far as the number, as well as the duration of use and that, was really creating a negative impact.” 

Vuckovic also says that “ghost hotels” are an issue in Tiny, but she says the vast majority of rental owners she’s talked to are part-time renters like herself. She acknowledges the new short-term rental regulations don’t account for the differences between the two groups. While the bylaw prohibits corporations from owning short-term rentals in Tiny, Vuckovic says nothing prevents individuals from operating ‘ghost hotels’.

Vuckovic says she supports the idea of a short-term licensing system but says costs related to the new licensing regime, including a $1,500 fee as well as costs for electrical, HVAC, and wood-burning appliance inspections, will push small-time rental operators like herself out of the market. “Instead of driving out illegal ‘ghost hotels’, it will drive out families like mine,” she says.

Current deputy mayor and councillor-elect Steffen Walma says the township believes in its current short-term rental regulations, but the appeals will be weighed through the judicial system. “People have the ability to challenge laws/bylaws at any level of government,” he said. “The township believes what we have done is fair, in the best interest of the community, and procedurally correct.” 

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Cottage Life

Editor Michelle Kelly talks (first-hand) about renting at the lake

Photo by Erin Leydon

My mom sold our family cottage 11 years ago. Since then, I’ve rented with my own brood, first a little cabin south of Algonquin Provincial Park and then, for five years, a cottage on the shores of Lake Huron. The owners of the Huron place named it “Slice of Heaven,” and was it ever. We loved it there. I’d first visited that beach as a teen, as a guest of a friend’s family who rented there (“Rest Awhile”). The whole sandy strip is imbued with deep, fond memories for me. That history and my memories there helped make Slice of Heaven feel like mine. It was there I kept time by the sun, ate (too many) ice cream cones with my kids on the deck, and did jigsaw puzzles in my pajamas until the middle of the night.

But, of course, it wasn’t really mine, a truth made plain when the owner declined to rent it to us last summer, with no explanation given.

I always thought we were exemplary renters— it’s my job to train people on such things. Your voice carries at night! Remember the septic! Bears love garbage! Giving this advice is something we’ve taken particularly seriously these past few years as the rental market has exploded. It’s not hard to be a good neighbour, and, for the most part, that’s all you need to be when you are renting. Don’t assume, ask. Be kind. Remember you’re not the only ones on the lake. Share. In my experience, most renters adhere to these principles and respect their borrowed vacation homes. Most cottage owners are responsible too—they let their tenants know the dos and don’ts, and they are available if things go awry.

Sadly, it doesn’t always work. Each time I get a letter from a cottager who is frustrated by the noise and disruption caused by the party cottage down the bay, I feel terribly for them. I feel even worse when those party renters cause trouble for the environment—the baby loon chicks they threaten when they drive too fast in their boats, too close to shore, or the water issues caused by using shampoo in the lake. Our advice to these irate cottagers is always the same—speak to the cottage owners. Because while it’s easy to be upset with the renters, ultimately, it’s the owners who are to blame. If you’re the one profiting from renting out your cottage, it shouldn’t be your lake-mates’ work to manage the fallout from that profit.

There are numerous, easily accessible resources available for renters and cottage owners, including the excellent Guide to Responsible Renting on the Federation of Ontario Cottagers’ Associations’ website. FOCA is doing great work to ensure that renting happens in a safe and reasonable way. As with many things, education is everything. I certainly prefer it to more restrictions, something we’ve seen an uptick in recently. I think some owners are skeptical about renters because cottagers are so passionate about their environment, and thank goodness—cottagers are some of the most committed environmental stewards we have. However, while cottagers make up an important part of our lakeside communities, they don’t own the lakes. Those belong to everyone. For the majority of Canadians, renting a cottage is one of the only ways to meaningfully access cottage country. As such, we need to ensure that access and that we all take care of our most precious resource.

I was sad that we couldn’t visit the beach this summer. We loved our rental there as we would have loved our own cottage—and treated it that way. Who knows where we’ll end up next summer? I’m trying to think of the end of our tenure as nothing more than an opportunity to find a new place to love and care for. Just as any responsible renter would.

@MKonthedock

This story originally appeared in our Sept/Oct ’22 issue.

Want to learn more about short-term rentals? See Michelle Kelly in conversation with FOCA executive director, Terry Rees, at the 2022 Fall Cottage Life Show (November 11-13 at the International Centre in Mississauga, Ont.). Michelle and Terry will be on the Main Stage Saturday and Sunday at 1:30 pm. Buy your tickets now.

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Cottage Life

Tiny Township approves new short-term rental regulations

Photo by Township of Tiny/Facebook

The township of Tiny’s council unanimously approved a new bylaw to licence and regulate short-term rentals.

The regulations passed in a special meeting of council on August 11, 2022, and are expected to take effect on October 4, 2022. The bylaw will establish a licencing system, health and safety standards, a demerit system, and occupancy limits. It will also limit the number of licences available to 300 and place restrictions on rental periods.

Aidan Black-Allen has been renting out her cottage in Tiny since 2015, but she worries the new regulations go too far. “It’s going to make it really difficult, if not impossible, for families like mine to continue to be able to supplement their income by using the cottage as a short-term rental,” she says. 

Black-Allen says she supports the licencing of short-term rentals but worries about the costs associated with the new bylaw. She points to the $1500 licencing fee, mandatory inspections, and—for those who don’t live in Tiny—the hiring of staff who can attend to the rental property within an hour’s notice (as required by the bylaw). “I only rent my cottage for about six weeks a year. So for me, this completely wipes out any income that I’m going to make,” she says. 

Photo of Aidan Black-Allen
Photo by Aidan Black-Allen

Black-Allen started renting out her property to earn supplemental income while she stepped back from full-time work to raise her three children, and she says Tiny’s approach will price part-time renters like herself out of the market. “The people who bought these places primarily for the purpose of renting them out are the ones who are going to have the money to do this. So, you actually push out families, like mine, who rely on this income,” she says.

Short-term rentals provide work for local businesses and contribute to the town’s tourism industry, and Black-Allen argues placing restrictions that reduce the number of rental properties could also be detrimental to Tiny’s economy.

Rental owners can increase their rates to cover the new costs associated with the bylaw, says deputy mayor Steffen Walma. The $1500 licencing fee amounts to an extra $16 per day for property owners who rent out their units for the maximum allowable time of 92 days, a cost which can be added on to existing rental fees, he says. “Tiny is a beautiful place, and I actually feel like people would pay an extra $16 or even $25 to make up that difference,” he says. “I definitely think they’d have to adjust their prices to make up the $1500 difference, but I don’t think it changes anything as far as rentability.”

Many of the inspections (building code, fire protection, and zoning) are covered by the $1500 licencing fee, says Walma. While some inspections (electrical and, when applicable, H-VAC and wood burning appliances) and necessary repairs may cost rental-owners money, they are there to ensure that people aren’t renting out substandard and unsafe properties, he says. He also notes the bylaw bans businesses and corporations from obtaining a short-term rental licence.

Walma hopes this bylaw will serve as a first step to regulating short-term rentals in a way that appeases both short-term rental owners and those who take issue with them. “To me, this is kind of the middle ground. So we’ll be able to hopefully find a place where both can exist and not negatively impact the other.”

As for Black-Allen, she is still considering what these rules might mean for the future as a short-term rental operator. “It’s really hard to say,” she says. “I know that there are a lot of people out there who are going to be facing similar difficult decisions.”

Here are some noteworthy points from the new regulations:

  • Short-term rentals must be licenced. Rental owners will have to apply for a licence with a $1,500 application fee and receive the necessary inspections. Licenced rentals will have to have their licence numbers on display. 
  • Demerit system. Tiny will establish a demerit system to deal with bylaw, licencing, and health and safety infractions. A licence may be revoked if a rental owner reaches 15 demerit points.
  • Occupancy limit. Occupancy limits will be set at two people per bedroom.
  • Excessive noise restrictions.
  • Parking, fire and safety requirements. Standards must be met and maintained by the property owners.
  • A limit of 300 short-term rental licences in the community.
  • Emergency contact. Short-term rental owners must have someone available to attend to the property within an hour’s notice.
  • A ban on business and corporation-owned short-term rentals. The new bylaw will prohibit businesses and corporations from obtaining a short-term rental licence. 
  • Rental period restrictions. Rental owners can’t operate for more than 92 days a year, and between April 15 and October 15, properties can only be rented for a minimum of six days at a time. From October 16 to April 14, rental owners may only host one rental every six-day period. 

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Cottage Life

What you need to know about Sarnia’s short-term rental regulations

Photo by David McIntosh/Shutterstock

An appeal against a short-term rental bylaw in Sarnia, Ont., has been dropped due to an inability to find expert witnesses without a conflict of interest, which means new rules are now in place for renters in the largest city on Lake Huron. The short-term rental bylaws were passed by Sarnia’s council back in 2020 but were prevented from coming into effect until last week due to the ongoing appeal. 

Sean Ryan, the man behind the appeal, says he thinks the city should take action to regulate short-term rentals, but he disagrees with the limitations on residentially-zoned rentals. “It’s not the regulations we’re against,” he says “It’s just the one component of it.”

Ryan’s particular issue is with the ban on short-term rentals in residential areas. He argues Sarnia should at least allow rentals in urban residential 2 zones—areas that are already densely populated and used for residential and commercial purposes. “Why not just allow them in those areas? It’s good for tourism and it’s a high-density housing area already, so it’s not going to affect neighbourhoods,” he says.

According to the Steve Henschel, Sarnia’s manger of communications, the residential zoning regulations are in place to protect housing in the city. “Allowing STAs in residential areas with a primary residence requirement protects long-term housing in the city, ensuring residential properties are utilized as homes first.”

Now, Ryan is looking for other ways to make a second appeal against the city’s short-term rental regulations. 

Sarnia implemented a system to grandfather short-term renters operating in residential areas before January 1, 2020. Property owners were supposed to submit an application prior to the July 1, 2020 deadline, but the city received no applications. To date, only 15 of an estimated 70 renters are licenced with the city. “As we move forward with the new bylaw the city will utilize an education-based approach to encourage voluntary compliance, before using other bylaw enforcement mechanisms,” said the Henschel.

What are Sarnia’s short-term rental regulations?

Like many other municipalities, Sarnia implemented a short-term accommodation licencing system as a way to regulate STAs. The city also implemented occupancy limits, building and safety standards, and most notably, restrictions on the operation of short-term rentals in residential areas.

Here are some highlights from the new regulations:

  • Renters must obtain a valid licence granted by the city. The fee for a licence and a licence renewal is $273.65 and applications must be submitted to the city along with building and parking plans. To be approved, licensees must also possess a minimum of $2 million in liability insurance and must complete a fire inspection.
  • Occupancy limits. Rental units can have a maximum of three bedrooms available for rent and each bedroom can sleep up to a maximum of four people.
  • Minimum rental room size of 14 square metres. 
  • Adherence to a submitted parking plan. Property owners must submit a parking plan to the city along with their licence application and ensure that it is followed by patrons.
  • If operating in a residential area, the rental unit must be the owner’s primary residence. Essentially, this limits short-term rentals in residential areas to bed and breakfast style accommodations where the owner lives in the property at the same time as their patrons.
  • Offenders of the bylaw can face fines of $25,000 dollars on a first offence, and fines of $50,000 of subsequent offences.
  • Short-term renters are also subject to the city’s four per cent municipal accommodation tax. The city says this tax will be used to “fund programs and services that visitors take advantage of when visiting (e.g. roads, transit, culture, parks, natural areas and recreation).”

Short-term accommodation applications can be submitted through the city’s website. 

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Cottage Life

Bracebridge Town Council votes against short-term rental freeze

Photo by Shutterstock/John Fader

After a lengthy discussion on April 27, Bracebridge’s town council voted against implementing an interim control bylaw for short-term rentals.

The interim control bylaw, which was debated back and forth by council over the last two months, would have frozen all short-term rentals for a period of one year with the ability to extend the freeze to a second year. During this time, owners would not have been allowed to operate a rental. If an owner refused to comply with this bylaw, they would have been charged under the town’s Planning Act, requiring them to appear in court with the possibility of receiving a maximum fine of $25,000.

During its deliberation, council heard from several stakeholders, including local short-term rental owners. Catharine Thompson, owner of Cozy Cottages of Muskoka, was first to address council. She explained how these rentals were used for more than just parties, describing a woman abused by her husband who was now using one of Thompson’s rentals as a refuge. She also described a family who had to vacate their home because of mould, but couldn’t stay in a hotel because of their two large dogs. Freezing short-term rentals would leave these individuals with nowhere to stay, she said.

Cheryl MacMillan, another local owner, pointed out that if council chose to license the rentals rather than freeze them, the town could collect a Municipal Accommodation Tax from owners, which would go towards issues such as affordable housing or further enforcing short-term rental compliance.

“We have made a commitment to the public that there will be increased enforcement. I think enforcement is the way to go, and I think a bylaw that suggests that short-term rentals have to be registered, as we heard from pretty much all of the delegations tonight, and licensed and bring some teeth to that is an absolute must,” said Deputy Mayor Rick Maloney during the April 27 town council meeting. “A full stop to short-term rentals will have a detrimental effect on many people.”

Instead of a freeze, council amended the motion, voting to create a mandatory registry for all short-term rentals. Town staff will use the registry to collect data on these current rentals, which will inform future changes to the town’s official plan, zoning bylaws, and a short-term rental licensing program.

To assist town staff, council voted to hire a consultant tasked with creating a short-term rental program by the end of 2022.

During a planning and development committee meeting on March 30, Bracebridge Mayor Graydon Smith also pointed out that bylaw received a budget increase this year to extend the department’s coverage to evenings and weekends, when most of the rental complaints are lodged. Noise complaint fines, which range between $250 and $300, will be in effect.

“At the end of the day, this is about behaviour,” Maloney said during the April 27 meeting. Out of the approximate 300 short-term rentals in Bracebridge, only a small portion are causing problems, which is why it isn’t fair to punish everyone with a freeze, he said. It’s time to “put some of the responsibility back on the people causing…the challenges.”