Port Moody could be tightening the noose on short-term rental accommodations.
In a report to be presented to council tonight, Oct. 8, staff recommends amendments to the city’s bylaws to include a new definition for short-term rentals as well as refine its existing definitions for bed and breakfast and boarding properties.
The former would apply to accommodations lasting less than 30 days in a host’s bed and breakfast or boarding business. It would require a new home-based short-term rental business license as well as an inspection.
According to the report, the amendments would add a layer of local regulation to provincial laws enacted earlier this year designed to return short-term rental units to the long-tern housing market, including limiting such rentals to an operator’s principal residence, one secondary suite or one accessory unit. lasting no longer than 90 consecutive days. They also have to display a local government license.
By early next year, operators will also have to register their properties in a new provincial registry and include that registration number on their short-tern rental listings.
The report said the number of short-tern rental units in Port Moody fell to 119 from 162 shortly after the new provincial regulations took effect. In 2018, there were 88 short-term rental units in the city.
In Coquitlam, there were 49 active business licenses for short-term rentals in September, compared to 511 a year ago. The city enacted its own requirement to license and inspect short-term rentals under its existing boarding business license bylaws earlier this year.
Port Coquitlam also made amendments to its regulations and has seen an increase in business license applications as operators of short-term rental units seek to legitimize their operation, said the report.
Aligning Port Moody’s regulations with those of its neighbours would help ease the city’s 1.3 per cent rental vacancy rate, said the report.
It would also facilitate the sharing of data with the province to determine if short-term rentals listed in the provincial registry have complied with local licensing requirements.
“If a short-term rental house is found to be non-compliant, a notice and takedown process to remove listing may be initiated and fines may be applied,” said the report.
Those fines could be up to $3,000 per day.
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