Short-Term Rental Accommodations Act

B.C. is facing a housing crisis, with a shortage of all forms of attainable housing, including long-term rentals.

The rise of short-term rental of entire homes is taking away much needed homes for British Columbians. More than 16,000 entire homes are being used as short-term rentals for the majority of the year in B.C. This is making it more challenging to find affordable long-term rentals.

Many local governments have taken action to regulate short-term rentals, but enforcement of bylaws is a challenge, and they have asked the Province for more tools and resources.

The purpose of the new rules is to:

• Give local governments stronger tools to enforce short-term rental bylaws
• Return short-term rental units to the long-term rental market
• Establish a new Provincial role in the regulation of short-term rentals

The new rules apply to all short-term rentals being offered to the public, including:

• Offers hosted by a platform, where people reserve and pay for the rental service (which may include, for example, Airbnb, VRBO, Expedia, and FlipKey)
• Offers on other web listing forums (which may include, for example, Facebook Marketplace, Kijiji, and Craigslist)
• Offers in classified ads in newspapers

The new rules will not apply to:

• Reserve lands
• Nisga’a Lands or the Treaty Lands of a Treaty First Nation (unless the Nation chooses to opt into all or part of the legislation through a coordination agreement with the Province)
• Hotels, motels

Some of these new rules, like the ability of regional districts to issue business licenses and increase maximum penalties, will take effect immediately. Other changes, like the Province's principal residence requirement and registration system will come later.

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Source/Photo RE/MAX.ca