Hefty fines proposed for illegal Airbnbs
Kelowna homeowners who violate proposed new rules covering short-term rentals could be fined up to $10,000 a day.
The hefty penalty is proposed as a way of ensuring compliance with regulations that prohibit the shortterm rental of secondary suites, carriage houses and investment properties in most areas of the city.
Violators will be identified by a city contractor looking for illegal short-term rentals.
People who do offer properties for short-term rental in compliance with strict city regulations will have to get a business licence for $345 if the home is their principal residence. If it’s not their principle residence, the fee is $750.
Last week, council gave first consideration to a raft of regulations for short-term rentals. The measures will be discussed at a public hearing on March 12.
Unfettered short-term rentals will be permitted in only a small number of areas within Kelowna, including Sunset Drive properties in the downtown core, a part of McKinley Beach, and the area around the corner of Lakeshore Road and Cook Road.
In other areas, people can rent out their entire homes on a shortterm basis, but only if they live in the property for at least eight months of the year.
In practical terms, this alone will reduce the number of shortterm rentals as people are unlikely to go to the bother of repeatedly vacating their home just to rent it out for brief and intermittent periods.
Short-term rental of all secondary suites, carriage homes and investment properties would not be permitted. People who rent a property to students from September through April would not be able to offer it for short-term rentals, defined as stays of less than 29 days, in the summer.
The city says the regulations are intended to preserve as much housing stock as possible for long-term rentals.
Critics say the measures represent an over-regulation, inconsistent with the approach being taken in many other cities, that will effectively discourage a new form of tourism that provides participating property owners with a significant income opportunity.