Vancouver, BC Strata Corporation trying to shut down short-term rentals - help!!

[Ann530]

Hi, I am a fully licensed Airbnb who enjoys offering legal, compliant, high quality, short term rentals through this beautiful system. Airbnb has worked hard with officials from the City of Vancouver and structured a licensing system which is mutually beneficial to short-term renters, homeowners and the City alike. Although being fully compliant, the Airbnb option is still in jeopardy. The Strata Corporation in our building, despite being forbidden to change the rental bylaws for 99 years, according to the Strata Property Act 143(2)(b) are trying to find a "work-around" using clever symantics.  Wondering if anyone is having the same issues with their Stratas and if anyone has any ideas on how to combat this?  Cheers Ann

[Cammy0]

Hi Ann,

Did you purchase the condo/townhome directly from the developer during pre-sale stages? Sometimes, the strata will consider these original condo owners as "grandfathered" into the original strata bylaws so that new rental restrictions introduced will not affect them. If you are on the strata council as a member, perhaps you can advocate for that. 

Warm Regards,

Cammy

[Ann530]

Hi Cammy, Thank you for your input. Unfortunately we did not buy it during the pre-sale stages. Also the Property Disclosure Statement that the Developer filed in the LTO (Form J) specifically states that there are to be no changes or restrictions made to the rental  bylaw for one hundred years.  The City of Vancouver has worked hard to compromise with the sharing economy and allow licensed Airbnbers. Now what is happening is that clever lawyers are manipulating the law through language and arguing that this "licensing" is now a commercial use and therefore outside of the realm of the rental bylaw.

It would be ideal if Airbnb could find a legal argument to thwart this.

Ideas anyone?

Thank you

Ann

[Pete28]

A different question would be who is insuring your condo building and how they are covering STR. Typically your own insurance covers the 'studs in', not the building itself.

I've found no insurance that covers STR by default, so if your Airbnb guest happens to cause a fire the building would most likely be uninsured. That alone would be a good reason for a HOA to restrict STR activity.