The issue of short-term rentals has been at the forefront of BC strata management in recent years with some owners running Airbnb or VRBO rentals out of strata properties. Indeed, the City of Vancouver has recently amended its bylaws to permit short-term rentals under limited circumstances. Depending on the behaviour of the renters, this can be more or less of an issue to other owners, many of whom did not purchase their units with the expectation that the adjacent unit would be run as a virtual hotel property. Relatedly, some businesses achieve a similar result by renting from owners and then purporting to license the units to the public for short-term stays.
A council can regulate the presence of short-term rentals and licenses through its bylaws. Properly written bylaws can permit a strata council to take a strong stand against short-term rentals and licenses. As municipal bylaws are subject to change, councils may wish to have bylaws that are drafted without reference to municipal bylaws. Otherwise, councils who tie their bylaws to municipal bylaws may find a change in the municipal bylaw leads to a significant unintended change to the strata bylaws. If you are a strata council seeking assistance in drafting appropriate bylaws, ask a Vancouver strata lawyer.
As stated, some businesses operate by renting units from strata owners and then purporting to license the units to the public for short-term stays. Under law, there is a distinction as between rentals and licenses. Thus, the business model of rental and license appears to be an attempt by such businesses to use this distinction to get around strata property bylaws against subletting, ie. rental and sub-rental. Strata councils should, however, be mindful that the Residential Tenancy Act under s. 1 defines a ‘tenancy agreement’ to include a ‘license to occupy a rental unit’ and, thus, deems a license to be a tenancy agreement and, thus, a rental and license to be subletting. That said, strata councils wishing to prevent licensing are well advised to amend their bylaws to do so explicitly.
