Halifax to ease into enforcement on short-term rental regulations

A slew of changes to Halifax Regional Municipality’s short-term rental regulations are now in effect.

The changes, implemented on Sept. 1, are meant to crack down on short-term regulations in HRM amidst the housing crisis. The changes include:

• in residential zones, short-term rentals are limited to a host’s primary residence. This means secondary units (ie. backyard suites) within residential zones must be rented out for at least 28 days.
• in commercial and mixed-use zones, short-terms rentals are allowed outside of a primary residence.
• requiring people who plan to have a commercial short-term rental or a short-term bedroom rental to obtain a development permit. Those who have a short-term rental in their primary residence do not require a permit.

But what is the municipality going to do when someone decides to not play by the rules?

According to AirDNA, a company who tracks Airbnb and Vrbo data, there are 2,418 active rentals in HRM. Eighty per cent of those – or 1,937 – are entire homes. The remaining 481 (20 per cent) are private rooms for rent.

And of those rentals, 36 per cent have a minimum stay of one night and 33 per cent have a minimum stay of two nights. Only nine per cent require a minimum stay of seven to 29 nights, while three per cent require a minimum stay of 30 days.

Those who visit HRM’s website will note it has multiple sections dedicated to answering people’s questions about where short-term rentals are allowed.

“Residents can determine what is allowed in their neighbourhood by determining the parcel/area/zone they have questions about with our interactive ExploreHRM mapping tool,” the website reads. “The mapping tool will link to the associated plan area or land use by-law where you can find what is permitted in the zone.”

The ExploreHRM mapping tool shows the parcel/area/zone of neighbourhoods in HRM.  

The site directs people who are looking to submit a complaint about a short-term rental to contact 311.

Ryan Nearing, a spokesman for HRM, said the municipality will “investigate suggestion of non-compliance.”

“… Where verified, (we) have a suite of tools to enforce the requirements (notices to comply, summary offense tickets, orders of the municipal engineer or building official),” Nearing said in an emailed statement.

However, Nearing didn’t say if the municipality would be seeking out listings that violate its new regulations aside from what people report.

Meanwhile in Quebec, the province has introduced legislation to force Airbnb and other short-term rental platforms to ensure all listings on their sites comply with their Tourist Accommodation Act or the company risks facing a fine of up to $100,000 per illegal post.

“We first aim to work co-operatively with an owner/operator, but if our initial actions aren’t effective in gaining compliance, we have several options available.”

– Ryan Nearing, HRM spokesman

Nearing said the municipality isn’t going to jump straight to punishing owners/operators who are in violation of the new regulations.

“We first aim to work co-operatively with an owner/operator, but if our initial actions aren’t effective in gaining compliance, we have several options available,” Nearing said.

“We can issue fines to operators in violation of an order, seek a court-ordered injunction to compel compliance with an order or forward a case for prosecution in the courts.”

Nearing acknowledged there are vacancies within the compliance division but noted those positions “are not specifically dedicated to enforce the new regulations pertaining to STRs.”