St. Catharines’ short-term rental bylaw that regulates Airbnb, Vrbo and other accommodations is being put under review after concerns by city councillors and operators that it’s too harsh.
Council started looking at a regulation system for the home-based businesses in 2020 to deal with growing resident complaints about noise, traffic, garbage and party houses in their neighbourhoods.
It adopted a licensing system in May 2021 that went into effect on Jan. 3, 2022, and added bed and breakfasts in April 2023.
But complaints from short-term rental owners about multiple $1,000 licensing fines for single properties and expensive building code requirements has council reconsidering its strategy.
Mayor Mat Siscoe said the bylaw is creating issues for residents who are using short-term rentals as extra income to be able to afford their properties.
He said short-term rentals are also being held to a “significantly higher standard” than long-term rentals because the city has no licensing regime for long-term rental properties.
Dan and Anita Skinner, who run an Airbnb on Queen Street downtown, said they were fined $2,000 without warning for operating a unit without a licence that they didn’t know they needed.
Had only one of them owned the unit, the fine would have been $1,000, but the city levelled the $1,000 fine on each co-owner.
The pair fought the charge through the appeal process and had it cut in half, but said the entire program needs to be reworked.
Dan Skinner told council on Monday that all penalties to operators should be refunded or credited through property taxes and the program should be restarted with extensive education.
Citing a city staff report, Skinner said only 16 complaints about short-term rentals were received during the 2022-23 period and only nine were verifiable. Yet, he said, the city unleashed a “tsunami” of staff resources on operators, with the result being the licensing of only 68 properties in that time.
He said what has really benefited the city is the swelling of its coffers by $491,300 with its issuing of administrative monetary penalties, or AMPs.
Ashley Antidormi, who owns a short-term rental in the city and helped co-found a vacation rental company that operates across Canada for hosts, echoed the Skinners’ concerns about heavy-handedness.
She said in one case demerit points and a licence suspension were given for a vehicle parked in a driveway where guests weren’t supposed to be parked. The penalties were overturned because it was the owner who was legally parked in their spot.
Antidormi said she does believe there needs to be some type of licence program in place to ensure hosts are responsible and considerate of neighbours, as a bad host gives everyone a bad name.
But, she said, there are issues with St. Catharines bylaw officers when it comes to the violations, parking regulations and the requirement that someone needs to be able to attend the property within an hour at all times.
A report to council on Monday said that since the licensing program came into effect, at least 232 short-term rentals have been shut down or licensed in the city.
Fifty-five per cent of the applications for licences were directly related to enforcement action.
The city handed out 503 penalty notices during 2022 and 2023 — with most for advertising a short-term rental without a licence or operating illegally. Sixty-seven per cent were upheld during a screening hearing or were not in dispute.
The amount of penalties issued totalled $491,300, not including amounts that were later cancelled or reduced.
Despite that, the report said, by the end of 2023, there were 64 active licensed short-term rentals and a whopping 328 active listings.
St. Andrew’s Coun. Matt Harris referred the report back to staff to review the bylaw.
Harris said he wants staff to work with councillors and the mayor to identify concerns with the bylaw, look at how best to deal with those concerns and bring options back to council.
He also asked staff to report back on how many penalties have been issued and reversed, the penalty enforcement that has been done, the notification process, the policy for identifying noncompliance and more.