With short-term rental season fast approaching and Tiny Township set to dive into regulating and enforcing a bylaw aimed at curbing ‘ghost hotels’, several residents have latched onto a segment of the bylaw which isn’t quite as clear as the municipality might be promoting.
As per bylaw 22-017, “a by-law to Licence, Regulate and Govern Short-Term Rental Accommodation”, passed in August and amended twice since, Section 12 “entry and inspection” contains four parts.
The first subsection, 12.1, involves who may enter “at any time” onto any land to determine whether the bylaw is being complied.
Of interest to this subsection: an officer — defined in Section 2.18 as “a municipal law enforcement officer, building inspector, police officer or other person appointed by by-law to enforce the provisions of township by-laws” — a chief fire official or building inspector. Building inspector is listed twice in subsection 12.1 as written.
Following that, subsection 12.2 notes that every owner shall permit the officer, chief fire official or building inspector to inspect “any part of the premises” to determine bylaw compliance.
The third subsection, 12.3, is in-depth toward warrants. It states that “notwithstanding any provision of this bylaw, an officer or building inspector” shall not enter or remain in any room or place used as a dwelling unit, unless certain consent is given or a warrant is obtained. There are deeper legal terms in this, involving the Provincial Offences Act, R.S.O 1990.
Finally, subsection 12.4 is the partner to 12.3 in that “a fire inspector may, without warrant, enter and inspect land and premises” to assess fire safety as per the FPPA (Fire Protection and Prevention Act, 1997, S.O. 1997).
At the recent committee of the whole meeting for Tiny Township, Coun. Kelly Helowka had made reference to warrantless entry as a point of concern for many residents.
MidlandToday reached out to members of Tiny council and staff for clarification of Section 12 as per who specifically is allowed to be on land and on premises for each person, and what level of warranted or warrantless entry they may have.
“To be clear,” replied Harvey by email, “a municipal law enforcement officer will not be entering any dwelling unit unless the consent of the occupier is obtained after the occupier has been informed that the right of entry may be refused OR a warrant is issued and obtained.
“The Fire Protection and Prevention Act provides for rights of warrantless entry. Under the FPPA, no distinction is made between parts of your property that are used as a ‘dwelling’ and those that aren’t, and a fire inspector may enter and inspect land and premises, without a warrant and at all reasonable times, for the purpose of assessing fire safety. Moreover, the fire safety issue does not need to present an immediate health and safety concern.”