Toronto City Councillors are looking to close an unintended loophole in the city’s short-term rental rules, which govern companies like AirBnB, and have come under increasing scrutiny at City Hall.
In question is whether property owners can hire other people to host their listings full-time, thereby skirting the rule that only primary residences can be rented out, and even then just for half the year.
“If somebody owns 10 condos in there hires somebody to be their property manager, at this point the interpretation that we’re getting from staff is that they’re out of the picture now,” said Coun. Paula Fletcher, Toronto-Danforth. “They can simply do that, it’s a way around the bylaw. Yet others are saying there is no way around the bylaw – it’s not legal to do that. I think we need to sort that one out. I think many of us have been frustrated. I get frustrated.”
In a motion put forth by Fletcher on Friday, Toronto’s Housing Committee asked City staff to look into whether there’s any obstacles to enforcing the rules in these cases, and to report back by April 27.
Toronto’s short-term rental rules came into effect in January 2021. Since then properties have had to have a license from the City to operate as a short-term rental. However, CityNews has observed that a single “host” on a rental website can have several licensed properties associated with their profiles. Fletcher alleges property owners are long-term renting their condos to a sub-host who is then sub-renting them to vacationers and others.