The city of Toronto is trying to figure out how to enforce Airbnb rules

November 16th, 2017  |  News

As the city plans to restrict Airbnb rentals to a renter’s primary residence only, they grapple with how this can be enforced. Back in the summer Toronto proposed new legislation to curb Airbnb usage and help cool the scorching hot housing market.

The proposed regulations aimed to provide some stability to the Toronto market, and included:

• Amending zoning bylaws and creating a new land use named “short-term rental”
• Banning short-term rentals not in a person’s principal residence
• Licensing short-term rental services, such as Airbnb
• Creating a registry of all eligible short-term rental properties in the city

The issue that the city now faces is how to actually regulate and enforce these new rules.

Tracey Cook, executive director of municipal licensing and standards, admits that there will be those who will look for loopholes and try to get around the rules that have been put in place.

"With every regulation some people are going to find creative ways to get around it," she told reporters when the new measures were unveiled.

While Airbnb is for putting regulations in place, they warn against being too restricting with them.

Airbnb Canada's public policy manager Alex Dagg warns the city to think about the families who utilize the short-term rental platform when putting in place and enforcing overly onerous rules.

"Frankly, our host community wants to be regulated; they want to play by rules," she said. "I think it's important when we're doing a new set of regulations not to bury the city in red tape."