Short term rentals

 

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While our strata bylaws do prevent short term rentals shorter than a month, you must also be aware of the following restrictions, legal requirements to rent your strata lot.

All strata bylaws must be followed and all new tenants, including short term rentals must pay a move-in fee and fill out a Form K as per the following bylaws::

41.8 Pay a non-refundable administration fee of TWO HUNDRED ($200.00) to the

Corporation to cover the move-in cost of new Owners or tenants and a

TWO-HUNDRED-DOLLAR ($200.00) damage/deposit which will be refunded upon

completion of the move-in if no damage has been caused. (May 15, 2007)

43.1 Prior to possession of a strata lot by a tenant, an owner must deliver to the tenant the

current bylaws and rules of the strata corporation and a Notice of Tenant's

Responsibilities in Form K. (May 14/2002)

43.2 Within two weeks of renting a strata lot, the landlord must give the strata corporation a

copy of the Form K - Notice of Tenant's Responsibilities signed by the tenant, in

accordance with section 146 of the Act. (May 14/2002)

 

If the rental term is for less than 30 days then Provincial law requires that you have a hotel operators license or utilize an agent who does and collect tax under the Hotel Room Tax Act.  The relevent part has been copied from their document for your reference.

Hotel Room Tax Act

Accommodation

2.2  (1)  "Accommodation" includes the provision of lodging in

(a) lodging houses, boarding houses, rooming houses, resorts, bed and breakfast establishments and similar places,

(a.1) privately owned vacation homes, cabins, condominiums, or similar places sold by an operator on behalf of the owner,

(b) clubs and similar places, whether or not a membership is required for the lodging,

but does not include

(c) lodging supplied to patients or residents in hospitals, nursing homes or homes for the aged,

(d) lodging supplied by employers to their employees in premises normally operated by or on behalf of the employer,

(d.1) lodging in an industrial camp,

(e) lodging supplied to passengers in a ship or train while the ship or train is in transit or is making a scheduled stopover in the Province,

(f) lodging supplied by religious or charitable organizations at summer camps and similar places,

(g) lodging where the charge for such is $30 or less per day, or $210 or less per week,

(h) tent or trailer sites supplied by a camp or trailer park,

(i) rooms in a hotel or other lodging place that do not contain beds and that are used for displaying merchandise or holding meetings, dinners, receptions or other entertainment,

(j) accommodation provided in tents,

(k) accommodation provided in cabins or other accommodation units that are not supplied with bedding, heat, electricity and indoor plumbing,

(l) accommodation provided by an operator who offers less than 4 units of accommodation, and

(m) lodging let to the same person for a continuous period of more than one month if

(i)  the person is not a tourism agent and the lodging is actually occupied during that period by that person, that personā€™s employees or members of that personā€™s family, or

(ii)  the person is a tourism agent and the lodging is actually occupied during that period by the same customer of the tourism agent.

Another thing to be aware of is that if you regularly rent your condominium out as a short term rental for more that 35 days per year and for a rental term of less than 28 day at a time your property will be reclassified from class 1 (residential) to class 6  (business) for property tax purposes which is at about 4 times the rate of class 1. The relevent portion of the B.C. Property tax law is provided below:

As a result of the new amendments to the Act and Regulations, the following changes have been made to the way strata lots in strata hotels are to be classified:
  1. Individual strata lots will be subject to a split classification between "Class 1 – Residential" and "Class 6 – Business" based on the number of days the strata lot is actually rented, based on the following formula:
    • Class 6 = the number of days the strata lot is actually rented (for periods of less than 28 days) in excess of 36 days/365
    • Class 1 = the balance, which is equal to the sum of the number of days the strata lot is used by owners and their guests, vacant days and maintenance days plus the 36 exempt rented days/365
  2. An owner is only entitled to the split classification if:
    1. the owner had the right to use the strata lot for at least seven days during the previous year; and
    2. either:
      1. the owner or owner’s guests actually used the strata lot for seven days during the previous year; or
      2. more than 50 per cent of the strata lots in the development were used by their owners or owner’s guests for at least seven days during the previous year; and
    3. the owner provides the prescribed usage information to BC Assessment by August 31 of the year previous to the applicable tax year.
  3. Existing "Class 1 – Residential" strata lots are grandfathered provided that the strata lots continue to be used in a manner that would have resulted in a "Class 1 – Residential" classification under the old regime. Unfortunately, the grandfathering provisions are confusing and in some circumstances may not accord with the stated intentions of the Province and BC Assessment.
  4. The usage reporting period for classification has been changed to the 12 months ending June 30 of the year previous to the applicable tax year. Previously, the usage reporting period was the 12 months ending October 31.

 

References:

http://www.qp.gov.bc.ca/statreg/reg/H/HotelRoomTax/88_71.htm

http://www.mccarthy.ca/pubs/publication.asp?pub_code=3536

http://www.harboursidepark.com/bylaws/BYLAWS-2007.pdf