Regulations surrounding short-term rental accommodations could get tougher, particularly for those who refuse to license their accommodation.
At its May 25 council meeting, following a delegation from an Otter Lake resident, Huntsville council asked staff to look into capping the number of short-term rental accommodation (STRA) permits the municipality issues, particularly around smaller lakes.
On June 29, at council’s general committee meeting, staff had an answer: “Through our solicitor, I can confirm that under the licensing portion of the Municipal Act, a municipality is unable to restrict the number of licences inclusive of a lottery system, density restriction, area restriction or other measures,” explained Chris Nagy, the Town’s chief building official.
He said the only other way of reducing the number of STRA permits issued is through zoning. The municipality would have to create a new zoning category where STRAs are not allowed. Instead, staff recommended amendments to the existing STRA licensing bylaw.
The changes would cap the number of occupants allowed in an STRA at 10 guests, which would reduce noise complaints. Renters would be allowed two persons per bedroom up to a limit of 10 guests. Anyone wanting to host more than 10 guests would have to go before the STRA licensing committee to plead their case.
Other changes recommended involved the fines associated with contravening the bylaw. A first offence would remain at $500, but the fine for a second offence would carry a penalty of $1,000, and a third offence $1,500.
“This in turn will enable the current level of penalty [$500] for first time offenders who “didn’t know the program existed” to remain, with higher penalties imposed for properties that are simply ignoring compliance, in recognition of the additional enforcement resources that are required. It should be noted that staff propose 3 levels of offense, as after that point, staff would seek court ordered enforcement, such as a Part 3 infraction, which would be achieved through the courts with a trial against the owner,” states the staff report.
“It should be noted that with respect to occupancy our current program exceeds the requirements of the Ontario Building Code of 2 persons per bedroom by further including all sleeping areas with the STRA unit such as; pull out coaches, murphy beds, etc.,” adds the report compiled by Nagy and director of planning services Kirstin Maxwell.
Owners of STRAs with septic systems that are more than 25 years old would also be required to hire a professional to verify that the system is sound and can accommodate the use. A report would also have to be submitted each year as the STRA owner seeks to renew the licence.
In terms of enforcement, Nagy told committee that a property standards/STRA bylaw enforcement officer has been hired and will begin training with the Town starting July 11.
Councillor Tim Withey said he found it strange that the Planning Act does not allow a municipality to limit the number of permits it issues. He said perhaps the Town should consider bringing in new zoning or prohibit short-term rentals altogether. “I wouldn’t mind, quite frankly, there’d be a lot less issues around town with these things,” he said. “STRAs, I think they destroy communities. It’s sad to me that they’ve become so popular and also destroy small businesses like cottage resorts that employ people.”
Withey also suggested that for owners who refuse to comply with the Town’s licensing requirements, perhaps the Town could go after the platforms where they advertise such as Airbnb and VRBO.
Nagy said other municipalities like Toronto are doing that, although it’s being appealed, and others are watching the results closely. He also reminded the committee that rentals are nothing new and that the licensing program for short-term rentals began as a means of regulating its use to ensure the rentals are safe.
Committee approved the changes. The amendments will be forwarded to council’s regular meeting this month.
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Rob Ord says
Here is the municipal face of overpopulation. Your beautiful lake can be polluted by sheer numbers, and the pollution extends to noise, traffic & waste – and Covid. This council is taking steps but you can see its problem is just us locals being good capitalists. To reduce the harm may require mortgage-free owners in paradise to stop renting out, full stop, and mortgaged owners (using rentals to pay down debt) simply to SELL.
This may sound elitist but think carefully how the aboriginals felt when our lot put a pulp mill on their lake. You are where you are, and you know in your heart -developers! – that this “growth” will ultimately not end well. Sorry
Marsha Rao says
Hope the new compliance officer starting July 11th works past 5pm.
Charlene Neill says
These are Commercial Resort Hotels in disguise with no supervision.
John Neill says
Why is our town staff trying to re-invent the wheel?
Do town staff consult with other towns or municipalities regarding STRA bylaws?
In Oro-Medonte councillers voted to BAN STR’s on residential properties last year.
They deemed these STR’s as commercial operations and would need re-zoning to operate in residential areas.
These “Ghost Hotels” are disrupting neighborhoods due to the unsupervised renters doing whatever they please..”here for a good time not a long time”
Seguin Township also has a long standing ban on STR’s on residential properties because they classify them as commercial operations.
These “unsupervised hotels” have no place in our neighborhoods and certainly not on shorefront properties.
When is the town of Huntsville going to follow the example of other municipalities and ban STR’s in residential neighborhoods??
Lesley and Ian Hastie says
Like many others who rent part of their home on a short term basis, with required licence, we know that the two people who stay with us spend money in the Town, in parks, restaurants and retail stores. Some of them have never been able to experience the serenity of sitting alone on a dock, kayaking from a private beach and enjoying the space that our apartment provides. It is a way of sharing this paradise with those from the city who live in tiny condos.
And as for many other hosts, STAs provide income. We add to the short term rental tax and income tax pools. There is absolutely no justification for the Town abolishing our permits, and if they were to do so the rentals would simply change to private undisclosed ones.
Brenda Begg says
John Neil, I agree with you. STRs should not be allowed in our neighbourhoods or shorefront properties. I’m sure I’m not the only one who knows of someone who moved out of their neighbourhood because of the noise and chaos from STRs. “Unsupervised hotels” as you refer to them is a fitting name. I might add, in some cases, they are Unsupervised PARTY hotels.
Cara Ferguson says
My husband and I operate a STRA in a house in a village outside of Huntsville that we plan to move into, which is why it is not a LTRA right now. When we bought it the house was in rough shape and we have fixed it up both inside and outside and we maintain the property. We currently live down the street from it and monitor our guests closely, the neighbours have our number if there are issues, and we cap our guests at 4 people. We are licensed and pay HST and MAT.
Councillor Tim Withey’s comment that we take away from small businesses like cottage resorts is not fair. All the resorts around here get booked up even with STRAs in the area and we hire a local cleaning company and recommend our local businesses to our guests for dining and shopping. We bring business to the area.
You can’t paint all STRAs with the same brush. Irresponsible owner/operators should be dealt with individually – no need to make it tougher for those who respect the rules and do their best to limit disruption to the neighbourhoods they operate in.
Dale Hajas says
I think there is a huge difference between short-term rentals where the property is owner-occupied versus a rental by an absent landlord with virtually no oversight; they should be treated differently.
We have friends and family with short-term rental units in their homes or immediately adjacent to their home. They work well and although the reports are anecdotal, all of the owners say that renters treat the space with respect for the owners and the neighbours because they know that the owners are present and care. These units are really not well suited to long term rental due to size and location constraints so they aren’t affecting the pool of long-term rental space either.
We have other friends who live in popular tourism hot spots like Blue Mountains, Hidden Valley or anywhere on a lake: the small Airbnbs that can accommodate a couple or a small family are fine. The problems arise with unsupervised units that can accommodate 10, 20 or more people in areas with skiing or waterfront activities – so target those specifically.
It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me to treat all short-term rentals the same. It would be akin to reintroducing prohibition to deal with the issue of impaired drivers. We have laws and zoning rules and methods to deal with the outliers of any activity and municipalities need to develop some to address the ‘party hotels’ while leaving the compliant properties – once they have necessary licenses – mostly alone.
Esther Jennings says
Although I agree that the intrusion by partiers is an unacceptable inconvenience to those of us who live here year round, I believe there is definitely a need for and a benefit to the local economy to be gained by allowing STAs (with enforced guidelines). As our hospital has struggled to staff all departments of late and has been forced to rely heavily on travel nurses who need accommodation for several months at a time, the lack of enough STAs has become problematic. Nurses are staying in hotels as far away as Orillia and commuting to Huntsville, cooking makeshift meals in hotel rooms and going to laundromats. Yes, they are used to this, but wouldn’t it be nice if several of them could rent an Air bnb and have more convenient accommodation while in our area? Often physicians and medical students do short term stints at our hospitals and struggle to find a place that is appropriate to allow their family to accompany them. Just a couple of situations that highlight the need for more STAs in our area.
Judith Blanchette says
Within 13 acres of land on muskoka river I once lived with seasonal neighbours then… now… I have short term rentals on both sides of me ( I have 2 acres ) then another land owner, paid his way with the town to occupy 2 short term rentals on his 2 acres of land !?!?! How ?!? Why?!?! It was once peaceful and now it’s party town. I am in shock how this can happen. It’s a shame and sad that you just never know what the weekend will bring and now it’s summer so….. what each day will bring. The Town of Huntsville needs to re gain some integrity. Thank you.
Brian Tapley says
It is unfortunate that the internet has been usurped by platforms that aggregate and rent out what used to be private homes and cottages. I say “aggregate” because these platforms account for more accommodation than even the combination of resorts and motels in many areas.
Despite this there is very little control of these platforms, be they the classic Air B&B or something that is really a little more classy like Jaynes cottages.
There is a world of difference between a classic Bed and Breakfast establishment, where the owner lives in the same house and rents out a few rooms. These are seldom a problem anywhere and they have an industry association to help them coordinate their activities.
The problems are with homes or apartments that are rented with an absent owner and there are several issues.
First is the zoning and planning issue.
If a property is zoned as “residential” it is not allowed to operate a business from that site without a change of zoning. As an example, it would not be allowed for someone to operate a sawmill, or auto repair shop on a lakefront residential zoned lot and this would be kind of obvious. Short term rentals however are just exactly as commercial as a Holiday Inn. The platform web site often looks similar, with booking charts and rates all nicely posted. The platform owner/operator conveniently side steps almost all the rules by trying to say that they just sort of facilitate the rentals. This is simply not true. The platform operator is running a business, a very big business, often of an international nature and they are getting away with doing it without complying with pretty much any of the rules other small rental business operations must satisfy.
It is entirely against the goal of the zoning system we have to allow these short term rentals with absentee owners to operate using large, internet based platforms to promote and rent the space.
Again, as an example, suppose you loved the area, decided to buy a nice waterfront home for the family and children to enjoy….. so you check your due diligence boxes and find that the property is zoned as “waterfront residential”. This is good as you know that you will not be living adjacent to a marina or sawmill or Holiday Inn. You expect to get to know your neighbors and maybe, if they too have kids, they can all be friends and grow up together at the cottage. You would expect that maybe the neighbors brothers, sisters, grandparents etc. might also use the cottage part of the time but that generally that cottage would be occupied by ONE FAMILY, the SAME FAMILY most of the time. You’d get to be friends over time.
But wait!, this is not the case with short term rentals, no, indeed you are living adjacent to or maybe even surrounded by, a waterfront resort, with potentially different, completely unrelated neighbors that change on a weekly or maybe even daily basis…. all year long. This is not a “residential area”. You have been misled by the municipal zoning you researched due to the fact that the municipality does not feel the urge to enforce the very zoning that they have created. An abdication of their responsibility.
Second is the issue of fairness to other existing businesses. Places like resorts have already been zoned to be a business, you should expect them to be just that. But these kind of places have a MANAGEMENT ON SITE and control what goes on. They have a vested interest in keeping all their clients happy, not just a few party animals and they also generally have an interest in being a good corporate neighbor. The larger ones often offer services and events that private owners, adjacent to them use for entertainment or recreation, sometimes even for free.
These businesses hire local staff often are an integral part of the community, their owners being members of service clubs, fire departments, etc. You will never find this happening with Air B&B customers.
These businesses, be they a resort, marina or anything else, have gone through an extensive zoning and planning process in order to exist. They are severely restricted in exactly what they can do and are quite regulated by environmental rules too. It seems that some private rental units simply ignore all these rules.
The Last thing I’ll add to this already too long note is about revenue and taxes.
Business pay a lot of tax to the municipal government. Despite this rural business, especially, often have to handle a lot of their services, water, sewage, garbage, etc. themselves at no cost to the municipality.
Almost without exception business collects HST.
They cover their employees with WSIB, EI, take tax deductions from payroll and often provide things like staff medical plans and subsidized housing for staff.
Unless they are tiny, business provides a yearly financial statement and pays income tax to both the Federal and Provincial governments.
Internet based private cottage and home rental platforms such as Air B&B cares not if the owner reports income.
They do not collect HST as they claim this to be the owner of the property’s responsibility. A joke if you look at the income and size of the Air B&B platform.
Private owners often hire maintenance workers for cash which leaves these workers with no WSIB or EI coverage and is actually more or less an illegal practice if use extensively. This tends to drive needed local workers into the underground economy, often not a good thing for workers or owners as, for example, a worker not covered by WSIB will become a big problem for the building owner if they hurt themselves say by falling off a ladder while cleaning eve troughs or painting.
True, as they say, their customers do spend locally to some extent but so also do all the customers who stay in resorts and motels. When you look at the total picture you have to wonder if this income stream, often pointed out by short term rental owners is really enough of a benefit to compensate for the shortcomings of the private rental sector. Shortcomings that municipalities are finally trying to do something about but 15 years late.
There are reasons why people tend to stay at short term rentals like Air B & B.
One is they are looking to be cheaper than a resort or motel. Are people this cheap going to spend mightily on other local business?
Another is they like privacy, often a valid reason but sometimes a route to a wild party too.
This whole issue is surrounded with problems, most caused by the disruptive effect of the internet systems that act to create anonymity, remove most accountability and allow money to flow rapidly with few records. This type of rental tends to fracture the social network that creates a community in the first place. That is one of the reasons we have planning and zoning, it is an attempt, often a poor one but the best we have at the moment, to maintain a community social structure that we are happy with.
We should ask ourselves as we debate this issue what we’d like to see for our community and then think about if short term rentals fit into this picture in a positive way, if they can be modified to be positive and if so how.
John Neill says
Great comments everyone!!
It’s pretty clear that the issue here is the “unsupervised hotels”.
Please, please, please….if you are having an issue with an STR in your neighborhood, you should check out the town website, read the bylaw (2020-91) and read the “Renters Code of conduct”. Apparently we have rights too!
This issue needs attention and the only way to make changes is to voice your concerns to town staff and town council.
Squeaky wheel gets the grease.
Thanks!
Sequoia Henry says
It’s about time the town this is issue seriously!!
Lesley Hastie says
To correct some misconceptions about taxes, as of July 2022 separately from its fees and hosts payments, Airbnb charges guests for both HST and the Town of Huntsville’s 4% tax.
Like other hosts who rent part of their homes to guests, last winter we rented to a medical student working at the Huntsville hospital.
As others have commented below, there is a world of difference between STAs of hosts living on site from those with absent landlords. Please don’t denigrate them all equally.
Nancy Long says
The responsible Air B&B operators that have guests in their homes, and supervise the activities are to be commended. It is wonderful to have spaces open to visitors and tended to by the property owners. I believe the problems happening are because of absent owners.