By Pierre Saint-Arnaud
Town introduced Thursday that folks will solely be allowed to hire their main residences on platforms corresponding to Airbnb between June 10 and Sept. 10, with some exceptions.
Mayor Valérie Plante stated town hopes the brand new guidelines will return as many as 2,000 models again to the long-term rental market.
“At the moment my message is that unlawful enterprise on the again of Montreal renters is completed,” Plante instructed a information convention.
Town says that regardless of efforts lately to crack down, greater than half of the 4,000 models on short-term rental platforms are listed illegally.
The Quebec authorities tabled new laws round short-term leases in 2023, months after seven folks died in a fireplace in an Previous Montreal constructing that had been housing unlawful short-term leases.
That regulation required short-term rental firms to make sure their on-line listings are licensed by the province and made it unlawful for anybody to promote a short-term rental on-line with out together with the quantity and expiry date for his or her provincial certificates.
Many Montreal boroughs have restricted full-time Airbnbs to sure industrial areas. Nevertheless, guidelines had been much less strict when it got here to renting out a main residence, with a view to enable folks to briefly hire whereas they had been away for brief intervals, corresponding to on trip.
Town says the present guidelines have been laborious to implement, requiring officers to hold out investigations lasting as much as a yr to collect sufficient proof to problem fines. Plante stated some folks use completely different schemes to falsely declare a full-time rental as a main house, corresponding to placing leases beneath relations’ names or pretend names and making false declarations of residence.
Plante stated the brand new guidelines will shift the burden of proof on operators to indicate they’re performing legally and permit inspectors to problem fines of $1,000 a day as quickly as an inventory pops up exterior of the allowable interval. That may rise to $2,000 for second offences.
“The minute you put up an condominium as obtainable out of the interval that’s attainable, you’ll get a advantageous,” Plante stated. “For those who hire it exterior this era, you’ll get a advantageous, $1,000 for each location, day-after-day.”
Even earlier than her announcement, Plante drew criticism from Quebec Tourism Minister Caroline Proulx who accused her of making an attempt guilty the province for her administration’s issues.
“Mayor Valérie Plante is in search of somebody guilty for her inaction in offering housing and the massive perpetrator is short-term lodging,” Proulx stated Thursday morning in Quebec Metropolis.
Plante retorted: “I don’t assume a minister ought to be comfy together with her regulation being so flouted.”
Town can also be rising the variety of inspectors to 10 from 4.
Alex Howell, a spokesperson for Airbnb, stated the brand new guidelines would damage tourism to town with out resolving the housing disaster. In an electronic mail, Howell described the measures as “excessive guidelines that may weaken the economic system, hurt native companies, drive lodge costs up and punish accountable hosts who depend upon further revenue throughout a value of dwelling disaster.”
Town’s new guidelines are anticipated to be adopted in March. Those that want to hire out their properties throughout the permitted three-month interval will want a allow, which prices $300.
Residences that have already got a allow to function legally as a full-time short-term rental received’t be affected by the brand new guidelines.
This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed Jan. 30, 2025.
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Final modified: January 30, 2025