Likely a significant number of Airbnbs operating Belleville without a licence

Short-Term Accommodation Dwelling or “STA” means a dwelling or dwelling unit, or any portion of it, that is rented for a period of less than 30 days, but does not include a Motel, Hotel, Hospital, Tourist Inn or accommodations where there is no payment exchanged. This includes stays through platforms such as Airbnb, HomeAway and Vrbo.

Home-sharing platforms may allow individuals to make more money renting on the short-term market than on the long-term market by converting traditional long-term apartments into short-term Airbnbs according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, which can be one of the factors reducing the supply of long-term rentals and raising rents.

It is one aspect of the financialization of housing, defined by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights as “when housing is treated as a commodity — a vehicle for wealth and investment — rather than a social good.”

In Canada there were 235,000 short-term rental listings (5% of the long-term rental stock) in Canada according to a Desjardins report in December 2023.

Belleville Airbnb requirements

• Registration: Required
• License fee: $1,000 for the first year and must be renewed for $300 annually
• Municipal Accommodation Tax: 4%
• Density/location: 100m away from each other, except in the Belleville Downtown Improvement Area (BDIA) (Bylaw 9275).
• Maximum number of STAs: 150
• Maximum rooms individually rented: 3
• Maximum sleeping accommodation: 4, unless it is an entire single-detached Dwelling Unit rented under a single booking.
• Must be primary residence: No, agent must be able to respond within 30 minutes, be on-site within 60 minutes.
• Inspection for bylaws, fire safety and building codes: As required by bylaw officer
• Insurance requirement: $2M
• Non-compliance: 3 strikes
• Administrative Monetary Penalty System (AMPS): No
• Maximum number of consecutive nights: No

To apply for a STA license: Short-Term Accommodations – City of Belleville

Bylaws

Timeline

October 24, 2024 – Business Downtown Improvement Area Chair asks council for confirmation of licensing status for the ~42 Airbnbs downtown

Short term accommodations (STA’s) abound in the downtown (42 ?), which we believe is excellent for attracting tourism which we are developing promotion al tools however we have been requesting confirmation of Licence status of those in the downtown for sometime without response, city’s assistance in response is requested as a immediate term follow up to this meeting.

July 8, 2024 – Staff say very likely a significant number of STA’s operating in the City without a licence

Staff remains of the opinion that with the By-law as written, with limited penalties and staff resources permitting limited enforcement there are very likely a significant number of STA’s operating in the City without a licence. Staff are working towards the implementation of an
Administrative Monetary Penalty (AMP) program in the City for parking ticket adjudication and would anticipate transitioning penalties under the STA By-law, which would need to be amended, to this process as discussion with other jurisdictions and the City solicitor has
indicated that this has yielded the most success in defending and collecting penalties which leads to increased compliance with the provisions contained within the By-law.

To date thirty-eight (38) STA’s have been licensed cumulatively (2022 – 16, 2023 – 19 and 2024 – 3 = 38) with renewal dates staggered throughout the year being based on when the original licence was issued.

Licences have been denied for a number of reasons including not meeting the minimum distance separation requirement (100 meters), building code violations, Ontario Fire Code violations as well as a number of other requirements under the By-law.

City recently received a proposal from a vendor that is working with a number of local municipalities that is within budget allocation and will provide Address Identification and Compliance Monitoring services along with staff training.

These services will provide the following:

• ongoing monitoring of all listings in the City
• updating listing activity and details on a regular basis
• screenshot activity of every active listing
• deduplication of listings into unique rental units
• activity dashboard and map to monitor trends and breakdown of compliance

June 10, 2024 – Councillor Brown requests update on the Short Term
Accommodation By-law

January 2024 – Invitational Request for Quotations (RFQ) issued but received no acceptable responses

August 28, 2023 – $15,000 allocated for professional identification of unlicensed STAs

April 25, 2022 – Council passes short term accommodation bylaw