TORONTO -- Four charges against alleged short-term rental bylaw violators that were touted by city inspectors in a report to Toronto city council were actually never laid, CTV News Toronto has learned.
Instead, the charges are still under review, even as CTV News Toronto found more apparent rule-breakers including what appeared to be an entire apartment building converted to short-term rentals, prompting worries that the new bylaw will be harder to enforce than originally thought.
"There has to be more vigour, more rigour on both sides to bring this industry into compliance, like any other industry," Toronto City Councillor Paula Fletcher said Thursday.
Last month, Fletcher asked the city's municipal licensing and standards department to answer a series of questions about the enforcement of Toronto's new short-term rental bylaw.
The bylaw came into force in January, requiring anyone who intends to rent out a suite for less than 28 days to get a city licence, and restricting the property to be their primary residence. The idea behind the bylaw is to allow limited short-term rentals but to preserve rental housing stock in the city.
The answer, in a report to council this week, was that between Jan. 1 and Jan. 24, “staff issued one Notice of Violation and four charges related to short-term rentals. Of these four charges, two were in relation [to] operating a short-term rental without authorization, and two were in relation to renting or advertising a short-term rental in a property outside of a principal residence.”
When CTV News Toronto asked for more details about the charges, the city first said the details were secret, as was "general practice" at the city — before relenting, and admitting that the charges hadn't been laid at all.
"The report should have clarified that the four cases in question are in the final process of being reviewed, which may result in further enforcement action, including charges," a city spokesperson said.
The extensive bureaucratic paperwork required to rein in alleged rule-breakers should be replaced by a requirement that Airbnb only post suites with existing licences, said Thorben Wieditz, with Fairbnb, which has been critical of short-term practices.
"That's a huge amount of resources that are being used in order to lay these charges and bring them forwards and that's a backwards approach," he said. "Think of the cars on the road — we shouldn't have to double-check every licence."
Airbnb did reduce the number of posted short-term rentals in Toronto by thousands after the rules came into effect. However a review of listings by CTV News Toronto showed hundreds that still appeared to break city rules.
Airbnb does check to make sure licence numbers are uploaded with new listings, the company has said. However, the company doesn’t check it against a public city list of licences, nor does it check "exempt" claims against addresses listed as hotels.
That enforcement gap may explain why of the approximately 200 listings reviewed by CTV News Toronto that claimed an exemption, about 40 per cent didn't appear to qualify.
A group of 10 such listings appeared to operate out of an apartment building on Ferrier Avenue and the Danforth in Toronto. When CTV News Toronto visited, there didn't appear to be anyone living there — there were no personal effects visible and no one answered any buzzers.
The owner of the apartment building didn't respond to inquiries. Airbnb also didn't respond to e-mail inquiries on Thursday.
However, the company did accept questions by e-mail Tuesday about some 15 listings that appeared to be operating out of a building on Bremner Boulevard with an exemption that the building's staff said it was not eligible for.
By Thursday, those listings had been taken down.
