Richmond’s chief licence inspector Carli Edwards called on city council this week to shut down a popular, longstanding bed and breakfast for not having a building permit for a backyard shed that had been used to accommodate guests.
The special council meeting Tuesday was part of a broader effort to bring existing bed and breakfast operators in line with a new short-term rental bylaw that aims to limit hotel-like operations in the city’s neighbourhoods.
But while acknowledging his decades-old poolside “Safari House” never had a permit, Stone Hedge Bed and Breakfast owner Brian Cooper told the Richmond News he questions the city’s priorities considering there are numerous illegal online listings on websites such as Airbnb.
For instance, one of the first homes that shows up when searching for a place in Richmond is a “luxury whole home near Steveston” for $1,056 per night. The News was quickly able to locate the home’s address by looking at outdoor pictures of it and determine there is no business licence for it in the City of Richmond’s online licence directory.
Other illegal listings include entire condominiums and houses offering six bedrooms.
Under the new bylaw, city spokesperson Ted Townsend explained there are two mechanisms that one may use for legal short-term rentals (under 30 days).
First, a single-family homeowner may apply for a bed and breakfast licence (that allows up to three bedroom rentals for a maximum of six guests). New licences are limited by a 500-meter buffer between each place. Presently, there are 46 such licences.
Second, a single-family homeowner or a condo/townhouse homeowner may rent to up to two people, defined as “boarders and lodgers,” with no licence.
In all instances, the homeowner must be living in the residence. This means entire unit rentals are prohibited.
“We are still tracking down illegal operations by reviewing listings,” said Townsend.
The rules are open to abuse. For instance, a person could list several bedrooms separately and on separate sites, as the News has observed.
The News asked if the city was considering asking online providers to post the bed and breakfast licence number. Townsend said the city is not, but it is “keeping in touch with our colleagues in other municipalities to track their progress.”
Meanwhile, entire condos are being used for short-term rentals. As well, the city explicitly prohibits secondary suites from being rented on a short-term basis but such listings are ubiquitous online.
That said, listings appear to be down by several hundred on Airbnb.ca since the start of the year (now around 300).
“As per Council approval, we have ongoing increased vigilance to ensure compliance is maintained,” said Townsend in an email.
Over the summer, the city issued 17 non-compliance tickets, he added.
On Tuesday, Cooper was able to reach an agreement with council, allowing him to remove the Safari House from a sewer right-of-way and away from the property line (it was built too close).
Considering bylaw inspectors had frequented his establishment for years and never questioned the shed-like structure, he wonders why it became such a problem now.
“Zoning bylaws prohibit living quarters in such detached structures,” explained Edwards.
“It started as a pool house, a TV and bar, 20 years ago and morphed, yes, with walls,” admitted Cooper.
The enforcement means Cooper will only be running a two-bedroom operation instead of a three-bedroom one.
