City cracks down on short-term rentals
The city is finally cracking down on short‑term rentals, providing for serious fines for renting at all outside the summer season, and for the hiring of more inspectors.
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Joey 10:43 on 2025-01-30 Permalink
Were we not told for *years* that the city was powerless to do anything other than complain to Revenu Quebec since it had no tools at its disposal to deal with short-term rentals? So what’s changed? One day the executive committee can change the rules, introduce big fines and hire inspectors? WTF have they been waiting for?
Kate 12:22 on 2025-01-30 Permalink
Maybe the city’s lawyers found a way to get around existing laws?
Journalists ought to be reading this blog, and especially the comments, because it might give them better ideas what they should be asking the authorities!
walkerp 15:17 on 2025-01-30 Permalink
I’m hoping it’s because Plante has taken the gloves off now that she is no longer beholden to the corruption in the city service and the lobbying powers in the provincial government.
DeWolf 17:22 on 2025-01-30 Permalink
If that’s true it’s a pretty sad commentary on the state of municipal affairs in Montreal, but I’ve also noticed that since Plante announced she won’t run again her administration seems to be getting a lot more done.
thomas 17:54 on 2025-01-30 Permalink
This is a step in the right direction, but Airbnb itself should be held accountable for ensuring all listings comply with the law. For example, A $10,000 (or more) fine per illegal unit would incentivize them to take responsibility and actively prevent unauthorized rentals.
DeWolf 19:44 on 2025-01-30 Permalink
Would a foreign company like Airbnb even care about a municipal fine? They operate in countless municipalities around the world and if push comes to shove, they have an arsenal of lawyers and lobbyists to bat off things like that. My instinct tells me they’d ignore it like a tourist ignores a parking ticket.
I think targeting users is the right approach, because thousands of dollars in fines for a person or small business running an illegal Airbnb has a lot more impact than thousands in fines for a corporation worth US$82 billion.
Ian 21:53 on 2025-01-30 Permalink
@Joey very simply, they were lying.
@deWolf exactly, the problem is professional propert management companies that manage multiple units. Fine them into bankruptcy.
Joey 10:55 on 2025-01-31 Permalink
So if you currently own an apartment that you AirBnB (legally or illegally), it seems to me you have three options:
1. Stop doing short-term rentals and return your apartment to the normal rental stock
2. Keep it empty most of the year so you can cash in on short-term rentals between June 10 and September 10
3. Rent it out short-term year-round, with the period between Sept 10 and June 10 putting your at risk.
The mayor is counting on most AirBnBers doing the first option. But if the potential revenue from summer AirBnB rentals is greater than the revenue from a long-term rental, these apartments will simply sit empty for nine months of the year (or will be rented out via AirBnB illegally outside of summer months).
Let’s play this out. Suppose you have an apartment you can rent for $2500 a month. In a year you’re getting $30K in revenue. Suppose you can rent it out via AirBnB for $400 a night during the summer months. If you can rent it out for 75 of the 92 days when it’s legal to do so, you’ll generate the exact same amount of revenue. You can see where this is going, right? Sure, there are other factors, such as higher marginal costs, like cleaning and marketing, with AirBnB. But the possiblity of getting stuck with a lousy tenant or being expected to follow rent control rules long-term has already been shown to be a deterrent to a lot of landlords. Plus if you show a loss it just helps you out with your taxes. Obviously this is just a thought experiment, but I’m not convinced this policy (which I want to support) is as going to work.
TLDR the economics of this proposal are such that it’s not obvious it will produce any meaningful change, besides provoking a fight with the provincial government.
thomas 11:57 on 2025-01-31 Permalink
Tempted to write a script that would automatically file a complaint with the OQLF for every Airbnb listing in Montreal. Since they seem to have plenty of inspectors, this could create a major hassle for the owners.
jeather 13:31 on 2025-01-31 Permalink
Using them as a force for good. I Like it.
Kate 21:44 on 2025-01-31 Permalink
Joey, I saw your challenge on this point to Alex Norris on Facebook. Which he sidestepped. The real question is why this wasn’t considered more seriously as a loophole before the law was passed.
Joey 17:17 on 2025-02-01 Permalink
Yeah, I was somewhat reassured to hear that at least they are aware that landlords may choose to keep their places vacant to benefit from summertime short-term rentals – I’m not as sanguine as he is, but that’s not a surprise. What did surprise me was the admission that the city has had considerable powers all along, and just chose not to use them. I was under the impression that there was a new provincial law that allows cities more freedom to establish both rules and consequences for violating them. In hindsight, basically everything Projet has done on this file – Richard Ryan removing lock boxes attached to city poles, haranguing Revenu Quebec, etc. – was a complete and utter failure. The idea that they could have banned short-term rentals all along and hire inspectors to issue significant fines – and that they juts chose not to – is absurd.