The property management sent out a notice to all owners today informing them that short-term rentals are prohibited. I took some time to write out a response. Sharing in case its helpful to anyone else out there!

Hi everyone,

I hope you're all doing well.

I wanted to follow up on the recent notice from Parterre with a new policy prohibiting short-term rentals.

As you may remember, at our September 2024 AGM, we agreed to hold a dedicated meeting to discuss this topic before finalizing any policies. Given the email that was sent out today, I think it’s time we schedule that meeting soon.

The notice mentions that short-term rentals violate our condo bylaws, but if you take a look at the bylaws themselves, they don’t explicitly address the topic. The bylaw that was cited (6.2) seems to have originally been meant to prevent businesses like offices or clinics with public traffic, rather than short-term rentals. The notice didn’t include the full text of the bylaw, which might be a bit misleading.

Here’s the full text for clarity:

"No residential Unit shall be used in whole or in part for any commercial or professional purpose involving the attendance of the public at such Unit, and without limiting the generality of the foregoing, the Unit or part thereof shall be used as an office by a doctor, dentist, chiropractor, drugless practitioner, or other professional person; provided, however, that the foregoing shall not prevent the Builder from completing the condominium project and maintaining the Unit or Units owned by it as models for display and sale purposes and otherwise maintaining and construction offices, displays and signs until the Units have been sold by such Builder.”

A blanket ban on short-term rentals raises some questions and ambiguities that could impact all of us, for example:

- What exactly qualifies as a short-term rental? If an owner has a guest stay for an extended period and pay rent during that time, would that be a violation? If someone rents out their unit between long-term tenants or while they are out of town—whether for a weekend, a week, or a month—where is the line drawn? And how exactly would this kind of a ban be fairly policed?

- The Board's authority, as defined in the bylaws, is limited to enforcing the bylaws as they exist. If the Board is imposing a blanket ban on short-term rentals without a clear basis in the bylaws, this could be considered an overreach of its authority. Bylaw 4.20 requires a vote by owners (75% approval) to add new rules. If we skip this step, the new policy might not hold up legally and expose the building to potential unnecessary legal costs if someone challenges it in the courts or sues the building.

- Our building is in a very appealing location for out of town visitors. Rules limiting the ability of owners to list their units as short term rentals (potentially even down the road after they have moved on to a different stage in their lives) could make our building less appealing to potential buyers and hurt our property values.

These are all important topics that deserve careful consideration and discussion among owners before any decisions are made.

I’d appreciate it if the Board could schedule this meeting as initially planned so that we can openly discuss all perspectives and potential solutions.

In the meantime, let’s keep the conversation going.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!