Starting May 1, Short-Term Rental (STR) hosts in BC will be required to display their business licence on their STR listings. This is part of BC’s new Short-Term Rental Accommodations Act. For more information from the Province of BC about this new Act, please visit https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/housing-tenancy/short-term-rentals. The purpose of the Act is to:

• Return short-term rental units to the long-term housing market  
• Give local governments stronger tools to enforce short-term rental bylaws 
• Establish a new Provincial role in the regulation of short-term rentals 

The Act applies to short-term rentals being offered to the public including:

• Platforms where people reserve and pay for the accommodation, for example, Airbnb, VRBO, Expedia, and FlipKey  
• Offers on other web listing forums, for example, Facebook Marketplace, Kijiji, and Craigslist 
• Listings in classified ads in newspapers 

The Village of New Denver does require a business licence for properties within the Village to operate short-term rentals. As a result, once the new rules are in effect on May 1, 2024, the Village will proceed with a notice and takedown process to request that STR platforms remove listings that do not have a valid business licence. For Village of New Denver business licence information, please visit our website HERE. If you have questions about where short-term rentals are permitted, you can contact the office or review the Zoning Bylaw online HERE.

Information for Hosts, Guests, and Platforms

The province has provided information for these key groups on the following pages:

• What visitors need to know
• Short-term rental hosts
• Short-term rental platforms
• Strata-titled hotels or motels

For a News Release from the Ministry of Housing about these new rules, visit CivicInfoBC HERE.

Principal Residence Requirement (does not apply here)

Note that the Village of New Denver has NOT opted into the Principal Residence Requirement implemented by the province; a requirement that is optional for communities with populations of 10,000 people or less. For more information about this requirement, visit https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/housing-tenancy/short-term-rentals/principal-residence-requirement.

Provincial Registry & Enforcement

The Province expects to establish a short-term rental registry by early 2025 that will help ensure that short-term rental hosts and platforms are following the rules. Once this registry is established, hosts will be required to include a provincial registration number in their listing, and platforms will be required to validate registration numbers on host listings against the Province’s registry data.

A provincial Compliance and Enforcement Unit will be established in the Ministry of Housing to support enforcement of the new legislation. This unit will monitor compliance, issue compliance orders, and administer penalties for violations.

Short-Term Rentals versus Tenancies

In general, a booking made on a short-term rental platform is not covered under the Residential Tenancy Act because usually the accommodation is being occupied for vacation or travel purposes. However, there are circumstances in which a tenancy may be established.

Find more information on what types of accommodation are covered by the Residential Tenancy Act at this page: Types of rental housing situations.

If there is uncertainty about the legal requirements related to a specific accommodation arrangement, it is best to speak with a lawyer.

Contact ServiceBC

Please contact ServiceBC if you have questions about B.C.’s new short-term rental legislation.

• ServiceBC is open Mon to Fri from 7:30 am to 5:00 pm with help available on the phone, toll free, in 140 languages and for people who are deaf, hard of hearing, or speech impaired.
• Service is also available by text, email, or in-person at a government service center.

Contact the Village of New Denver

Please contact the Village office if you have questions about permitting for short-term accommodations within the Village of New Denver.

• The Village office is open Mon to Fri from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, except statutory holidays, at 115 Slocan Avenue, New Denver
• Contact the Village office by phone at 250-358-2316 or by email at office@newdenver.ca.
• Contact information is available online at https://newdenver.ca/village-business/contact/