Article content

It’s one thing to dream up a regulatory framework for short-term rentals, but enforcing it is another thing entirely.

As the City of Vancouver itself noted in a recent report, “the general consensus among policy-makers and academics” is that no city has effectively enabled and enforced short-term rental activity. Despite that disheartening track record, Vancouver on Tuesday became the latest municipality to try.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Flaw of Vancouver's short-term rental rules is enforcement Back to video

Erez Aloni, an assistant professor at the University of B.C.’s Allard School of Law, said — barring co-operation from short-term rental platforms like Airbnb — the city’s enforcement mechanism may prove unviable.

“I think what the municipality here is doing is innovative and interesting, but the questions about enforcement are open questions,” he said.

Vancouver “relies on many things that are unclear yet — that are unknowns. I think it’s an interesting experiment, but I hope they will be able to revisit it if they find out in a few months that it’s not viable.”