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“To ensure fairness, the province will provide temporary grandfathering for strata properties that prohibit rentals. If a strata council were to pass a new no-rental bylaw, the strata properties will not be eligible for the temporary exemption.”

The ministry did address a question about whether the government could force stratas to abandon restrictive anti-rental bylaws.

Despite the vague language, there’s no need for immediate concern by strata owners, said Tony Gioventu, executive director of the Condominium Home Owners Association of B.C.

“I think it’s just going to parallel the formula the City of Vancouver has done on vacant homes — it’s already working and it’s working just fine,” said Gioventu.

“Buildings that have a rental bylaw, if the numbers of rentals has been reached and somebody’s unit is vacant because they can’t rent the unit, all they have to do is provide evidence from their bylaws and their strata council and then the tax is waived. It seems to be working fine with the City of Vancouver.”

Gioventu said he doesn’t think there will be a rush from stratas to pass rental restriction bylaws to skirt the tax. “That’s just not going to happen,” he said. “Strata corporations that have rental bylaws already have them. And new strata corporations that have been created since 2010 all have owner-builder renter exemptions on them so rental bylaws don’t apply anyhow.”

The government changed the law in 2010 so that strata corporations in new buildings can’t pass bylaws restricting rentals in units that the developers designated for rent during construction.

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