Robert Pittet says he will no longer rent out his cottage following passage of short-term rental bylaws in Haliburton County.
Pittet thinks the new rules and regulations are “an unacceptable attack on property rights.
“The primary objective of the municipality (in his case Dysart et al) is to generate income, particularly with respect to the very costly requirements to purchase or pay licence of occupation fees for shore road allowances,” he said.
Dysart et al is requiring short-term rental owners to purchase their shore road allowances; but in the interim, charging for licences of occupation.
Pittet added, “I also strongly object to the STR bylaw targeting family-owned cottages being rented via licenced agencies that already follow responsible rental practices, and being treated the same way as ‘hotel’ cottages that are rented full-time as income investment properties.”
Bylaw finding septic problems
He said he also believes the bylaw will result in owners being subjected to “unreasonable, excessive fines.
“I have no interest in continuing to have my cottage property contribute to the summer tourism economy under these circumstances imposed by the municipality, despite the resulting loss of rental income, which has been very helpful to offset the annual expenses of my family cottage,” Pittet said.
J.T. Lowes, owner of All-Season Cottage Rentals, said Pittet is not alone in deciding to no longer rent out his cottage since the bylaws came into effect last fall.
“I’ve lost about 35 per cent of our cottages since the bylaw came into play, so it’s made a huge impact,” Lowes said.
He’s been crunching numbers; estimating fewer travellers coming to his cottages will result in $1.2 million in lost income to the County for his business alone; noting there are six cottage rental agencies in the Highlands. He thinks it will result in a “noticeable” decrease in tourists to the County.
He said All-Season Cottage Rentals has already had to downsize staff, eliminating 20 positions, such as cleaners, “so it’s hurting local employment.”
Lowes added they are losing more familyowned cottages, than investor renters.
“Because they have so many bookings, it’s not a big deal.” He said most of their customers own the family cottage and rent it out three to four weeks in the summer to help cover costs, such as property taxes, maintenance, and renovations. “They’re saying it’s just not worth it… the cost… the hassle.”
Lowes said the economic impact filters down to building companies, tradespeople and contractors, who won’t be getting as much work, for example, rebuilding decks and docks. “It’s going to have a ripple effect.”
Politicians address concerns
Minden Hills mayor Bob Carter said if rental agencies are claiming a loss of 35-40 per cent business, “I’m not sure that can be entirely blamed on the bylaw; it could have nothing to do with the bylaw.” He noted the impact of COVID, and the takeover of homes to become investor short-term rentals. “There’s always booms and I don’t want to say busts, we’re not in a bust, but the booms are generally followed by a trough.”
Carter feels good about the bylaws. “It’s not going to be perfect. Nothing that big is, but anybody that is complaining has to understand that, sorry, but we’re here to represent the interests of all the public. This was the best way we could do that.”
Algonquin Highlands mayor Liz Danielsen agrees. She said there are good reasons for the bylaws.
“We’ll end up with units that are safe. That’s what concerns me now. We’ve got people renting out units, kind of on the QT, things like old cottages that might not be fire safe, accessible.”
She doesn’t think the bylaws will harm the tourism industry, but rather, “I want our tourists to have a good experience, a safe experience.
“Of course, a cottage rental agency is going to say things aren’t great, but for us, so far, so good. We’re not hearing any major concerns. During the course of the bylaw being reviewed and approved, we heard a lot, yes, but since it’s been approved, things have gone quiet.”
Dysart et al mayor Murray Fearrey said he is hearing concerns about some things in the bylaws. He said there may be faults that need addressing. He’s aware that some owners with structures on shore road allowances are having to remove, or move them, to get licenced and the process is difficult in winter. “So, we need to look at those kinds of things and get those out of the way.”
As for rental agencies losing business, Fearrey said, “they may be partially right. I’m not saying they’re wrong.” He said rental agencies are legitimate businesses that follow the rules.
“But there are a lot of individuals I’ve had calls from, saying ‘why are you doing this?’ and I’m saying, ‘why don’t you want it?’ They don’t want to tell me, but the answer is because they were getting $2,000-a-week for so many weeks and pocketing all of that money, not paying HST. I don’t think that’s right.”
Bylaw finding issues
Dysart et al bylaw supervisor, Hailey Cole, said they’d approved 69 licences as of Jan. 27, with another 20 pending due to issues.
“The most common ones we’re seeing is an overuse of septic tanks for the number of bedrooms,” she said. For example, she explained people are providing septic maintenance reports with a three-bedroom requirement. “And then we go look at their Airbnb ad, and they’re advertising five bedrooms. We’re seeing a lot of these Airbnb ads where someone has a two-bedroom septic tank, advertising for 12 people.”
She said they are telling renters they either have to decommission bedrooms or fully replace their septic tank.
She said the shore road allowance issue is tying up some applications, too. They have expedited licences of occupation until people can purchase shore road allowances. Structures built before 1977 are exempt. If after 1977, it’s considered illegal.
Highlands East junior planner, Kim Roberts, said last week they’d received and processed 17 applications. Four are in review, 10 have received conditional licensing, and three have been turned down due to septic capacity issues. “Septic capacity and noncompliant shoreline structures have been our two largest issues with licence issuance.”
Eric Guay, chief building official of Minden Hills, said they’d had 23 applications as of Jan. 29. They have not begun inspections but are seeing similar septic and shore road allowance issues as Dysart et al.
Algonquin Highlands planner, Sean O’Callaghan, said they had 17 approved licences as of last week, and “we are experiencing the same issues that Hailey has noted.”
Appeal to council
Lowes said he and one of his renters are planning to make a delegation to Dysart et al council, likely in March. They may also go to Algonquin Highlands, Highlands East and Minden Hills.
He said in his opinion the bylaw is “overbearing. There are so many issues preventing people from renting anymore, saying it’s just not worth it… I don’t need that extra $8,000-a-year bad enough to go through all of this.”
He feels cottages managed by companies such as his should be treated differently.
But overall, he questions the need for bylaws at all.
“Every issue put in place could have already been addressed with existing bylaws, but they’re not being enforced. One bylaw officer working Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. [doesn’t make sense] when the majority of problems are on weekends. And the majority of the problems are regular cottagers and homeowners. STRs are a small percentage of the issue. So, the answer is let’s put in a new, really complicated, bylaw? And the bylaw may have started out as a good idea, and a way to deal with a problem but they have taken it way too far. It has impacted us. It has impacted the industry. And it’s going to impact the entire County.”
But the politicians, including Danielsen, all said lake health should be paramount when first grappling with the bylaws. Danielsen added, “all of these bylaws are passed with the full understanding they’re going to need regular review. We want to get it right.”
Carter added, “there’s been really outrageous things sent to us from people complaining. But every jurisdiction across North America pretty much has been dealing with this, or will have to deal with this soon. I think we came up with one of the better solutions out there.”
