A Sarnia Airbnb owner says he's frustrated waiting for city council to make a decision on regulating short-term rentals.
Robert Dickieson said they have no planning security right now.
"We don't know what the city will do next," said Dickieson. "The proposed bylaw is very strict and if it goes through [the industry] would be simply over-regulated. There are already enough bylaws in the City of Sarnia that regulate most of them and these bylaws are only for accommodations for 29 days and under, anything over, the city can not regulate because there's provincial law already in place."
Dickieson said it's a waste of resources.
"It will be very expensive to monitor and implement these bylaws. We wonder how the enforcement will work, because right now most of the bylaws are enforced based on complaints and non-proactive. Yes, you would have some listings or registrations for short-term rentals, but the question is, what about all the others who don't register? You have to find out where they are and that would be tricky."
One of the main sticking points in the proposed bylaw is a requirement that any short-term accommodation rental be operated by the primary resident.
"I can not live on property "A" and rent out property "B" short term. But, I can live on property "A" and rent out property "B" long-term. That doesn't make sense. Just the difference on 30 days and over, or 29 days and under, is a contentious issue."
Committee of the Whole, which includes all eight councillors and the mayor, will discuss the issue again Monday at 3 p.m.
Council decided on February 10 to start charging short-term rental operators fees and tax.
The initial licence cost, which includes a property standards inspection and fire inspection, is $370.
It's expected the city will start collecting the four per cent tax on the accommodations in March or April of this year.
Operators have until June 30 to register their rental.