GORE BAY—Not all property owners who are operating short-term accommodation rentals (STARs) in the Town of Gore Bay have come forward and applied for a licence through the municipality.
“For us to do any enforcement of our STAR bylaw (passed last summer) we need to identify potential short-term rentals that have not gone through our licencing permit process and to send our bylaw enforcement officer over to talk to them,” said Gore Bay Mayor Ron Lane at a council meeting last week. “And for those that our (STAR) bylaw doesn’t apply to, we need to make sure they are falling within our water/sewer bylaw (paying for these extra services). This all needs to be investigated.”
Mayor Lane said in doing a search online he found “nine places in the town are being advertised for having overnight accommodations. In at least two or three of those, the owners of the homes are not living in their accommodations but are renting out the property for overnight accommodation. Our STAR bylaw does not apply if the owner is living in the house and renting out a room. This falls under our water/sewer bylaw since they are using more of these services if they are renting out to someone.”
“I think this is an important issue,” stated Mayor Lane. “We passed a bylaw last year on this and have not received applications for all of those that are being advertised.”
“Nine are being advertised in Gore Bay, but some are not following all the regulations we have in place,” said Mayor Lane. “There are definitely a couple that are not licenced and not following our bylaws for short-term rentals. And those that the STAR bylaw does not apply to need to be contacted by our bylaw enforcement officer as well to be sure they are paying the appropriate water and sewer charges for their rental accommodations.”
