Less than a year after the entry into force of a law largely flouted by short-term housing landlords, the Legault government is tabling a new piece of legislation to tighten the screws on Airbnb and other transactional platforms. It could impose fines of up to $100,000 for failure to comply with the law.
This new bill, tabled on Tuesday, will force transactional digital platforms like Airbnb to ensure that the accommodations displayed on their site comply with Quebec and municipal laws. It will be these platforms that will have to validate the registration number of the lessors.
It has three objectives:
– Eliminate from digital transactional hosting platforms ads without a registration number, or with a false, inaccurate, suspended or canceled number
– Ensure the validity of the registration numbers displayed in the accommodation offers disseminated
– Allow tourist customers to know if the rented tourist accommodation establishment is registered and complies with municipal regulations
The law on accommodation establishments entered into force less than a year ago, on 1er September 2022. It created a mandatory registration regime and required landlords to register there, and to display this information in their listings.
30% of ads comply with the law
But a few months later, the Ministry of Tourism realized that it is widely flouted by landlords. Only 30% of the ads published on two major transactional sites comply with the law, the ministry explained. As early as December 2022, the authorities noted “the large number of advertisements still displayed without a registration number on digital tourist accommodation platforms” and realized that they had to modify the law “to further increase [le] compliance rate”.
Quebec therefore takes its teeth out with a second bill. If a platform like Airbnb is caught running an ad that doesn’t contain a valid registration number, it could face fines of up to $100,000 upon assent to the bill. Other types of non-transactional platforms such as Kijiji, Lespacs or Facebook may be subject to the law by ministerial decree if ever the recalcitrant tries to find a new place to publish their illegal advertisements.
Digital platforms will also have to “designate a representative established in Quebec” who can be contacted by the Ministry of Tourism. Because the government realized along the way that it did not know who to call at Airbnb to ensure compliance with the law.
As for landlords, the bill will allow Quebec to impose fines of up to $50,000 on them if they publish “false or inaccurate registration numbers”. They must also respect the municipal regulations in force.
Quebec will also create a public register of tourist accommodation establishments.