BC's occupancy limit for vacation rental properties comes into effect today

Jul 27 2020, 10:58 pm

New restrictions surrounding vacation property rentals in British Columbia come into effect today, announced health officials.

After verbally introducing the amendment last week, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said that she would be limiting the number of guests that a vacation property is allowed to host.

“Today I’ve amended the order on mass gatherings, to limit the number of people in short term rentals and vacation accommodations,” she told reporters.

She adds that the order applies to houses, boat rentals, cabins, yurts, as well as hotel rooms.

The number of occupants will be limited to the capacity of the space, plus a maximum of five visitors.

The measure applies across the entire province and is being implemented to reduce the number of people that are gathering while limiting the risk of transmission for COVID-19.

“That means you cannot have a large group of people over to party in your hotel room or on your boat during this period of our COVID summer,” says Henry. “It is the responsibility of the owner of the property to assure the order is adhered to and to ensure that contact tracing is collected for everyone, guests and visitors alike.”

Henry added the responsibility to enforce the order is on the “owner of the property to ensure that this is in place.”

She added that compliance checks have been increasing in the province.

Last week, it was announced that indoor parties were one of the major influencers in Canada’s rise of coronavirus cases.

Canada’s Deputy Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Howard Njoo said that the number of average cases per day was increasing and that a higher proportion of the cases were young adults.

Njoo stresses that “success is fragile” and that Canadians will need to “redouble” their efforts.”

“All the sacrifices, all the great efforts that Canadiens have made to flatten the curve, we need to be mindful that success is fragile,” he warns. “It only takes a few sparks and people letting go and not keeping their foot on the gas that we could backslide and return into a situation that we had several months ago.”

Vincent PlanaVincent Plana

+ News
+ Real Estate
+ Urbanized
+ Coronavirus
ADVERTISEMENT