Vancouver subletter cleared from house only to see it on Airbnb

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“Housing in the Age of Inflation” is a Daily Hive feature series where we speak with renters and homeowners in Metro Vancouver about how interest rate hikes, ballooning rents, and lack of availability are impacting them.

A Vancouver renter says she’s one of a half-dozen sub-tenants cleared out of a Mount Pleasant character home earlier this year only to find the house listed on Airbnb during tourist season.

What’s more, the entire process was legal. The landlord arranged the long-term tenancies as subleases for her daughters — meaning the former tenants weren’t entitled to regular renter protections.

Grace Smith was one of those tenants. She moved to Vancouver from Montreal in 2022 and rented the middle unit of the house with a roommate from England for $2,700.

The landlord explained when she signed the sublease that her daughters would be returning from their travels in a little over six months, and she’d have to leave. Smith thought that was reasonable.

But after chatting with the other tenants on the garden level and top floor, she learned all six of them were being pushed out. She questioned why the two daughters needed the whole home, and in text messages seen by Daily Hive, the landlord said one daughter uses the top floor unit and the other uses the ground floor and bottom units that are connected via a door in the kitchen.

Smith left the house in April. It was a stressful time to find housing, and rents were shooting up post-COVID-19. She contacted the Residential Tenancy Branch for help but was told there wasn’t much they could do since she was a subletter. Luckily, she found a relatively affordable room in an apartment with two other women.

Subletter discovers Airbnb listing

Then Smith saw something that threw her: the Mount Pleasant character home was listed on Airbnb. Smith’s unit combined with the downstairs was going for about $500 a night (when Daily Hive checked for the soonest availability in March 2024, the price was $595 per night).

Airbnb

Reviews for Smith’s old apartment praise the host for her place, which she co-hosts with another woman. The first name matches with the landlord’s daughter whom Smith subleased from. Photos Smith provided of her old apartment confirm it’s the same unit listed on Airbnb.

The home’s top unit is also listed on Airbnb by the same host. But that unit’s calendar doesn’t show any availability.

Airbnb

“I was feeling betrayed, honestly,” Smith said.

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Landlord says both daughters live in the home as long-term tenants

Smith’s landlord was Merrily Hackett, managing partner and general manager of Sutton Group West Coast Realty. She’s an accomplished real estate professional, named on this year’s prestigious Swanepoel Power 200.

Land title documents confirm she owns the $2.3 million home on 10th Avenue.

Merrily Hackett (RealEstateAlmanac.com)

In an email to Daily Hive, Hackett acknowledged both units are listed on Airbnb. But she said Smith’s old unit hasn’t welcomed any Airbnb guests this year. The most recent reviews on the listing are from 2020.

Hackett added her daughter is a long-term tenant in the unit and it’s her primary residence.

“I understand [my daughter] had thought she might rent her unit out on Airbnb for a month this year when she planned to travel, but she decided not to do so as her travel plans changed,” Hackett told Daily Hive.

As for the top floor unit, Hackett confirmed her second daughter rented it on Airbnb for about 2.5 months this year. The daughter continues to occupy it as her principal residence.

Removing subletters for Airbnb guests legal at primary residences

Transitioning from long-term sub-tenants to Airbnb visitors was only possible because Hackett first rented the home to her daughters and then arranged subleases — which bypass some of BC’s renter protections.

Sublease arrangements are permitted to make a subletter vacate the property by a specific date, whereas fixed-term leases are no longer allowed in BC. Sub-tenants don’t acquire the full rights of regular tenants under BC’s Tenancy Act.

Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon told Daily Hive the government is exploring other options to cut down on bad-faith evictions, but acknowledged they still happen.

“It is disappointing that landlords might be evicting tenants under the guise of landlord use with the ultimate purpose of converting to make a profit as a short-term rental,” he said.

Of course, Smith wasn’t technically evicted — her sublease just came to an end. And since the daughters each list the Mount Pleasant home’s units as their primary residence, they’re permitted to Airbnb it under BC’s latest short-term rental rules. A principal residence, as defined by the BC government, is where someone lives for the longest part of the calendar year.

Thus, renting to long-term tenants in the 2022-2023 winter season before listing on Airbnb in the summer when there’s more demand was entirely legal. Smith still isn’t happy she saw her old home on Airbnb though, upset she had to leave a space she was comfortable in that’s now listed at six times the nightly price for vacationers.

“It really cracked the facade. I realized, oh, everyone is just out here just trying to do as well as they can financially without concern for the repercussions on other people,” she said. “I just want people to find their humanity, and not see housing as a means to get rich quick.”

Daily Hive has reached out to Airbnb for comment.

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