Can a Vancouver Strata Corporation Restrict Long-Term Rentals?

Before November 24, 2022, a BC strata corporation could cap the number of rented units in a building, ban rentals outright, or require an owner to hold a unit for a minimum period before renting it. Bill 44, the Building and Strata Statutes Amendment Act, 2022, removed the Strata Property Act provisions that gave those bylaws legal force. An existing rental-restriction bylaw still sitting in a strata's bylaw book today simply can't be enforced against an owner who wants to rent out their unit.

This change applies broadly, not to a narrow category of buildings. A Vancouver owner who was told years ago they couldn't rent because the building was "full" on rentals, or who held off listing a unit because of a cap, is very likely working from a rule that stopped applying in 2022.

Unlike an ordinary long-term lease, a short-term or vacation-style rental under 30 consecutive days can still be restricted or banned by a strata bylaw passed with a 3/4 vote of owners. This carve-out survived Bill 44 because the province treats a short-term rental differently from a residential tenancy.

The enforcement teeth behind this specific bylaw type are unusually sharp. While an ordinary bylaw violation is capped at one fine per seven-day period under the general rule, a short-term rental bylaw contravention can be fined up to $1,000 per day, a cap the province specifically raised in 2018 to give stratas real leverage against Airbnb-style listings.

Bill 44 didn't only touch rental bylaws. It also set 55 as the only age floor a strata can still enforce; any bylaw requiring residents to be some other minimum age, whether higher or lower, lost its force on the same date. This matters here because many older Vancouver strata declarations combined a rental restriction and an age restriction in the same clause, and an owner checking one often assumes the other survived too.

A building that markets itself as "adults-only, 45 plus" no longer has an enforceable basis for that specific age floor. Only a 55-plus restriction, properly adopted, still holds up.

Section 146 of the Strata Property Act still requires an owner to give a tenant a copy of the current bylaws and rules, plus a completed Form K, Notice of Tenant's Responsibilities, before that tenant moves in. The owner then has to provide the strata corporation with a copy of the signed Form K within two weeks of the rental starting.

This requirement never depended on whether a rental restriction existed in the first place; it's a standalone notice duty that applies to every rental, restricted or not. An owner focused entirely on whether they're "allowed" to rent sometimes misses that the Form K paperwork is still mandatory regardless of the answer.

Before Bill 44, an owner facing a rental cap could sometimes apply to the strata for a hardship exemption, or lease to a family member under a separate exemption category. Content describing that process still circulates, but it's now solving a problem that doesn't exist. There's no cap left to be exempted from, so the application process itself has nothing left to do.

Substantive review means an editor checked this article against the current Strata Property Act text, the Strata Property Regulation, and published provincial and BCFSA guidance on the 2022 changes. Whether a specific Vancouver strata's bylaws have been formally updated to remove a now-unenforceable rental or age restriction, and what a building's short-term rental bylaw specifically says, depends on that strata's own governing documents; verify current requirements with the strata manager, the strata corporation's records, or a BC strata property lawyer before relying on this for a specific leasing decision. This is general information, not legal advice. Corrections: compliance@platuni.com