The short-term rental accommodation licencing by-law will come into effect for the Township of Muskoka Lakes on Jan. 1, 2025.
Council agreed to put the new by-law in place during its Aug. 14 meeting. If a current short-term rental has been active for a least one year, they will have to apply for a license by July 2025.
Robert Kennedy, the township’s chief municipal law enforcement officer, told council the license fee but will before the by-law becomes active.
The demerit point penalty system has been decided with the majority of the ones listed seeing five points added to an operators’ license, but four are grounds for immediate suspension of a license, including running a short-term rental with a suspended, expired, or revoked license.
A license will be suspended once 15 demerit points are accumulated. Each offence will stay on an operators’ license for three years.
Multiple versions of the by-law have been presented, including in Feb. 2024 when council spent six hours discussing the policy along with listening to residents’ concerned with what was proposed at the time.
Muskoka Lakes’ Mayor Peter Kelley says more information on the by-law will be shared in the coming months.
“As a result of continuing concerns in Muskoka Lakes, council initiated a process to regulate short term rental accommodations,” he says. “Our hope is that when this by-law is fully implemented, we see a decrease in the number of community concerns.”
