The owner of a downtown apartment has lost his fight to renew his short-term rental licence for 2025 after a panel comprised of three city councillors said they didn’t believe he was using the unit as his principal residence.
It was the second case this month where an owner questioned the City of Vancouver’s definition of principal residence, with lawyers in both appeals pointing out there is no set number of days in a calendar year that a person can rent an apartment via an online short-term rental platform.
In the most recent case involving Michael Enriquez, city staff’s evidence showed that his apartment at 1068 Hornby St. was rented 277 days in 2024. That represented a 76 per cent booking rate via booking.com.
In the other case, which went before the panel July 15, city staff said Deeno Mazhari rented his apartment at 1050 Burrard St. 439 out of 489 days between July 2023 and October 2024 via Airbnb. That represented a 90 per cent booking rate.
The city’s rules regarding short-term rentals say:
• A rental unit can be an entire home, or a room within that home, that is rented for less than 90 consecutive days at a time.
• It can only be operated from an owner’s principal residence — “the home where you live, as an owner or tenant, and use for bills, identification, taxes and insurance.”
• It can be a laneway or secondary suite only if the operator lives there and it is their principal residence (not permitted if the operator lives in the primary dwelling unit on the property).
• The rental unit must be licensed only to the person who resides in the property.
• The unit must be managed and marketed by a property management company with a valid property management business licence.
'No time restrictions'
Lawyer Daniel Barber, acting on behalf of Enriquez, argued before the panel July 16 that his client provided the necessary documents to the city’s licensing department that prove his Hornby Street apartment is his principal residence, as defined in the short-term rental bylaw.
Those documents included his driver’s licence, ICBC documents, tax information and a letter from Enriquez’s strata council that indicates short-term rentals are allowed in the building.
“There is no time restrictions in the bylaw, whatsoever,” Barber said. “There is no specific requirements about food, about personal effects in a principal residence. There is no requirement that condiments be available for guests who are staying at a short-term rental.”
Barber said Enriquez travels regularly and lives “very minimally,” with Enriquez telling the panel that he essentially lives out of a suitcase and puts the rest of his clothes in a storage locker in his building.
City staff’s evidence was that Enriquez travelled 139 days in 2024.
'Very unusual'
Coun. Rebecca Bligh questioned Enriquez about his lifestyle, noting city staff’s photographs taken in an inspection showed no food in the fridge, no condiments, nothing in the cupboards, no paper towels or cleaning supplies under the sink.
“It’s just very unusual,” Bligh said.
Enriquez said he was preparing to travel when the photographs were taken.
City staff’s evidence indicated Enriquez co-owns another apartment with his partner on Pacific Street. The apartment is 550 metres away from the Hornby Street apartment, with staff estimating the distance between the two places is an eight-minute walk.
The panel heard that Enriquez parks his vehicle at the residence on Pacific Street.
'Probably a total of six months'
Alina Urloiu, the city’s deputy chief licensing inspector, said Enriquez told staff in an audit meeting that he stays at his apartment on Hornby Street “as often as he can, probably a total of six months” in 2024.
City staff’s evidence was that Enriquez rented his apartment 277 days in 2024, which contrasts Enriquez’s statement about living there for six months and travelling 139 days in the same year.
In addition, he stated in what is described as an operational summary that “he stays with his partner as much as he can, and that in 2024 he would have stayed with his partner probably for a total of a month or two,” Urloiu told the panel.
“And though Mr. Enriquez had stated that he shares the [Hornby Street] unit with guests on occasion, he admitted that only happened twice in 2024 and we were not able to find that the listing was advertised as a shared unit,” Urloiu said.
Enriquez first obtained a short-term rental licence in 2022 and had it renewed in 2023 and 2024. City staff began to investigate Enriquez after noticing the 76 per cent booking rate, which led to an investigation and correspondence with Enriquez, eventually leading to a business licence hearing.
The panel heard Enriquez continued to rent his place in 2025, despite not having a licence.
Coun. Lenny Zhou sought clarification from Enriquez about the process of renting out his apartment.
Zhou: “Every time you're going to do the short-term rental, you're going to remove all the personal belongings, items, clothes — everything — is that right?”
Enriquez: “Correct.”
Zhou: “So whenever you do the short-term rental listing, you're going to do that every single time?”
Enriquez: “Correct.”
Zhou: “And where do you move all the stuff to?”
Enriquez: “Storage in the parking [lot] in the same building.”
'Hard for me to believe'
In the end, Zhou, Bligh and Coun. Peter Meiszner denied Enriquez a business licence for 2025, with Bligh acknowledging the city’s short-term rental bylaw could possibly be amended.
“There are other jurisdictions that do have time bound limitations of how many nights a licence holder can rent out their place,” she said.
“That’s a conversation for another day, and we could even tighten up our own bylaws. But I think in the instance here, it's clear to me I have zero evidence to demonstrate that this is a primary residence of the applicant holder.”
Meiszner: “Considering all the evidence that I've heard today, I'm not convinced that this is the applicant’s principal residence.”
Zhou: “It's really hard for me to believe that every week we have to pack everything — clothes, personal items, personal belongings — and put everything in the package, and then move to the storage, and then in the same week, we have to bring everything back to the unit. The evidence is pretty clear, and it's not enough for me to believe this is a principal residence.”
In his closing remarks, city lawyer Iain Dixon said "it's by submission to council that, based on the totality of the evidence you heard, that Mr. Enriquez does not live or conduct his daily affairs at this particular premise — he more likely lives with his partner [on Pacific Street] when he's in town."
When the city adopted the short-term rental bylaw in April 2018, it was designed to allow a homeowner to earn extra income, but to also forbid homeowners from turning residences into full-time short-term rental accommodation and disrupt the long-term rental market, which has a low vacancy rate.
As of June 5, there were 4,251 active short-term rentals in Vancouver, according to data on the city’s website. The city has suspended 1,949 business licences and referred 217 cases for prosecution in the courts.
