A condo board doesn't need the municipality's permission to prohibit short-term rentals, and a municipality's permission doesn't override what the condo's own governing documents say. The two regimes run in parallel, not in sequence.
Key takeaways
A board fielding complaints about a unit being run as a rotating Airbnb usually starts by asking whether the city allows it. That's the wrong first question. The condo's own declaration, by-laws and rules are a separate, and often stricter, layer of regulation that doesn't defer to whatever the municipality has decided.
Condo corporations set the terms directly through their governing documents. Restrictions commonly range from a single day to several weeks as a minimum stay, and can go further — prohibiting certain types of tenancy agreements outright, limiting which building amenities short-term tenants can access, or capping how often an owner can rent out a unit over a given period. None of that requires municipal cooperation. A corporation's declaration, by-laws or rules are enforceable against owners on their own terms, and a board that wants to stop short-term rentals doesn't need to wait for, or rely on, whatever the city's own licensing regime happens to say.
Separate from any restriction a corporation chooses to impose, there's a baseline notice obligation on every owner who rents out a unit at all: “section 83 of the Condo Act requires all condo owners who rent their unit to notify the condo corporation and provide their tenants with the condo corporation's governing documents.” That's a useful enforcement lever in its own right — an owner running a short-term rental who never notified the corporation, or never gave the guest a copy of the rules that prohibit exactly what they're doing, is out of compliance on section 83 alone, independent of any argument about whether the stay itself was too short.
Two provisions carry the enforcement weight. “Section 119(1) of the Condo Act requires all condo unit owners, occupants and condo corporations to comply with the Act and the condo corporation's governing documents,” which binds the short-term guest along with the owner — and “section 17(3) of the Condo Act requires condo corporations to ensure that everyone complies with the Condo Act and the condominium corporation's governing documents,” which is what obliges the board to actually act on a violation rather than treat it as the owner's private business. From there, the Condominium Authority Tribunal has jurisdiction over disputes involving nuisance and non-compliance with governing documents, which covers most short-term-rental enforcement without the corporation needing to go to court — provided the complaint is framed correctly as a governing-document or nuisance issue rather than something outside the CAT's mandate.
Municipal regulation exists independently and doesn't relax anything the condo corporation has already restricted. Toronto's own rule is a working example: it requires short-term rental operators to register with the city before renting a property out for less than 28 consecutive days. An owner who is properly registered with the city is not thereby exempt from a condo by-law that prohibits the same activity outright — the two regimes are cumulative, and an owner has to clear both, not just the more permissive one. A board investigating a complaint can check both angles: is the owner even municipally registered, and separately, does the corporation's own governing document permit this regardless of registration status.
A board that suspects short-term rental activity still has to work within the same entry framework that governs any other inspection of an occupied unit — there's no separate, lower-notice standard just because the suspected activity is a governing-document breach rather than a maintenance issue. The same 24-hour notice and specific-reason requirements that apply to any other entry into a rental unit apply here too, which usually means enforcement starts from the paper trail — the section 83 disclosure that either was or wasn't made, booking-platform listings, or guest complaints — rather than from an unannounced walk-through.
A board receives repeated complaints about a unit hosting a rotating series of two- and three-night guests booked through a listing platform. The corporation's rules set a 30-day minimum stay and prohibit short-term rentals outright. The board confirms the owner never gave section 83 notice to the corporation, and the “tenants” were never given a copy of the governing documents — two separate breaches on top of the underlying prohibition itself.
The board proceeds under sections 119(1) and 17(3): it notifies the owner in writing of the specific rule breached, attaches the relevant excerpt from the governing documents, and gives a compliance deadline before escalating to the CAT. Separately, the board checks the city's short-term rental registry and finds the owner never registered municipally either — a fact that strengthens the compliance narrative but is not, on its own, the basis for the condo enforcement action. The CAT claim, if it proceeds, rests on the governing-document breach and the nuisance pattern the complaints establish, not on the municipal registration gap, which sits outside the corporation's own jurisdiction to enforce.
Yes. A corporation's declaration, by-laws or rules operate independently of municipal permission — a board can restrict or fully prohibit short-term rentals even where the city's own rules would otherwise allow them.
It's the requirement that any owner renting out a unit notify the corporation and give the tenant a copy of the governing documents. An owner running an undisclosed short-term rental is very often also failing this separate disclosure duty, which gives a board an additional, cleanly documented basis for enforcement.
No. Entry into an occupied unit still runs through the same section 26/27 framework as any other inspection — a suspected rules breach isn't an exception to the 24-hour notice and stated-reason requirements.
No. Municipal registration and condo governing documents are two separate, cumulative requirements. Being properly registered with the municipality doesn't exempt an owner from a condo rule that prohibits the activity outright.
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