Cumberland Short-Term Rental Regulations: A 2026 Guide For Airbnb Hosts

Do you own a place in Cumberland, the old coal-mining village in the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island, and you're weighing whether to put it on Airbnb or Vrbo? Well, the good news is that you can, and the Village even has a licence class built for exactly this kind of business. The bad news is the shape of it. You have to live on the same lot as the rental, you have to be there while your guests are, and your address has to fall inside a mapped area that covers the old townsite grid and not much else.

There's a second thing worth knowing before you read anything else about Cumberland, mind you, and it's the reason this guide got rewritten. Council replaced both of the bylaws that govern short-term rentals here. Business Licensing and Regulation Bylaw No. 1239, 2025 was adopted on 24 November 2025 and repealed the old Bylaw 896 outright, and Zoning Bylaw No. 1238, 2025 was adopted on 9 February 2026 and repealed the 2016 zoning bylaw along with every amendment to it. So any advice you find quoting "section 4.15" or "Bylaw 896" is quoting law that no longer exists.

So let's walk through what it actually takes to do this properly in 2026: where the Village still permits a short-term rental, what the licence costs, the documents that go with it, the taxes stacked on a nightly stay, how the province sits on top of all of it, and who to call when something doesn't fit. Every figure below comes from the Village's own bylaws, the BC statutes and regulations, or Canada Revenue Agency pages, checked in July 2026. Before you spend a dollar on any of it, run the property through BNBCalc first, because a six-guest suite in a village of roughly 4,400 people is a very different business from a whole home in Courtenay.

Starting a Short-Term Rental Business in Cumberland

Two bylaws do all the work here, and they answer different questions. The zoning bylaw decides whether your address may host guests at all. The business licence decides whether you may take their money.

Start with the address, since that's the part you can't fix. Under Table 10.2(1) of Zoning Bylaw No. 1238, short-term rental accommodation is permitted as a secondary use in exactly two residential zones: R-1, Infill Residential, and R-2, West Dunsmuir Residential. It's marked "not permitted" in R-3 Large Lot Residential, R-MHP Manufactured Home Park, R-RTMU Rental Tenure Multi-Unit and R-MU Multi-Unit Residential.

Then the map narrows it again. Footnote 5 to that table restricts short-term rentals to "the areas indicated in Figure 10-1", and Figure 10-1 is a hatched map of the historic gridded townsite in the centre and south-west of the village. The newer subdivisions along the north and east edges sit inside the Urban Containment Boundary but outside the hatching, so an R-1 lot up there still can't host.

Two commercial addresses are grandfathered by name, and only two. The mixed-use table permits short-term rental accommodation at 2771 and 2773 Dunsmuir Avenue, spelled out by legal description in footnote 14.

Nothing else in the village core qualifies.

One permission dropped off the list entirely. The Village's 2022 vacation rental review allowed rentals in the Recreation and Tourism zone as well as R1-A. In the new bylaw, "short-term rental" appears nowhere in Part 14, and Part 14 is where the Recreation and Tourism zone at Comox Lake now sits.

Assuming your lot clears both tests, there's still another set of rules governing how you run it. Cumberland treats a short-term rental as a class of home occupation, and Table 6.4(2) sets the conditions:

• You have to live on the lot, and you have to be home. The operator's principal residence must be on the same lot as the rental unit, "and the principal resident is present". That second clause is stricter than the province's rule, and it rules out remote hosting entirely.
• One unit per lot. Footnote 2 is blunt about it: "No more than one dwelling unit per lot shall be used for a short-term rental accommodation home occupation."
• Two guests per sleeping unit, three sleeping units maximum. Six guests is the ceiling. A bed and breakfast, which is rooms inside your own principal dwelling, is capped lower at two sleeping units.
• No non-resident employees. You can hire someone to clean off-site, though nobody who doesn't live there may work in the unit.
• Parking at 0.6 spaces per sleeping unit. The bylaw's parking table sets the same rate for a bed and breakfast, so do check with Planning how it rounds before you assume your driveway covers it.
• No care facility on the same lot. An accommodation home occupation and a care facility can't share a property.

Signage is its own small rule and people forget it. Section 8.2 requires one sign naming the accommodation and carrying the operator's contact information, posted on or beside the unit, either fascia-mounted or freestanding. It's capped at 1.5 square metres and 1.5 metres high, any lighting has to be exterior and downcast, and the sign is only permitted where the operator holds a valid business licence.

For scale, this is a small market that grew fast and then got regulated. The Village's 2024 Housing Needs Report counted 150 unique short-term rental properties in Cumberland in 2023, up 477% from 2016, of which about 67 were estimated to be operating commercially rather than as somebody's spare room. Against 1,918 total dwellings in the 2021 census, that's a meaningful slice of a very small housing stock, which is most of the explanation for the rules above.

Short-Term Rental Licensing Requirement in Cumberland

Clearing zoning gets you the right to apply, and that's all it gets you. The licence itself comes from Business Licensing and Regulation Bylaw No. 1239, 2025, where section 4.5.1 says nobody may operate a short-term rental unless they hold a valid Village licence and comply with the provincial Short-Term Rental Accommodations Act. Both, not either.

Cumberland classes short-term rentals in Tier 3, the accommodation tier, alongside hostels, hotels and bed and breakfasts. Schedule C of Fees Bylaw No. 1110, 2019 sets what that costs, as of July 2026:

Charge	Amount	Notes
Tier 3 application fee	$300	one-time, payable with the application
Tier 3 yearly licence fee	$125	payable before the licence is granted
Half-year licence fee	50% of $125	for licences issued after 30 June
Late payment fee	$75	if you renew after 31 December
BC provincial registration	$100 or $450 a year	$100 where you live at the property

So a first year runs $425 to the Village, plus $100 to the province where the property is your principal residence, which in Cumberland it has to be anyway. After that it's $125 a year municipally and $100 provincially. Section 3.4.6 makes the yearly fee non-refundable, so it's worth getting the zoning question settled before you pay anything.

The term is a calendar year and nothing else. Licences run 1 January to 31 December and expire automatically, renewal notices go out at the beginning of December, and if you miss the 31 December deadline you have until 31 January to pay the $75 late fee. Miss that too and the licence is "deemed expired" and you start a fresh application.

A licence is personal, not attached to the building. Section 3.5.3 makes it non-transferable to any other person, business or corporation, so a buyer inherits nothing.

Change premises and you file a new application under the same rules.

Renewal isn't a rubber stamp either. Section 4.5.3 requires you to re-confirm compliance with the licence terms, the zoning bylaw and the provincial Act at every renewal, by resubmitting the same information you gave the first time. Keep in mind that this is where a quietly expanded listing gets caught, since the Village is asking you to certify the same facts annually.

Two operating conditions attach the moment you're licensed. You must display the Village licence number in every advertisement or listing, along with your provincial registration number, and you must put up an outdoor sign showing the name and phone number of whoever manages the rental. The bylaw also defines a "local contact", an alternate host who "must be available to respond to any nuisance complaints if the operator is unavailable", which is the person that sign is really for.

If the Licence Inspector refuses, suspends or cancels a licence, you're not stuck with it. Section 3.3.10 gives you 30 days from written notice to ask Council to reconsider, at no charge, and Council can confirm the decision or substitute its own, including attaching conditions.

Required Documents for Cumberland Short-Term Rentals

Since that $300 doesn't come back, it's worth assembling the file properly before you submit anything. The business licence application form is short, though the Licence Inspector can ask for a good deal more than the form itself lists, and an application that sits incomplete for three months is deemed abandoned.

What the form itself asks for:

• The property's identifiers, meaning civic address, legal description, PID, folio and, importantly, the zone. That single field is what tells the Village whether you're inside the Figure 10-1 area.
• Owner and applicant details. If you're not the registered owner, a signed letter of agency has to come with the application, and there's a template on the last page.
• A description of the business, gross floor area, number of employees (the form asks you not to leave it blank, so enter zero), and your days and hours of operation.
• Answers on storage, parking and signage. New signage and additional parking both route you back to the Planning Department before approval.
• A compliance declaration, confirming the business complies with the federal and provincial authorities that have jurisdiction over it.

Then there's the list of things the Village may ask for on top, and for an accommodation business it's reasonable to expect at least one of them. Copies of certifications or letters of approval from other agencies. An RCMP criminal record report. Proof of liability insurance in a form acceptable to the Village. Health approval where food service is involved.

The review chain matters more than the paperwork, honestly, because it's where the timeline goes. Planning reviews the land use, then the Fire Chief reviews it against the Fire Code and may order a fire inspection. The Building Inspector reviews it against the BC Building Code and may inspect the premises. Only then does the Licence Inspector approve, deny or defer, and any of them can attach conditions you have to meet before you open.

The province wants its own file. BC's host registration needs one piece of government photo ID plus at least two supporting documents proving the property is your principal residence, drawn from a list that includes land title certificates, property assessments, insurance documents, banking statements and tenancy agreements. Renting rather than owning? Then your tenancy agreement and a notice of rent increase are prescribed documents too. And the province asks for your local government business licence, which is why the Village application comes first in practice.

Cumberland Short-Term Rental Taxes

Assuming you get through all of that and are able to start hosting, there's still tax to sort out, though Cumberland is unusually simple on this front. There's no municipal accommodation tax here, and no regional one either.

Charge	Rate	Collected by
GST	5%	you if you're GST-registered, otherwise the platform
BC PST on accommodation	8%	the seller, or the online marketplace facilitator
MRDT (tourism tax)	none in Cumberland	not applicable
Municipal accommodation tax	none	not applicable

The provincial piece is the one you'll actually see on a booking. BC's accommodation tax rules state that "PST of 8% applies to sales of short-term accommodation provided in B.C., unless a specific exemption applies", and online marketplace facilitators operating in or outside BC must register and collect it.

Two exemptions are worth remembering. Accommodation is exempt where the charge is "$30 or less per day, or $210 or less per week", although that one falls away the moment the listing appears on an online marketplace. And no PST applies to a continuous stay of 27 days or more.

The tourism tax is where Cumberland differs from its neighbours, and the difference is real money. The Designated Accommodation Area Tax Regulation lists every area in BC that charges the Municipal and Regional District Tax, and the Village of Cumberland is not one of them. Courtenay is, at 2%. Mount Washington is, at 3%, through the Mount Washington Resort Association. Hornby Island is, at 3%.

Drive ten minutes down the hill and your guest pays a tax they don't pay in Cumberland.

Do watch that one, though. Courtenay's 2% entry carries a repeal date of 1 September 2026, so the Comox Valley's tourism tax arrangements are visibly in motion as I write this. I'd check the regulation again before you build a rate card around the gap.

Federally, the CRA's platform-based accommodation guidance applies 5% GST in BC to accommodation occupied "for a period of less than one month and that costs more than $20 per night". Who collects depends on you. A GST-registered host charges and collects it themselves, including on platform bookings; where the host isn't registered, the platform operator has to collect and remit. Registration is generally required once taxable supplies pass $30,000 over 12 months, which a six-guest suite in a village this size may never reach.

Possible Deductions and Write-offs

Rental income is ordinary income, and the usual deductions follow it: the licence fees, insurance, utilities apportioned to the rented space, cleaning, supplies, platform commissions, repairs, and capital cost allowance where you choose to claim it. Renting part of your own home means apportioning nearly all of it, which is fiddlier on a tax return than it looks on a spreadsheet.

One federal rule outranks all of that, and it's the reason compliance here isn't optional. Section 67.7 of the Income Tax Act denies deductions entirely for a "non-compliant short-term rental", meaning one in a place that doesn't permit short-term rentals, or one that fails to meet all applicable registration, licensing and permit requirements.

The denial is proportional, calculated as your expenses multiplied by non-compliant days over total short-term rental days. Operating outside the Figure 10-1 area, or without a Village licence, or without a provincial registration number, turns the CRA into a second enforcement agency.

Be aware, too, that platforms report host and property data to the CRA under Part XX of the Income Tax Act. The data to check you against already arrives every year.

British Columbia Wide Short-Term Rental Rules

That federal deduction rule keys off "all applicable registration, licensing and permit requirements", and in British Columbia the provincial layer is the heaviest of the three. Cumberland's own bylaw defers to it by name.

The instrument is the Short-Term Rental Accommodations Act, SBC 2023, c. 44. Section 14(1) is the core of it: outside "exempt land", short-term rental accommodation may only be provided in the property host's principal residence, plus "not more than one secondary suite or other accessory dwelling unit" on the same property. Section 13 then requires every listing to carry the valid business licence number, where a licence requirement applies, and the valid provincial registration number.

Now the part specific to Cumberland, which surprises people. The principal residence requirement was aimed at communities over 10,000, and Cumberland has nothing like that many residents.

It's captured anyway. Schedule 3 of the Short-Term Rental Accommodations Regulation lists "The Corporation of the Village of Cumberland" under "Certain Municipalities Neighbouring Large Municipalities", alongside Duncan, Qualicum Beach, Highlands, Metchosin, Anmore and Belcarra. The regulation defines "neighbouring" as being within 15 kilometres of another municipality, and Courtenay is about ten kilometres away. The province's own list of communities where the principal residence requirement applies names Cumberland directly.

Could the Village get out of it? In theory yes, in practice no.

A Schedule 3 municipality may only ask to be added back to exempt land where its neighbouring large municipality has an "eligible vacancy rate", defined as 3% or more in each of the two consecutive years before the request. The Village's own Housing Needs Report notes that the Courtenay census area "has maintained a vacancy rate below 3%" since 2012. The province accelerated the opt-out process in 2026, with requests due 28 February and taking effect 1 June, so the door exists. The vacancy numbers just don't open it.

Registration is annual and it's cheap relative to everything else. BC's registry charges $100 a year where you live at the property and $450 where you don't, plus a $1.50 service fee, with renewal reminders at 40 days, 14 days and one day out. Registration isn't required for bookings longer than 90 days, on reserve lands, or for hotels, motels, timeshares and student housing.

Three dates explain why this stopped being theoretical. On 1 May 2024 the principal residence requirement took effect, legal non-conforming use protection for short-term rentals ended, and hosts had to start displaying a local business licence number. From 2 June 2025 platforms had to stop advertising unregistered listings, and from 23 June 2025 they had to cancel the future bookings those listings had already taken. That second date is the one that changed behaviour, because it reached back into money already collected.

The penalties are set out in Schedule 4 of the regulation as maximums, and section 27(2) of the Act allows a separate penalty for each day a contravention continues:

Contravention	Max, first	Max, second	Max, third or later
Failing to register a short-term rental offer	$5,000	$7,500	$10,000
Breaching the principal residence requirement	$5,000	$7,500	$10,000
Omitting the business licence number from a listing	$500	$750	$1,000
Omitting the registration number from a listing	$500	$750	$1,000
Platform failing to register	$5,000	$7,500	$10,000

Read the first two rows together with the daily multiplier and you can see the design. A whole-home listing run from Vancouver on a Cumberland property isn't a one-off $5,000 problem. It's a problem the province can price at up to $5,000 for every day it keeps running, on top of whatever the Village does about it.

Does Cumberland Strictly Enforce STR Rules?

The province supplies the big numbers, though the day-to-day enforcement in a village of this size is a neighbour with a phone. Cumberland says so itself: the bylaw compliance page states that "it is the general policy of the Village to rely on citizen complaints", and it lists business licences and zoning regulations among the things officers respond to.

Anonymous complaints aren't accepted, which cuts both ways. It filters out grudges. It also means whoever complains about you is someone you'll keep running into at the co-op.

That complaint-driven posture is exactly why the sign requirement exists. An outdoor sign with a manager's name and phone number gives an annoyed neighbour somewhere to call before they call the Village, and it gives the Village a name when they do.

The tickets themselves are modest. Municipal Ticket Information Bylaw No. 1053, whose business licensing schedule was replaced by Amendment Bylaw No. 1244 on 12 January 2026, sets $200 for operating without a valid business licence, $200 for failing to comply with the short-term rental section, $200 for failing to advertise the licence number and $100 for failing to display the sign. Each one halves if you pay early.

The zoning schedule carries a heavier $500 ticket for a non-compliant vacation rental. Mind you, as of the published consolidation that row still cross-references the repealed Zoning Bylaw No. 1027, 2016, so I'd expect it to be renumbered rather than dropped.

Ticket amounts are the floor, not the ceiling. Bylaw 1239 sets a minimum penalty of $5,000 under the Offence Act and a maximum fine of $50,000, and Part 2 of the zoning bylaw sets its own ceiling of $50,000 plus costs of prosecution on summary conviction. Both make each day a separate offence. Bylaw Enforcement Officers, the Building Official and Planning staff can all enforce the zoning bylaw, and section 2.2 authorises entry onto any property at reasonable hours to check compliance.

The licence itself is what the Village reaches for first, in my reading of how the bylaw is built. Failing to comply with any Village bylaw or applicable law is listed as reasonable cause to refuse, suspend or cancel a business licence, and losing the licence takes your listing offline, because the platform is required to carry a valid number.

Which is the real answer to the question. Cumberland doesn't need aggressive municipal enforcement, since the province built the hard stop at the platform layer and the Village only has to decide whether to keep issuing you a number.

How to Start a Short-Term Rental Business in Cumberland

Given how much of that depends on facts you can't change about your address, the order below saves the most money. The early steps tell you whether the later ones are worth attempting at all.

1. Check your zone and the map before anything else. You need R-1 or R-2, and you need to sit inside the Figure 10-1 short-term rental area on page 91 of the zoning bylaw. Planning can confirm both from your civic address, and a five-minute call here is worth more than any other step in this list.
2. Confirm the living arrangement works. Your principal residence has to be on the same lot, only one dwelling unit per lot may be used, and the resident has to be present. A duplex where you live in one half and rent the other is the shape the bylaw contemplates.
3. Size the unit to the rules. Three sleeping units maximum, two guests each, no non-resident employees, and 0.6 parking spaces per sleeping unit.
4. Register with the province. Apply to the BC short-term rental registry, $100 a year where you live at the property, with government ID and two supporting documents proving principal residence.
5. Apply for the Village business licence. Tier 3, $300 application plus $125 for the year, or half the yearly fee if you're granted after 30 June. Expect Planning, the Fire Chief and the Building Inspector to each review it, and don't forget that an incomplete application dies after three months.
6. Put both numbers in every listing, the Village business licence number and the provincial registration number, before you accept a booking.
7. Install the sign and post the licence. One outdoor sign, maximum 1.5 square metres, carrying the name and phone number of whoever manages the rental, plus the licence displayed on the premises.
8. Sort out tax before your first guest. Confirm how your platform handles the 8% PST, and decide whether you're registering for GST or leaving collection to the platform.
9. Diarize 31 December. Renewal is annual, it requires you to re-certify compliance with the zoning bylaw and the provincial Act, and a missed deadline costs $75 and then the licence itself.

Who to Contact in Cumberland about Short-Term Rental Regulations and Zoning?

Most of that list runs through one small office, which is one of the genuine advantages of hosting in a village rather than a city. You can generally get a human on the first call.

The Village of Cumberland

Planning, licensing and bylaw enforcement all sit in the same building, and the business licences page is the starting point for applications and renewals.

• Address: 2673 Dunsmuir Avenue, PO Box 340, Cumberland, BC V0R 1S0
• Phone: 250-336-2291
• Fax: 250-336-2321
• Email: [email protected]
• Office hours: Monday to Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Ask Planning about the zone and the Figure 10-1 boundary, ask the Licence Inspector about the application, and use the same phone number for bylaw complaints, which are taken by phone or in person and never anonymously.

The province, for registration and the principal residence rule

The BC short-term rental registry handles registration, renewal, the principal residence declaration and the exemptions, all through the Ministry of Housing's short-term rentals pages. Questions about whether your specific arrangement satisfies section 14 belong there rather than with the Village, since the Village can't waive a provincial requirement.

Provincial tax

PST on accommodation is administered by the BC Ministry of Finance's Consumer Taxation Programs Branch. The toll-free line is 1-877-388-4440 and the email is [email protected], both published on the ministry's accommodation tax page. Ask them whether your platform is registered as a marketplace facilitator for your listing, because that decides who remits.

Federal tax

GST registration, the $30,000 threshold and the section 67.7 deduction rules belong to the Canada Revenue Agency. Its platform-based accommodation guidance covers who collects what, and it's the page to read before you assume the platform is handling GST for you.

What Do Residents and Tourists in Cumberland on Reddit and Bigger Pockets Think about the City?

Those are the official channels. The unofficial conversation is harder to report honestly, so let me be straight about the limits. Reddit blocks automated access and its platform terms don't permit the commercial use this would require, so I haven't read any Cumberland thread and I'm not going to characterise one. I couldn't find a BiggerPockets discussion specific to Cumberland either, which isn't surprising for a village this size.

What I can point at is the Village's own record of the debate, which is unusually well documented for a small community. The 2021 to 2022 vacation rental review drew 658 survey responses, and the review page traces the whole arc: a staff report in June 2021, public engagement through early 2022, a public hearing in July 2022, then the zoning amendment in August and the licensing amendment in September.

Council framed the exercise around the 2020 Housing Needs Assessment finding a shortage of attainable housing. That framing never really shifted.

The numbers behind that framing are stark for a place this small. The 2024 Housing Needs Report found about 8% of local households in core housing need in 2021, projected a need for roughly 1,350 additional units, and recorded that the surrounding Courtenay rental market has sat below a 3% vacancy rate since 2012. Set 67 commercially operated short-term rentals against 1,840 dwellings occupied by usual residents and you can see why the tourism argument lost.

Visitors, for their part, keep coming for the trails. Cumberland's mountain biking network is the draw, and the accommodation the bylaws now permit, a suite beside somebody's house with the owner home and six guests maximum, fits that visitor reasonably well. It fits an investor buying a second home to rent whole not at all.

Comparing this against places where the whole unit can legally go on a platform? Then the Canada market rankings are the faster way to see where those still are, and running the same property through BNBCalc will tell you what the six-guest version actually clears.

The pattern here isn't unique to Cumberland, either. Small communities next to a housing-squeezed larger one keep ending up inside rules written for the larger one, and the ones that adapt earliest are the hosts who read the bylaw before they buy rather than after.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you legally run an Airbnb in Cumberland, BC in 2026?

Yes, with real conditions attached. The property has to be zoned R-1 or R-2 and sit inside the short-term rental area mapped in Figure 10-1 of Zoning Bylaw No. 1238, 2025. The operator's principal residence must be on the same lot, the bylaw requires that "the principal resident is present", and only one dwelling unit per lot may be used. You also need a Village of Cumberland business licence and a BC provincial registration number, and both numbers must appear in every listing.

How much does a Cumberland short-term rental licence cost?

Cumberland charges accommodation businesses under Tier 3 of its fee schedule: a $300 application fee plus a $125 yearly licence fee, so $425 in the first year and $125 annually after that. Licences granted after 30 June pay half the yearly fee. Renewing after 31 December costs a further $75. Separately, BC provincial registration is $100 a year where the host lives at the property and $450 where they do not, plus a $1.50 service fee.

How many guests can a Cumberland short-term rental take?

Six. Cumberland's zoning bylaw allows two guests per sleeping unit up to a maximum of three sleeping units for a short-term rental accommodation home occupation. A bed and breakfast, meaning rooms let inside the operator's own principal dwelling, is capped at two sleeping units and therefore four guests. Parking is required at 0.6 spaces per sleeping unit, and no non-resident employees may work in the unit.

What taxes apply to a short-term rental in Cumberland?

Two. British Columbia charges 8% PST on short-term accommodation, collected by the seller or by the online marketplace facilitator, and Canada charges 5% GST on accommodation costing more than $20 a night for stays under a month. Cumberland has no municipal accommodation tax and is not a designated Municipal and Regional District Tax area, so the 2% tourism tax charged in Courtenay does not apply. Stays of 27 consecutive days or more are exempt from PST.

What happens if you host in Cumberland without a licence?

The Village can ticket $200 for operating without a valid business licence and $200 for breaching the short-term rental section, with a $500 zoning ticket for a non-compliant vacation rental, and each day counts as a separate offence up to a $50,000 maximum fine. The province can impose administrative penalties of $5,000 for a first failure to register and up to $10,000 for repeats, again per day. Unlicensed listings also lose income tax deductions under section 67.7 of the Income Tax Act.

Last verified: July 2026. Every ordinance, tax rate, state law, and contact detail in this guide links to or comes from its official source.