The province of Manitoba has warned property owners who rent out their private pools of fines up to $672 resulting from a breach of provincial regulations around public and private pools, as the province receives complaints from the public and neighbours about backyard pool rentals.
In a report from CBC, a representative from the province explained when a privately-owned pool is rented out to others then it is legally considered a public pool, which means same rules and regulations apply to it as public pools. Provincial regulations define public pool to be “a swimming pool being operated for use by the public or rented as a facility to a user group.”
A pool-rental app Swimply, which was launched in 2018, has led to a considerable increase of private pool rentals in Manitoba this year. The province reached out to app’s users to explain to them the rules around private rentals.
When contacted by CBC, Swimply gave the following statement: “It is Swimply’s position that the act of listing a personal, private pool via Swimply does not make it a public pool—in the same way that listing a residence with a pool via Airbnb, or another short-term rental platform does not make that pool a public pool.”
Meanwhile, the province has pointed out that Airbnb rentals are not subject to same rules as they are not under provincial pool regulations.
Insurance expert Anne Marie Thomas, director of consumer and industry relations at the Insurance Bureau of Canada, has weighed in on the matter: “It’s important for people to understand the risk that they’re taking.” She explained that insurance companies charge additional fees if someone uses a pool privately for their family, which is indicative of the extra liability around private pool use. “No longer is it a personal insurance policy with a family,” she said. “Now the risk, meaning the home, is operating as a business, and it changes the risk, and it changes the policy.”
For this reason, renters who use apps like Swimply become prone to considerable legal liabilities, because of which their insurance providers could void their contracts with them. She pointed out if a person who rents a private pool for a party could face a lawsuit if something untoward happened like an accident leading to injury and someone decided to sue. In this case, insurance providers may also decide not to defend the lawsuit given that pool rentals are not part of the contract.
While Swimply provides liability insurance coverage of up to a million dollars that may not be enough depending on the situation on hand.
