City by city throughout the nation, residents are standing up against short-term rentals.
Although the trend isn’t necessarily new, the increase in popularity has led to some residents fighting to keep travelers out of their communities. Ordinances and regulations over the past year have been introduced in several vacation towns where travelers flood the area, even in residential areas.
The newest city to ban short-term rentals is Anaheim, which saw its City Council enact a ban of short-term rentals after a five-and-a-half hour meeting in June. More than 150 locals gathered, both in support of and against the ban.
Proponents of short-term rentals argue that the increase in these types of properties has helped improve neighborhoods. Short-term rental owners made the point that properties that would have otherwise remained vacant were fixed up and improved to attract short-term renters.
But the massive surge in these properties is what has fueled the desire for them to be banned entirely.
Short-term property permits were issued starting in 2014, and by 2015 the number of permits issued doubled to 400, leading to an emergency moratorium on more permits.
A complete ban of short-term rentals will be enforced in 18 months.
Short-term rental regulations gaining steam
Nearby Los Angeles recently saw an ordinance approved by the Los Angeles City Planning Commission that would limit the number of days a property can be rented out each year.
Aiming to eliminate the amount of full-time short-term rental homes, the proposal that still needs to be passed by the Los Angeles City Council would limit the number of days a home is rented annually to 180.
Earlier this month, a regulation in New York voted on a proposal that would make it illegal for residents to list their entire apartment on Airbnb for less than 30 days. If a landlord or tenant of a building were to violate this, fines up to $7,500 are at stake.
The New York State Legislature passed the law, known to be the one of the most strict against the home-sharing platform, but Governor Andrew Cuomo has yet to officially sign off.
