Landlords Fight to Overturn Rental Restrictions
The ban is aimed at short-term tourist rentals, as well as transient hotels in permanent residential buildings.
According to a report by Courthouse News Service, landlords are challenging whether this new ban on short-term rentals in multi-family buildings violates their ownership rights under the Constitution. The new law prohibits rentals of less than 30 days.
Property owners are objecting because it has been a long-standing practice to offer apartments for short-term or vacation rentals. In fact, many of these properties were purchased or remodeled with the express expectation that the revenues from short-term rentals would be available.
The practice provides lower cost rentals for tourist who would otherwise have to stay at high-priced hotels in the city. Opponents argue that the hotel lobby was instrumental in the passage of the measure. City officials, on the other hand, insist that the law was passed to reduce security risks to other tenants in private buildings, and to limit transient hotels.
Bed and breakfasts are exempt. So are house swaps and similar arrangements where no money changes hands, and owner-occupants who take in a boarder.
An official commenting on the measure previously said that the law would be enforced on a “no harm, no foul” basis, and the city would investigate only when it receives a complaint.
Opponents say the law goes too far by giving market preferences to the hotel industry while severely curtailing the activities of rental property owners.
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