By Deborah Goonan, Independent American Communities
The right to lease one’s home is a hotly debated property rights issue across the U.S. Some homeowners see short-term rentals as a money-making opportunity. Others see them as a security risk and a nuisance.
Major cities that are popular business and vacation destinations are enacting ordinances that mandate collection of hotel-style taxes from tenants that rent rooms or even entire homes for less than 30 nights. Some municipalities are restricting short-term rentals, but most are enacting laws that clarify an owner has the right to share their home on a short-term basis, so long as the owner obtains a license and pays quarterly taxes on rental income.
Regardless of local ordinances, many HOAs ban short-term rentals altogether, requiring minimum lease periods of 6 months to a year. Some HOAs, and especially condominium associations, restrict the percentage of units that can be leased at any given time, mainly to comply with FHA lender standards.
The issue is a source of conflict for many residents of common interest, association-governed housing. And there’s no simple answer as to whether using Airbnb, VRBO, or HomeAway is good or bad for these communities.
It really depends on the location and demographics of the member-owners of the association.
Owners of units in a resort-style condo on the beach or a lakeside community of summer cottages fully expect that they will be able to rent their homes in order to offset their costs of ownership – or even to generate a second income.
Owners in a bedroom community of single family homes, or a mainly residential condominium complex probably won’t appreciate the neighbor who runs a de facto hotel business from her home.
Then there is the gray area of obtaining a roommate for more than a month but less than a year. Some homeowners rely on rental income from a house mate to make ends meet, especially young singles just starting their careers. Should this activity be forbidden or encouraged? And is such a restriction against nonrelated roommates enforceable, or merely discriminatory?
One thing is for sure, the homesharing trend is here to stay, and it is challenging conventional ideas about private property rights and community living.
To find out more, check out the following articles:
The Brawl Over Airbnb Is Back On
New York City
Habitat Magazine
Feb. 27, 2017 — New ad campaign urges New Yorkers to “say something” about illegal sublets.
Last week, Argo Real Estate convened a panel in an upper Broadway hotel to discuss the ways co-op and condo board can defend themselves against illegal short-term sublets. One of the panelists, attorney Michelle Itkowitz, presented attendees with a 26-page pamphlet entitled Airbnb and Your Building: Prevention, Detection, and Remedies for Landlords.
As Itkowitz and her fellow panelists were talking, the anti-Airbnb group Share Better was launching a new digital ad campaign urging New Yorkers to “say something” if they suspect a neighbor is renting units through Airbnb in violation of the city and state laws, The New York Law Journal reports.
Read more:
https://www.habitatmag.com/Publication-Content/Legal-Financial/2017/2017-February/NYC-vs.-Airbnb
What you need to know about the rise of short-term rentals
Morgan Boydston , KTVB 9:23 PM. PST March 01, 2017
BOISE — As Idaho becomes a desirable destination for businesses and events, more and more people are visiting.
Traditionally, those people would be staying in hotels. But now, short-term vacation rentals are popping up all over the state, providing tourists more options. As with anything that’s relatively new, short-term rentals present a whole new set of challenges.
Read more (VIDEO):
Homesharing in HOAs
What Concerns Boards and How to Handle It
BY DANIELLE BRAFF 2015 APRIL MANAGEMENTthe Cooperator – Chicagoland
On any given day or night in Chicago, a stranger walks up to Craig Perry’s North Lawndale home, opens Perry’s door, hangs up his or her jacket, and relaxes in Perry’s bed while watching Perry’s television and using his WiFi, before disappearing again without a trace. In a few days or weeks, the pattern repeats itself with another stranger, and another after that.
The parade of outsiders pleases Perry, 54, to no end. It’s thanks to these strangers that he was able to stop working as a computer consultant—and instead, is able make an income renting out his spare three-bedroom, one bathroom apartment in his brick two-flat via Airbnb Inc. He doesn’t plan on going back to his day job anytime soon—or stopping the rotating cast of travelers passing through his apartment. “There were hardships at the place I was working for, and I found that this was a wonderful alternative,” Perry says.
Read more:
https://chicagocooperator.com/article/homesharing-in-hoas/full#cut
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