With the AirBNB issue on the front burner, I guess it is
time to talk about some of the issues. A
couple of years ago we had a party house that went viral on several weekends
and the neighbors were fed up with the actions of the short term renters. I brought this forward to Council and there
was little appetite for a resolution at that time. It was determined that it would be
advantageous to list the residence with the city and if they were rented as
short term rentals then a hotel tax should be added, because it took away from
the business of our hotels. It would
also register the home so we could see if there recurring issues with certain
rentals. Now this is part of the
economic impact that our city has because we enjoy a vibrant entertainment
district. People will come here for any
number of events. One such event that was problematic was Texas/OU
weekend. You can imagine students
renting a 5,000 sq/ft plus house to party for the weekend next to your home. This is what we need to stop!
Now I believe that there are legitimate and responsible
people that can rent their homes without the discourse that some irresponsible
owners allow. That is where some
regulation and guidance would be advised. Austin doesn’t allow you to rent you’re home
unless you are the resident of that home.
This would allow people to rent their own home for events such as Super
Bowls and World Series etc. This also
would preserve home owner’s rights, which is a big issue. The second possibility would be to have the
home owner live within a certain distance from the rental property, say 300
ft. That way if there was a problem then
the neighbors would have recourse to the owner that lives in the immediate
area.
If you own a property, you should have certain rights. One of those rights is to rent the home to
help defer the cost of the mortgage. But
the rights of the owner should not allow the degradation of the
neighborhood. The problem is that there
are good landlords and there are also slumlords that only care about cash
flow. The city will have to regulate for
the lowest common denominator, to insure that neighborhoods are protected and
still uphold property owner’s rights.
That is why I brought this back up to the Council as a new agenda
item. I suggest that you watch the June
28th afternoon session of the meeting, on the city website. It is very informative and will give you an
idea as to the depth of this issue.
Now some people say that this is the same thing as running a
business in a neighborhood, zoned for residential. No it is not.
The swinger’s house was in fact a business that had a revenue stream
dedicated to providing a service.
Renting your home does, in fact provide a revenue stream. But the service is shelter, just like the
homeowner next door, and we are all entitled to shelter. If a homeowner rents his home for a year, we
don’t know what that renter is like.
They might be very nice people.
The duration of the rental seems to be the problem, because if there is a
more frequent turnover of the inhabitants, then there is an increasing the possibility
of problematic tenants. That is why I
think the city should look at this issue and come up with a solution.
