Asheville’s City Council may come down hard on short-term rentals with increased policing and fines as high as $500 per day. I believe that’s a serious mistake.
Presently it is illegal to rent independent residential units in most of the city for less than 30 days. The law is complaint-driven, with no enforcement unless the short-term situation bothers neighbors: noisy parties and parking problems being the leading triggers.
Meanwhile, City Council seems comfortable with permitting “home stays” — renting of no more than 25 percent of a residence, overseen by a permanent resident under the same roof.
The effort by the city to stanch a global tide of STR use is misguided. It will create an enforcement nightmare. Here’s a short list of reasons why STRs should be legal (technically a “use by right”) city-wide, with no special treatment of “home stays.”
1. Compliance with the “home stay” rules is impossible to police. What if a landlord rents a home-stayer more than 25 percent? Or rents the house and leaves for the weekend? Does an officer knock on the door every hour?
2. On the flip side, how do we prove that a landlord didn’t rent an alleged STR for 30 days but the tenant only stayed for a weekend?
3. Will the city assign an employee to monitor online short-term rental systems? Would the city then stake out each property to see if such rentals were actually inhabited? Since dealings between an STR landlord and a renter are conducted via e-mail or phone, how would we keep track?
4. Many local residents have spent considerable money fixing up their STR facilities. There is huge incentive for STR owners to keep up their properties because they are rated by renters – essentially an ongoing inspection system. The General Assembly has banned cities from inspection of “regular” rentals, so many rental homes are a blight on neighborhoods. One can often pick them out simply driving by.
5. Short-term renters are governed by similar rating systems. If they are bad tenants, other STR owners will not rent to them. There is no such control on long-term tenants.
6. The argument is made that legal STRs will lead to repurposing of current long-term rentals (exacerbating the affordable housing shortage.) Evidence from other cities is unconvincing on this score. The market for STRs is limited. We aren’t going to see a doubling of tourism in Asheville based simply on their availability. Low-end rentals are not the primary market for STR users — they’re generally looking for a nice place to stay. It can be argued that the incentive for STR landlords to improve their properties is beneficial for our housing stock.
7. Some “neighborhood advocates” argue that the introduction of STR strangers to their midst is a problem. But no one vets who can buy or rent long term in our neighborhoods now. As mentioned above, STR users are far more accountable. Their home addresses, contact info, credit card numbers and rental histories are known quantities. If they cause trouble, they won’t be back. In the same vein, there is no reason that STRs automatically increase traffic or parking problems. Any occupied house will host associated vehicles.
There are already many hundreds of STRs operating here. Complaints have been few and far between and the city has more important issues to address. Let’s join the rest of the planet, legalize STRs, implement a permit system, and then sit back and see what happens.
Hotel owners hate STRs, but honestly, out-of-state hotel owners are not my constituents.
Bothwell is a member of Asheville City Council.
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