You got an email?! From who? haha. I’ve always joked that I don’t understand why they don’t use email addresses as communication devices (like, the rest of the world, since I dunno, the late 90s?!).
You know, I’ve never paid much attention to who it comes from but I just looked. it’s called VRON PS https://home.vronps.org/ I guess it’s specific to here but since we are within the county it talks about what goes on within the county.
Another good use of our $1000!
it said this:
Blockquote
For vacation rentals and hotels to begin accepting guests again, changes have to occur at the City, County and State level regarding their COVID-19 orders.
We wanted you to know it has been publicly announced that the County of Riverside will be considering rescinding their Emergency Orders including the one that affects Short Term Rentals. This will be discussed at their Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. Based on press comments in the past few days, the County is tired of pointing the finger at the State and the State just points back at the County. Other sources are telling VRON this will pass (rescinding the Order), but we never count on anything until the votes are cast.
The State’s COVID-19 four-stage plan is the next hurdle. The State’s “stay in your residence” is what closed down vacation rentals and hotels on a state-wide basis. The State has to move to Stage 2 to modify “stay in your residence” and also eliminate the prohibition on “non-essential travel”. The Governor stated on Friday this would be “days, not weeks."
If the County Order is rescinded and the State moves to Stage 2, we can’t jump up and down for joy yet. In this particular scenario, the existing City of Palm Springs Order comes back into effect . What this would do is immediately eliminate the 60-day minimum stay, reverting to the City’s 30-day minimum. This should help a little as many owners have received 30-day inquiries.
As a reminder, the City’s Amended Order dated April 25 now states that (with the exception of COVID-19 containment exceptions) all bookings before May 31, 2020 should be canceled immediately.
Council members have already indicated they will need a City Council meeting to consider what to do with the City’s Order. They’re going to take up the issue of the homeshare/hotel/timeshare/vacation rental moratorium at their upcoming meeting on Thursday, May 7.
The State could rescind or modify their orders prior to the Thursday City Council Meeting. We will just have to see how the week plays out.
VRON is coordinating closely with the Palm Springs hotel associations and the Greater Palm Springs Convention & Visitors Bureau to ensure we are all aligned in getting things safely up and running again.
Mind boggling. We all just want to keep our properties afloat.
Then at the end they try to get you to donate money in order to continue receiving these notifications even though we already pay way too much for the permit.
It appears as if the city shared my contact info with this 3rd party?
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Ok, so I’m still waiting on a response from the Supervisor’s office (I got a first response, but it just said XYZ person will be able to help you). However, I did hear back from the tax collector’s office, and I must say I’m even more confused now…
I do see the Treasurer Tax Collector has you down for CERT 94-305. That Cert is connected to your quarterly tax payments and our certificates don’t expire and although right now the amended order states no short term renting through 06/19/2020. Most people have been informed by us that the reporting for the 4th qtr would be to remit a zero return with a Non-Occupancy claim form if there was no income but depending on the circumstance they were allowing you to finish out certain reservations so you may still report some income for the 4th qtr filing period 04/01/20-06/30/20. I attached the complete order in this email just in case you don’t have it.
There are other operators who have stated they will permanently close since there is no certain date as to when the short-term renting will be allowed and in these cases I have closed out the file on the tax collector side as long as you sign a Close of Business form. I will have to look into why the permit check payment was returned by the TLMA- Desert Permit Assistance office. I don’t work for that department/ division and was not aware they were not accepting renewal applications.
Edit to add: I have no idea what this CERT is - it doesn’t match our permit number, lol.
Interesting, no surprise one hand does not know what the other is doing. My check has not been returned yet, just checked my bank and it has not been cashed either.
RR
Ha, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised either. What was more concerning to me was the tone - almost seemed as if they’re trying to nudge us to just shut down 
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Interesting… So keep on keeping on, pay the tax and forget the permit… I wonder what is involved in registering as a hotel. I am zoned for it and could put a vacancy sign out…
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I thought about this too – or as a traditional bed and breakfast. I think we’re zoned for both of those too (or a winery, ha).
My bigger concern now is that our insurance premium renewal wants to jump us from $3500/year to $20k/year 
I just got a notice of non renewal from Cbiz, they say they will be getting a new company to write policies we shall see. It is hard enough to get insurance in Idyllwild with the fire danger, I may get a fire insurance policy from Cal Fair which is cheap, and double my liability under my umbrella policy. I have a month to figure it out
RR
A friend of mine uses them too and I think is also in a waiting game with them. And yes, fire zone is our problem too. Our insurance agent said to use the Cal Fair option as a last resort, but we may not have a choice. It would almost make more sense for us to leave our house empty with a regular policy than pay $1600 a month to have it operate as an STR. I’m looking into a few other options (State Farm and Hippo) and will let you know if we get anywhere with them. I’m not holding my breath though…
That is because they do not make any money off cal fair, they will always try and sell you something else. I am ok self insuring against everything other than fire and liability. I do not need theft, guess what your homeowners policy covers theft in second homes. It pays to read the policies.
RR
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Ha, really?! Maybe I should pull out that fine print 
My policy says that my personal property is covered for theft anywhere in the world. So if something stolen from car it would be a homeowners claim not auto. It would have to be a large claim for me to bother anyway because I would not want to get cancelled over a few hundred dollars.
Yes, your agent expects that you will not and will oversell you, they depend on us not reading.
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Have you heard anything back yet? I saw that they rescinded the ban last week, which makes me wonder if I’m supposed to resend my renewal check 
No, nothing yet I am guessing I will get my permit renewed. I would resend the check if I were you.
RR
Thought I would give an update – I got another message from Perla in the tax office:
I was informed by Aimee, in the TLMA department, that unfortunately the permit department is on hold and they aren’t renewing or accepting new applications due to the pandemic.
Last week, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 tonight at a special board meeting to direct the rescission of most local health orders to align with the governor’s statewide stay at home order. However, even though the limitations on short term rental operations will be rescinded, this has not happened yet. The Riverside County Public Office has to sign the amended order. Until they get a variance from the State we believe the short-term rentals are still restricted in some manner. It appears that the roadmap indicates that stage 2 includes “Limited Hospitality”.
Hopefully in the coming weeks the TLMA will an update as to when they will re-bill the renewals. If the Tax Collector receives a Uniform Transient Occupancy Tax registration form (not a permit application) we will proceed with registration for “new properties” in order to follow-up with collection activity as the limitations are lessened.
Please keep in mind the Tax Collector does not have authority to tell you what you can and cannot do. The Treasurer Tax Collector Office is in charge of collecting the transient occupancy tax and cannot advise you with operating your short-term rental unit (s). Any further clarifications would need to be directed to the appropriate agencies.
- https://www.rivcoph.org/coronavirus
- Current safety measures - Coronavirus COVID-19 Response
- https://covid19.ca.gov/pdf/checklist-hotels.pdf
- https://covid19.ca.gov/pdf/guidance-hotels.pdf
Please reach out to Cindy in the near future in regards to the update on the renewal process for the permits. Stay safe out there and sorry for the inconvenience.
@MelissaMH . have you heard back from the county supervisor yet? I just had my check returned a month after I mailed it in.
RR
@RiverRock I never did, no. We actually just listed our house yesterday so I kind of gave up. Apparently Riverside Co has been dealing with a lot of STR parties the past two weekends (or at least in Temecula). My neighbor hosted a doozy and had to call the cops for the first time to get people to leave (they wouldn’t even leave after check out time). 
Ok this is so weird though – I thought they repealed the STR ban?!
Interestingly enough this came out the same day I received my check back, I am going to print a copy and send it all back today:
I have been too busy with other stuff to deal with it.
RR
@MelissaMH
I just got an email from Air about the Greater Palm Springs TBID assessment
I was wondering if other Riverside County hosts received this…
I am not in the assessment district and I fear Air will start charging (1%) and remitting this on my behalf.
Any other Riverside County hosts who are not in the Coachella Valley get this email?
Thanks
RR