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We had a garage unit, behind the house we live in. After 10 years of having a hoarder living in there as a tenant, we finally got rid of him, by paying him off. The place was destroyed.
We remodeled it really nicely and started renting on Airbnb. It is going great and… they pass this new regulation.
It appears that we are not allowed to rent our detached back house? What???
Does anyone have any insight into this? We spent a ton of money doing this build out and now we have to rent it to another potential nightmare?
First off, there’s a lot of discussion about the LA restrictions but as far as I know, no specifics have been given regarding how to register, pay the fee, etc. There are 2 Facebook groups for LA AirBnB hosts that have frequent posts about the new regulations—you should check them out. I believe ADUs are permitted if they were permitted before a certain year. One last thing is that the regulations are for “short term rentals,” and on a recent read-through of the proposal I don’t recall seeing the definition of short term, but I wonder if you could still list your ADU on AirBnB as long as it’s for greater than 28 days (or whatever is longer than the city’s definition of short term). I think there’s still a lot of unknowns and many people on the Facebook group don’t believe everything will be worked out before the supposed July 1 enforcement date.
I think Airbnb have some information on their website about city regulations in New York. There will also be information on your city website about STR regulations @22350
I know there has been talk about new STR legislation being introduced and existing laws being enforced more strongly in the city for quite a while, so it can’t have been a complete surprise to you that these regulations were coming into force.
I am sorry you had such a horrible experience with your hoarder, but no reason to think this will happen again as I am sure, if you can’t do STR you will vet any new long term tenant carefully.
With my long term tenants, I run a credit check, employer and bank reference and previous landlord. Not foolproof I know but along with meeting them, should help minimise the risk of having another problem tenant.
I always used to check with the landlord before last, the current one may say anything to get rid of the tenant. I have a friend who had a lot of rentals, he would call from car and tell tenant they were approved and say I am driving past I will stop in and we can sign the lease right now. If they would not let him in or the place was a pig sty he would not sign lease.
No more LTR’s for me though, if I do not like my current guests they will be leaving on Sunday, Next!
I crunched my numbers and actually I make about the same from my LTR as I would from doing an STR at the same place, once you take into account council tax, utilities, having a cleaner etc
And of course, with the LTR I have guaranteed income to pay my mortgage.
The market here has become flooded with STRs, prices have gone down and bookings are fewer in my city.
The difference for me is I do not care, if I have to pay the mortgage 100% myself it beats having full timers who think they own the place. I limit my STR to 7 days. Long enough for me. I pay the mortgage on my STR on rental day 4 of the month, taxes and insurance on day 5 My goal is 6-8 days a month and I usually get that and more. My prices are higher than my competition and I likely get fewer bookings as a result but it works for me.
I’m glad to finally see a posting about long term rentals. I’ve also crunched the numbers and I hope that my net income will stay the same after July 1. I just don’t know what to do with all of my furniture when I rent long term. I’ll probably offer to sell the beds, TVs, dishes and chairs, glasses and paintings on offer up. I tried listing my units for 30 days and more beginning in July but I haven’t gotten any responses .
I looked these articles over that describe the change. I’d get some advice about converted garage apartments … but my understanding is that the crackdown is focused on multiple unit landlords and remote properties; and not the type of unit that you’ve been hosting, where you live on site.
However the fact that your unit was converted without building permits will probably mean that the city planning department will not provide the proper ABNB registration needed, as it will be deemed a “non-residential building” (see bullets below)
I’m afraid that it also puts you in legal jeopardy should you rent out long term. You open yourself to squatters -> tenants not paying; when you try to sue them, the city will not assist, becuause it’s an illegal rental.
Should you get the proper building permits, I think you might be able to continue to ABNB your guest house, as it is part of your primary residence, where the host lives.
from CURBEDLA: “Under the short-term rental rules:
- Hosts will have to register with the city planning department and pay an $89 fee each year. - Only a primary residence can be rented out, defined as the place where a host lives for at least six months per year. - Hosts may not register for or operate more than one home-sharing rental unit at a time in the city. - Hosts can not home-share for more then 120 days in a calendar year, unless they have registered with the city for “extended home-sharing.”* - The “extended home-sharing” option allows hosts to rent out residences for an unlimited number of days. To get approval from the city, hosts have to pay an $850 fee. To qualify, they’ll have to have been registered for at least six months or hosted for at least 60 days. Hosts who have received a citation in the past three years will be disqualified, unless they pay an $8,500 fee to have their case reviewed. - Non-residential buildings and temporary structures are not eligible for home-sharing; that includes vehicles parked on the property, storage sheds, trailers, and tents.”
If they enforce this most of the listings will disappear. Most westside places that aren’t whole apts. are garage, pool house conversions…
From LA City FAQ home sharing section: What areas of a home can be used for Home-Sharing?
Any areas approved for residential use in accordance to definitions established by the Department of Building and Safety. This includes a room or an entire home. Parts of the property that are not approved for residential uses typically include garages, storage rooms, attics, recreation rooms or temporary structures.
I don’t have an ADU but have been wondering how the city would know that’s what you’re renting out. If you word your listing carefully and just list it as a private room, the city may just think it’s a room inside your house.
I’m more upset about the restriction on only being allowed to have one room booked in your house at a time…that’s what’s going to shut down a lot of listings. This whole regulation will cause more damage to individual homeowners and may put a lot of homeowners at risk of foreclosure. I believe it will do little to fix the housing shortage, as I bet a large majority of hosts are homeowners rather than landlords buying up large apartment buildings to convert to STRs.
The thing is the city wants the actual listing URL. Many renters will not rent a shared place. City needs to open this up. I went through the listings on ABNB and found it difficult to find a place that would qualify to be listed…
