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Some zoning laws I can understand. Such as my neighborhood is residential - and somebody opens up a roadside juice bar - Yes, I can see how that would create an issue. Or somebody having backyard chickens or livestock when we are in a non-agricultural zone.
But for an Airbnb host, renting just one room which can hold 2 people, with room on the driveway to park their car next to mine - I do not see how that can create an issue.
Ummm, this is not at all the same thing and that is not an apples-to-apples comparison. Painting oneâs house and offensive color according to whatever diminishes the property values of everyone in the neighborhood. And having people be disruptive on your property to the point that it bothers others causes harm to others. But this is not what is happening here. Iâm quite obviously referring to peaceful quiet guest accommodations where people are not partying and there parking in my driveway so theyâre not even parking on the street. And furthermore just because there is a law doesnât make them all right.
I agree, regarding our homes, our property, which we pay for. I should have the right to have whoever I want live with me.
My community has an outdated ordinance which says single-family homes are for single family - literally - like they say we cannot have unrelated people live with us. What? I am a widowed woman with no family - so are they saying because I do not have a family I have no business living here? Are they trying to tell us where single people should live?
Well I did not always live in this house alone âŚmy husband and I bought it in 2006 but he passed away in 2013. I started Airbnb to help me stay financially stable, along with having the company, and to avoid having to sell the house. I used his life insurance and other proceeds to pay off the mortgage (and we had a high balance) and do some serious renovations/upgrades, which the house needed.
I should have the right to keep the home I lived in with my husband, and I am doing what I have to do to stay financially stable and keep the property.
You are operating a business.
I donât think that that ordinance could really stand if you brought an attorney into it. Itâs far too vague and clearly discriminatory.
So is everyone else who is doing Airbnb and other STRâs
I have a similar ordinance in my township. Mine says single family too, and gives the definition of a family. It also says a roomer, boarder, and lodger are not considered a member of the family. So they are notâŚbut nowhere does it say they are banned.
I agree that having single family literally single family is a discrimination against single people. Single people have the right to buy houses too.
Itâs a grey area. If she rents a room out to a boarder, is that operating a business? She gets money from them, tracks expenses, writes it off her taxes.
Itâs not like someone who opened a Taco Bell next door and has traffic in and out all day.
Most ordinances, HOAâs etc, main concern is really? Protecting property values. They may embellish it with safety and all that bs, but it is preserving property values.
When it comes to the âsharing economyâ business, Airbnb is public enemy number #1, to who? The hotel industry, which is a VERY powerful association locally and nationally.
what country are you in?
Kasage, Iâm sorry you are dealing with outdated laws. From what I understand, such laws are from the olden days to prevent âshacking upâ and also punish anyone who does not have a nuclear family. There are other types of families out there!
My city is trying to regulate vacation rentals because the rental housing market is really competitive and someone landlords are booting their tenants to switch to AirBnB. Lucky for me, my city council can tell the difference between a vacation rental and a room or basement apartment where the host lives in site. They donât really see it as different than taking on a lodger.
In fact⌠my city has such a rental shortage they are trying to get people to make MILs and convert garages into apartments to take on roommates / boarders / lodgers. This helps single people also be able to afford a home. (My husband and I had three roommate-lodgers when we bought our house to help afford the mortgage.)
The landlords in my over-saturated city are going to be in for a shock when they realize just because they can charge $300 a night on AirBnB doesnât mean theyâll be booked solid year round. Air has been pointing this out to my city council, that most hosts are vacant the majority of the time.
USA. next town to Charleston SC. in the news all the time. And battling the regulations. I am in a town next to Charleston that is in the process of working on the regulations, and Charleston bans STR. So I am very closely involved in how all these local regulations work.
I have also had assistance from airbnb legal and the STRadvocacy group.
We can argue all we want on this board as to what is, or is not right, but in the end this will defer to both regulations, and inevitably a court decision to sort this all out.
Many complaints are driven by either : neighbors / competitors / hotels
A complaint brings out the local planning commission to enforce the ordinance.
It will never go away unless the rental is declared to be legal.
You would be very surprised by the fear factor. The ordinary people shaking about the sexual predator who will come in with a airbnb in the neighborhood. They operate by fear and go through life stopping any change because that is fearful. They hate air bnb on their block.
Thereâs a lot of that going around. SC is particularly well known for it.
Good point. Fear. âŚ
All Iâm saying is that the government can govern whatever they want. They will respond to voters or who ever gives them money or whomever gets them bad publicity which leads to no money and no voters. The idea that a lime green house is offensive and diminishes property values is purely a function of PERCEPTION. If your neighbors think that you running an airbnb out of your home will lower property values then they might not support you when the issue is before city council. There is no such thing as absolute property rights, they are within the parameters of whatever your community thinks they are.
True, note the endless list of property restrictions in just about any community.
As I would tell my studentsâŚâThere are no absolute rights except the right to think what you want. If you want to do what you want, when you want, however you want, go live on an island somewhere. If you want to live in a society with other people there will be limits on your rights.â You are in the freedom business Mearns!
Thatâs a boarding house what you described. Nothing wrong with it, but thatâs what it is. This is going to be an ongoing issue with lots of neighborhoods as our economy changes and people, like us, need to take in boarders.
I agree that the government will do what it wants to some degree. And on the other hand if these people want to dictate what I do with my house that has nothing to do with them and doesnât harm anyone they can pay my mortgage for me. Good luck to them coming up with that much money per month. I know youâre right, I just donât think people should have the ability to dictate what I do with my property if it is not harming them or having any real impact on property values. And I also think that if they want to moan about property values then they should have to demonstrate and have evidence to back up their claims. The whole thing just seems crazy to me.