By: Richard G. Rumrell

There have been many instances where local governments have sought to control the duration of rentals of single family residences.

Many of the reasons local governments have given for enacting these regulations include preventing parking cars on lawns, curtailing noise during evening hours; eliminating piles of garbage as the vacation renter leaves; stopping overcrowding of the residences and generally attempting to protect the neighborhood from these and other related issues.

Often times these regulations begin with a stated purpose of regulating these vacation properties. Included in the proposed initial regulations are licensing, permitting and inspections. These are not unreasonable goals.

Unfortunately, these goals quickly degenerate into governmental takings. After initial public hearings and workshops the regulations no longer relate to reasonable regulations of these vacation properties but escalate to a total ban of any rentals. Sometimes the ban is for more than three rentals for less than 30 days or a ban on any rentals less than six months or even longer.

Often the local chambers of commerce are opposed to these confiscatory regulations because they know that these family renters bring new revenue and often become new residents in the community. Unfortunately these organizations are either not prepared or ill-equipped for the onslaught of vocal citizen complaints that resonate to local officials on this volatile issue. The heads of these organizations quickly become overwhelmed in dealing with these issues that now seem to interfere with other important issues that have a higher priority for their time and resources. This leaves either the real estate professionals who manage these vacation properties or the homeowner who have purchased these properties having to deal with these neighborhood groups. These neighborhood groups are generally better organized and mount an effective word of mouth (sometimes by emails, twitter and other communications) campaign to the locally elected officials to stop the rentals “in their neighborhood.” This leads to law suits and more friction in the neighborhoods.
http://community.pacificlegal.org/Page.aspx?pid=917
http://nmcompcomm.us/nmcases/NMCA/2009/09ca-048.pdf

Why have local governments and residents of these neighborhoods equated rentals of single family residences to the same as bringing undesirable activities into these neighborhoods, like incinerators, garbage dumps and rehabilitation facilities for ___(you can name the group)? In the past urban planners have used phrases like NIMBY (Not in my back yard) and other acronyms to describe this neighborhood frenzy.

It is the purpose of this brief discussion to lay out an option that is available for BOTH the affected communities and the distressed property owner who only wanted to rent a vacation home until they retired so that they too could become one of the locals.

Jimmy Buffett put to song a true story when his plane was shot at as it was taxiing to Negrille in Jamaica:

“Just about to lose my temper As I endeavored to explain We had only come for chicken We were not a ganja plane Jimmy Buffett “Jamaica Mistaka”

The single family homeowners who purchased the property did not come into the neighborhood to cause problems. Many of the owners actually improved their home so it would attract families to rent. These vacation rental owners are not “slumlords.” They are the opposite. Unless the home met higher standards it would not be successfully rented.

What has happened is that the local elected officials are under significant pressure from voting residents that any person who rented their home was not a factor in getting re-elected. So what did the elected politician do? The politician remembered the saying that all politics are local; and made sure to cover the base for those who vote.
http://tomtruheo.com/News-Clippings/Heldmeyer%20rental%20threat.pdf

Okay. I mentioned a possible approach for both the owner of the vacation rental residence and the homeowner who doesn’t want all the trappings from renters. What about a novel idea? How about local homeowners inviting the owners of the vacation rentals to join the neighborhood group rather than be blackballed from joining? Let both the owner who rents and the owner who doesn’t begin to deal with the real issues of the neighborhood. Let’s stop the demonizing of the person who only wants to use their property in the same lawful manner as the person who neither rents nor wants to rent. There is no need to blacktop a lawn to eliminate a single weed. Owners of single family vacation rentals must also remember that the person next to your home is also interested in protecting their rights to a decent neighborhood!