Short-term rentals in Southold Town are a hot topic, and for good reason; they touch most of us either directly or indirectly. Unfortunately, our town board has focused on the wrong issue, namely, should rentals be for seven or 14 days?
That’s the wrong issue, because minimum-night stays are nearly impossible to enforce effectively and they fail to address quality of life concerns. In fact, they can’t even guarantee the public policy result aimed at: A reduction in turnover.
The better approach is a rental permit process. Then our conversation could be: what are the right conditions to attach to a permit? How about occupancy limits, parking restrictions, a local contact person for 24/7 complaint resolution? That’s not meant to be comprehensive, just a sketch of what we could be debating instead of ‘one week or two?’ Moreover, a rental permit fee can be used to finance enforcement, whereas a minimum-stay rule has no self-financing component.
Enough with that daydream; a sensible rental permit isn’t on the table at the moment. Consider the problems with the measure that is on the table, starting with its enforcement problem. Enacting a 14-day minimum will not empower the town to tell concerned residents: We’ve meaningfully limited the rental turnover in your neighborhoods.
The Enforcement Problem
To see the challenge of enforcing minimum stays, search one site, VRBO.com, for Jamesport listings. Don’t use tentative dates for the rental, as that would exclude listings that are already booked on those days. Jamesport is relevant, because Riverhead has a 30-day minimum requirement, and Jamesport is on the North Fork.
On July 18, 2015, that search turned up 39 listings, almost all of which offered minimum stays less than a month. (Actually, it turns up 45, but six are in Laurel.) Perhaps each owner was simply looking to enter a 30-day lease once contacted; perhaps each owner was flouting the law; perhaps it was a mix.
Southold has suggested that enforcement will be complaint driven, and perhaps it is in Riverhead; perhaps those 39 listings had no complaints so their illegality is being tolerated. So let’s consider how a complaint-driven enforcement attempt might play out:
A person, angry at her neighbor for renting out his house, tracks the comings and goings at her neighbor’s house. After two weeks, she is sure she has proof that the house has been rented illegally. She complains, and Southold demands the property owner prove he is renting legally.
The vacation rental owner produces the relevant lease, and it is for two weeks; he provides an affidavit that he had no other lease in that time period. No violation.
But how could that be?
Well, the tourist and his friends might have agreed to share the two weeks, without the knowledge of the owner. Or, two tourists might have signed the lease, with the landlord believing they were both going to use the house for the whole two weeks together, when in fact they split the time. Perhaps the landlord knew that was the plan. The first two scenarios are obviously legal, and the third almost certainly is. In each, the rental would be for two weeks, with the tourist(s) on the lease each liable for the whole two weeks.
In short, a 14-night minimum cannot prevent more frequent turnover, even if it were perfectly obeyed and enforced.
The Rental Permit Approach
A rental permit and registry, by contrast, would be relatively easy to enforce, and again, would allow the town to address a broad range of quality of life issues.
For example, the town could require that ads contain the owner’s rental permit number. If the ad doesn’t have the number, the town can issue a ticket and demand proof that the owner has a permit. If the owner is renting without a permit, the town can penalize that, too. In both scenarios, the issue is binary and transparent.
Slightly harder is when people have a permit, but are violating it, such as when the number of tourists in the house exceeds the permitted occupancy limit. However, this is ordinary code enforcement, the town knows how to do it, and the permit fee could fund the enforcement effort. In addition, the penalty for a violation could include the suspension or revocation of the rental permit.
Last autumn, when the town code committee first looked at this issue, it considered a rental permit approach. Unfortunately, the board decided to go the minimum nights route instead, suggesting perhaps it would do a comprehensive rental law at some time in the future. Why wait?
I encourage all Southolders to come to the August 11 public hearing on the 14-night minimum. Let the board know that turnover, alone, isn’t the issue, and that any law needs easy enforceability. Tell the board to abandon minimum nights, and focus on sensible, enforceable permits.
Abigail Field is an attorney who lives with her family in Cutchogue.
