New Orleans STR Regulations - Questions

[Michael134]

Hello All,

I am currently a host in New Orleans with an 'entire home' listing. In reality it is an efficiency/studio apartment in what used to be a garage, so it's a seperate building. I have a few questions about this as far as the new regulations go.

Should I instead label it as a private room for compliance with new rules and general accuracy of the listing? (It is a completely separate building but I want to avoid the 90-day limit)

Where can I find a list of all the new rules/Regulations?

As I always live on-site in the seperate house when renting it out, am I subject to the 90-day/year rental limitations?

I have read that you are automatically registered for the necessary permit but was wondering if this is true and, if not, where/how I can register and if so, how I can confirm I am registered. 

Thanks in advance for your help!

[Jan177]

@Valerie55

Thanks for your information, I live on site, so I will double check with my agent again. 

[Amy38]

@Michael134  I would list private suite with own entrance.

[Jerry154]

hello Valerie thanks for the info. could you shre with me who you got your STR insurance from? and about how much it cost you per year, do they charge you per SF of the SRT or any other detail that could be helpful. thank you so much! 

[Valerie55]

I had my insurance agent research companies that would insure short-term rentals and they found one company based in Covington Louisiana. Insurance is not by the square foot it's by the value of the house so the name of the company is risk placement Services Inc. 190 new Camellia Boulevard Covington Louisiana 70433

[Josh9]

I think the city only requires an "attestation" that you have smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, et al. I don't think you need to submit pictures or other types of proof as another poster suggested. An attestation is just a sworn statement. That said, they also have the right to do an in-person inspection at any time, so I'm planning on having the stuff ready to go. Ugh.

But...I have heard so many conflicting things and so many possible rule changes coming out of Safety & Permits that who knows whether the info on nola.gov/str is actually going to be the final rules. The latest thing I heard is the City is going to have a 45-day grace period for registration. This came from a meeting that one of the groups had with Safety & Permits a week or so ago.

The City wants us all to register yet they can't seem to decide, let alone announce, what the final rules are. And the Airbnb site has, as of now, no information on pass-through registration, even though April 1 is less than two weeks away.

The whole thing is a horrendous cl*sterf*ck. For my part, until I hear otherwise, I'm going by nola.gov/str and will have registered by April 1, because that site is all we know for sure. Then, of course, they will most likely announce the grace period. My bet is that they are not announcing it yet because they want to keep a sense of urgency among hosts to register for as long as possible. As of March 17 (4 days after registration opened), there were only 232 people registered out of approximately 4500 STRs in the city. 

http://thelensnola.org/2017/03/16/heres-a-map-of-everyone-in-new-orleans-who-has-applied-for-a-licen...

[Marcie8]

Following up:

I just spoke with the city regarding the guest house question. Since I have a homestead exemption, live full-time in the main house, and it's all one address, they said I am under the 'Accessory Short Term Rental' which is the one where you can rent it full-time.

Hope this helps!

[Elizabeth337]

Thanks Marcie, was wondering about this too.

[Jess-and-Jonathan0]

We have a similar situation, and I just spoke to someone in the STR office and they told me the opposite.  They said that since it was a separate/detached structure we'd have to go with a temporary license which limits the rental to 90 days.  Anyone else have any insight on how the city is classifying detached structures used for STRs?  Ours was previously a garage and was renovated to become a living space. 

[Marcie8]

I'm sorry to hear they told you the opposite. Do you have a homestead exemption? Is it all under one address? Those were the two pertinent questions they asked me when they said I was accessory use. I've filed the paperwork through the pass-through so I guess we'll just see. 

[Hayley24]

They asked me the address, bedrooms and if I rent whole home or room and that was it.  My full time residence is in Texas so I have a homestead exemption for that home and I'm not sure if I can apply for homestead in two separate states (don't think so).  They told me my home is a VCR-2 and there are no STR's at all there.  I've heard no futher communication from them so I'm just going to honor all of my guests until the calvary comes knocking.  

[Marcie8]

Ok I just got an email and now they are saying Type T. I dont' understand why they would classify it differently than renting half of a double. I am contacting my citycouncilwoman and I suggest you do the same. It sounds like this has to be an oversight.

[Jerry154]

Hi Jess and Jonathan, how is your situation working out? we also have a seperate building and want to get it set up for an AirBandB so I am working hard to learn all I can. 

[Eileen105]

I have the same circumstances and was turned down for accessory short term rental.

[Bekah-And-Brian0]

Oh, man. This really is going to be a hot mess. I've had a B&B license for a couple of years and I JUST paid for it but the new STR licensing set-up does not account for hosts in my situation. So it looks like I'll have to cough up the $$ for the NEW license as well to avoind being delisted. 

The number of application has ballooned to around 700 already and we're supposed to be fully registered by May 31st?

When has the city of New Orleans done ANYTHING that quickly. 

This is not good. I'm wondering whether they'll announce an extension in a couple of weeks. I can't believe I could be delisted for soething this dumb.

[Bekah-And-Brian0]

So tomorrow, Monday 4/2 is when I plan to attack this new licensing issue along with a zillion other hosts who qualify, I imagine. But I'm truly wondering: 

would it be better/faster/smoother to use the Airbnb "pass through", the NOLA dot Gov OneStop online application, or to trudge down there and do it in person. Has anyone actually recieved their registration number, and if so how long did it take?

Emailing the Dept of Revenue and the new STR email address have gotten me nowhere this past week. I haven't yet tried emailing or calling Safety & Permits, but it seemed the next logical contact being as I don't think the STR department even HAS any staff yet despite being allotted $600K to hire people. 🙄