County Regulation Database

[Sheila646]

Hi, all! The Colorado Agritourism Association has been planning a database project to provide information on each county's regulations and processes for setting up a street legal agritourism business, to include short term rentals and farm stays. It's focused on counties since most agritourism venues are outside of city limits. 

Anyway, I've been asked to participate in a panel discussion on the need for this database at their annual conference at the beginning of next month. And would be interested to know what kinds of issues you may have run across as a host trying to register your business, especially with a rural governmental authority. It doesn't have to be in the U.S. I'm just interested in what kinds of issues you have seen pop up when trying to deal with local governments.

Challenges we have been seeing include county staff giving misinformation to people trying to set up their businesses, which has lead to penalty assessments for short term rentals not being properly registered. We run into county staff and officials having different interpretations of the regulations. In my county we are  required to register as a short term rental, but the county will not provide the information needed to begin the process because "the rules are going to change soon." What??? And six months later they are telling us the same story. 

As you can imagine the task of scouring regulations for all of the possible permits that need to be obtained and keeping an up to date list of all of the requirements and processes is going to be daunting. We will probably have to ask county officials to review the information on an annual basis. I do think it will be a good tool for people starting out. 

Anyway, please share your experiences. 

Thanks!

[Frances3408 · Accepted solution]

@Sheila646. Its still an evolving process here in OZ but at least we have laws.

https://www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/2022/FAQ%27s%20Rules%20for%20STR...

To put it in perspective it was very much your situation until a few years ago. I'm not a lawyer but here in the state of NSW (population 8m) states have powerful jurisdiction over property so my understanding is that state laws were introduced to require registration of all STRs unless exempt. Exemption is generally for those offering more than accommodation only (such as bed and breakfast, serviced apartments, caravan parks, motels). So farm stays can be either and you may or may not be running a true business (if you are then its a council zoning complication and you need local council approval to operate).

Online STRA registration is straight forward and you must provide contact info, pay a nominal fee and importantly agree to certain accommodation standards (incl fire alarms and emergency evacuation instructions for guests or fire extinguishers if certain types of buildings) and agree this at each yearly renewal.

The laws differentiate between hosted and non hosted stays when it comes to caps on nights as well as location.

There are also limits on number of nights you can offer accommodation in certain council areas. Greater Sydney is generally max 180 (which has a pop of 5m) so covers major cities. We are just outside that (and a coastal tourist dependant area) so there is no limit here, however other regional tourist areas such as Byron Shire which has a 90 night cap, although thats being fought over as we speak). Councils can apply to the state for lower night caps.

In 2021 they introduced a Code of Conduct for hosts. So if you get complaints its recorded and two strikes and they revoke your registration and I think there may be fines. There is also a push from local council for host contact info to be displayed at the front of the premises. Councils have also talked about varying rates for Airbnb hosts (they did this in Brisbane Council by passing laws but I dont think any council in NSW has done it yet). Data sharing between state and local govts is covered in the laws so I expect this will happen. Definitely Airbnb already shares this info with state govt and is up to date.

I hope the above Facts Sheets helps as well. Good luck.

[Sheila646]

This is great! Thanks!

[Christina163]

Sounds like they are trying to use this license to collect tax revenue & set laws. I don't like hearing that they are confusing landlords w the process & some shady person in their office is using it as an excuse to charge people frivolous bills? The whole town should tell them we are not paying these penalties.

In Newport Beach there are a lot of rules, you have to have a street captain/person within close proximity to the house available 24/7 for emergencies.

There is also a minimum age set in the city of 21, which is fine as we normally do not rent to anyone under 27/30 age range because they're likely to be more responsible renters...