North Myrtle Beach STR (Short Term Rental) Law Changes

[Tom4328]

Hello,

I want to make everyone aware that North Myrtle Beach is considering new laws that will greatly restrict short term rental owner/managers.    While I fully respect that the community needs to remain diligent on issues such as noise, parking and trash, I find the proposed rules discriminating against certain excellent small businesses owners (and the Airbnb platorm).   A few of the more onerous currently proposed changes include:

*Naming a local responsible party who can be to the rental property within 30 minutes of contact (24 x 7)

*This responsible party must also have a SC Property Managers license.

It seems these requirements are onerous and one sided (favoring the larger, local rental property managers) and discriminate against Airbnb Hosts and Guests.    As proposed, they will clearly put many Airbnb's out of business and/or severely impact profitability.  I would encourage all to write the local NMB council and express opposition.  

To me, rules with fines and/or business license suspension (for repeat offenders) is a much more reasonable approach.

Here is an Airbnb link to make emailing the council easy and also below is a bit of the council presentation sharing some of the proposed law changes. 

Again, I am supportive of responsible property managment but I find these rules self-serving to local companies and anti-competitive and disregard all the positive value Airbnb hosts deliver to the NMB community.

Support hosting in North Myrtle Beach 

A few Proposed Rules from the Presentation at City Council

All short-term rentals within city limits would be required to designate a responsible local agent who meets the following requirements:
•
Be available 24/7 by phone and to be physically present at the short-term rental, if necessary, within 1 hour
•
Owner can be the responsible local agent if the above response time can be met and the owner’s primary residence is located within a 30-mile radius of NMB
•
Non-owner Responsible Local Agents must have a principal place of business that is within a 30-mile radius of North Myrtle Beach and be licensed with the SC Real Estate Commission as either
•
1) a real estate brokerage firm defined as a real estate company engaged in the business of activities relative to property management or a real estate sale, exchange, purchase, lease, or other disposition, or
•
2) an individual who holds a valid, active Property Manager license as defined in SC Code Section 40-57-30 meaning the license must be hung with a real estate brokerage firm whose Broker-In-Charge or Property Manager-In-Charge provides supervision of and oversight over the actions of the licensee.

[Elisa]

Hi @Tom4328 😊,

Thank you for bringing up this topic in the community!

Since this is local information that could be really helpful to nearby hosts, would you like to share it in our👉 Local Host Clubs? You can simply select the club for your area.

That would help you connect with hosts in your region!

Let me know what you think.

Warm regards, 🌻

[Tom4328]

Hi Elisa,

As I am new to posting anything, I'd welcome that support. 

 I typically don't post things but I find the proposed solution quite troubling.

Thank you.

Tom

[Helen3]

Hi @Tom4328 

I'm sure the changes must be concerning for you .

sadly the behaviour on bad guests and irresponsible hosts is why these regulations need to be introduced. 

Personally I think some of their proposals are a good idea in terms of protecting local communities such as 

1. having a host or cohost that lives within half an hour of the property -far too many hosts have no-one close to the property and therefore aren't on hand when there are problem guests 

2. hosts or cohosts should be able to reach a property within an hour 24/7?

3. how difficult is it to get a property managers licence ? Presumably you only need one if you're not the owner? 

[Tom4328]

Hi Helen3,

I fully respect the need to address issues and keep NMB a lovely community.  The challenge I see is punishing the 95% who are doing honest business, paying taxes and helping bring tourism to the area for the 5% that may be irresponsible.    Discipline the offenders with fines and even business license suspension as appropriate.  

A few other related concerns, the legislation as I understand from discussions to date suggests: 

1.  Local Homeowners who self manage do not need the same licenses as "out of town" homeowners.   

2.  Local Homeowners could use family/friends as Local Responsible Parties.  "Out of town" homeowners can not.

3 A homeowner who has a gated community with 24/7 security, including mobile on-site security patrolling the gated community is not an adequate solution or an adequate first responder.   Yet, the reality is this security would be contacted (and will most likely address any issue well before the NMB police are even contacted!)   Again, as currently proposed, a gated community with on site 24/7 security would not meet requirements.

4.  As drafted, the proposal provides an unfair competitive advantage to the local beach property mgmt companies.  As a responsible small businessman, I compete with these companies and intend to provide better service, better experiences, and more personal service to my guests than these larger companies can.    Why should those who are providing exceptional service be (essentially forced) to work with their competitor (a local management company and overpay for services that are not as good)? 

Again, dealing with the specific issues, I totally agree with this.   Above are just examples of why I believe the solution needs more thorough thought, should support competition/not limit it and deals with the violators as opposed to punishing good hard-working people who are working to exceed the service levels that local rental companies provide.   

Thank you and I hope that this clarifies that I am not against address issues, I am concerned with the specific approach proposed to date.