City Code compliance Bellevue, WA

Husen1
Level 2
Bellevue, WA

City Code compliance Bellevue, WA

I received a notice of civil violation.  1. Exceed the maximum number of occupants 2. Operating a Boarding House while approved Accessory Dwelling Unit.  I was supposed to attend a hearing to respond to this notice. I read Bellevue, WA city code document.  I am pretty much confused about what I am allowed or not allowed to do.  I asked our city code compliance officer about it and was refused to discuss any further, stating that she has already explained enough!  1.  I am not allowed to advertise!  2. I have already made all listings requiring 30 days or more. 3. 'family' definition is allowing 4 unrelated individuals dwelling in a single family unit.  I am also compliant with this.  4. For ADU, am supposed not to collect any 'rent' but allowed to share expenses? or what? 5. Am I not allowed to have visitors staying at our house if we exceed the 'four' unrelated members? for any amount of time? I suppose I need to find a lawyer to get clarification for this.  I have earned thousands over the last 3 years. Airbnb certainly earned their share of fees. Why wouldn't Airbnb provide any consulting service to help us???? Crazy!  

14 Replies 14
Nina75
Level 10
LA, CA

I am very very sorry about this, and I sympathize with your frustrations ....AirBnb will be of no help to you. Airbnb has rolled over to local politicians instead of fighting for property ownership rights. As a property owner we have no rights anymore, the city will do whatever they want with impunity, and you cant stop them.

I have had to shut down 5 of my listings in LA. (which I Own, which I bought and paid for with cash and hard work))  Its not worth the & fines to help people come to LA affordably. I am contemplating shutting down the rest of my listings in the US, its just getting ridiculous.  

Mark116
Level 10
Jersey City, NJ

@Husen1   I truly don't know why airbnb doesn't have a better, or even an existing, government relations/community affairs division that provides basic information/guidance and support to hosts.  At the very least they should be providing state wide information as well as tools for hosts to either get into compliance or work with and educate local officials--mesages, statistics, testimonials.  Instead, hosts are on their own, even in the very large markets, airbnb does a terrible job of advocating for sensible regulation.

 

Money... that will cost a lot of money for all the different states and local cities. Airbnb needed a fighter as ceo like Travis K at Uber he was a fighter and its because of his bulldog attitude Uber is able to exist.

Husen1
Level 2
Bellevue, WA

Probably because they don't want the liability as the result of consultation.  Also they don't think it's worth the money to do so! Easy money is more appealing!

Paul154
Level 10
Seattle, WA

@Husen1 

Very sorry this has happened.  Petty government officals can (even if not allowed) arbitrarily make home owner's life difficult. It appears you got in their cross hairs.

You must fight this. Zoning laws are extremely confusing, so confusing that they can be arbitrary and illegal.  Best to get a lawyer that knows Airbnb and your City's politics. 

Good luck 

Yes, I am trying to find a lawyer to help me.  Basically, if your neighbors don't report on you, you should be fine.  My old neighbors have done overboard stuff on us.  We are the newcomers.  They don't like us to rock the boat, their peaceful lives over so many years.  They would leave notes on our guest' cars and storming to our house with complaints.  Now another neighbor tells us how/if we should decorate our yards!  So, they harassed the city code enforcer.  In turn, they come and tell us how we have violated city code.  I thought this is a country of free?  As it turns out, we are living under police state of neighbors, under fear and intimidation.  Are we living in the United States or what?  We don't want to break the law.  We are law-abiding citizens.  When we asked for clarification of the code so we can abide by the code, they refused.  Yes, you just show up at the hearing. 

I hired a lawyer at the last minute when I saw their ridiculous fine amount of thousands of dollars.  At the last minute all I could was to find a lawyer on the internet for help. Never in my life encountered such a irresponsible lawyer in my life.  He painted rosy story of how I shouldn't worry about the hearing.  Then, he advised me not to attend the hearing myself.  Even though I gave him pages of evidences to support our case, at the hearing he didn't give one evidence to rebuttal all those evidences without any relevance.  As the result, I was fined with thousands.  Hiring this lawyer was the worst mistake in my entire life. Never thought that I would encounter such a gross negligent lawyer in my life.  It happened. 

Nina75
Level 10
LA, CA

AirBnb has made a corporate decision to stay out of Local politics and let cities and homeowners fight amongst themselves. Airbnb has started marketing itself as just a listing platform. (I dont blame them for staying out) AirBnb will actually send your reservations to the city. Im not trying to hide what I am doing but I also dont want my data shared with the city so that the city can make my life more difficult than it already is.

@Nina75   True, but it is still a strange decision, as they are seeing their largest markets totally eroded by draconian regulations, while they spend money on weird frou frou feel good stuff that is window dressing.  I don't know what percent of their platform is in home hosts/on property hosts/multi listing hosts...but surely, if you just want a room you'd go to booking.com anyway and not have to bother with all of airbnb's profile malarkey and fake community language.  It seems short sighted to me given how much money the company has.

Does Airbnb actually share data?  That should be illegal, it seems.  No confidentiality? 

 

In Seattle, Airbnb only gives the City tax money and aggregated totals. They do not name individual hosts (I hope)

Husen1
Level 2
Bellevue, WA

If you have an ADU, you are not supposed to rent out less than 30 days.  At least, I got the clarity from the city lawyer. If you rent it under 30 days, you become a boarding house. Then you have to apply for a WA state license.  Now I am not even sure, as an ADU, you are allowed to rent rooms out at all! Sooo confused!

Husen1
Level 2
Bellevue, WA

Never to host my house with Airbnb.  Ever again. 

Hi @Husen1 Husen, I just saw in your profile you took your listing out of the Airbnb platform.  I own a property in Bellevue close to the crossroads area and I was planning to have it in the Airbnb but after I read your comments I got really scared. I am reading the laws with the City of Bellevue and wonder if you could share with me the evolution of your relationship with the City for short term rentals. Thank you!