Short-Term Rentals - AirBnB
 

Does anyone have a neighborhood association that restricts or regulates short-term rentals? Do you have one in your neighborhood and what issues have you faced? We have a new property owner (8 months) that bought the property as an LLC with the primary purpose of renting and leasing. They are offering their property on AirBnB as a 2-night minimum and the renters are using the shared waterfront more than the current residents. What steps have you taken? What town are you in and does your town have restrictions?

As you may know Laconia has short term rental regulations. I believe Condo units are exempt from it. They must police themselves. Will say, Laconia does little enforcement of its regulations. Just a tool if the owners can’t please the neighbors

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Our HOA restricts rentals to no less than 12 months which takes care of the short term issue. We are located in Gilford and to the best of my knowledge the town has no restrictions.

My friend's association had the same problem. They voted to reduce guest access to the shared beach to "accompanied guests only". Problem solved

Meredith and short term rentals
 

Meredith has formed a sub-committee of the Planning Board to research this issue and to make recommendations. Not clear where it stands, but they do have a survey available online if Meredith residents want to offer their views on the topic.

Most HOA & Condo association docs have minimum time rules for rentals. Mine for example has a 90day minimum rental. I would start with your HOA docs.

In Laconia, only the Weirs is exempt from city's AirBnB rental regulations. Those regulations are fairly strict and very few are granted.

Woodsy

Where are you?
 

Some towns have restrictions, while others do not. In our case, we had 2 summer rental properties on our cove ....ugh! It could get very noisy. The owners didn’t care one bit, and we were told to call the police if we were bothered.....not a helpful suggestion, for sure. We reserve our calls to the police for instances when there’s serious trouble. Now that both properties have sold to owners who intend to enjoy them, we are all relieved. Given the insane waterfront prices, I don’t know how anyone could make the numbers work as a rental. Anyhow, good luck with this.
Maybe the owners in your neighborhood will be dissatisfied with the ROI and will sell.

A bit of a different short term rental issue but I just had someone make a very good offer on my house but they want to be in by July 1. May not do the deal because its doubtful I will be able to get another place by then as its impossible to buy a place without cash in hand which I will not have until the closing. Am looking for a house rental for July, August, Sept. 3 adults, 2 well behaved dogs. Anyone know of any? Wolfeboro, Alton area or towards the seacoast is best but will consider anywhere. Does not have to be on water

We have two rentals on our street. Neither is permitted. One is owned by the individual that was making all the noise against it at the Laconia City meeting. Both long term rental history. As I have said, as long as they respect the others we have no issue


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More action on the rental ordinance
 

The Gale Avenue property in Laconia is causing the short term rental issue to be brought up again.

According to the Laconia city Planner, the city has issued about 90 short-term lodging permits. Through his own research, he has identified “somewhere between 150 and 175” listings on various online platforms, excluding those by motels and other commercial lodging businesses.

From the Laconia Sun:

https://www.laconiadailysun.com/news...f3000976d.html

The inability of the city to enforce the current bylaw is on the city council.


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They should be able to work with the DRA to create a means to determine what properties have M&R licenses, but are not permitted by the city.

''Do I need to post my Meals and Rooms (Rentals) license?

Yes, the Meals and Rooms (Rentals) license must be conspicuously posted in a public area upon the premises to which it relates. Additionally, any advertisement for a short-term rental by print, display, publication, distribution, or online listing offering a short-term rental shall include the meals and rooms license number of the operator. A short-term rental is one or more rooms in a residential unit for occupancy for tourist or transient use for less than 185 consecutive days.''

Should the property not be M&R licensed, the homeowner has a much bigger problem.

Not necessarily, the NH DOR is pretty easy going and will just issue a small fine if the owner self-reports the violation. That license is super easy to get and is just a means to get tax revenue. The last thing the DOR wants to do is punish a business to the extent that the business cannot generate tax revenue.

Is the lack of permit in Laconia even a fine?
Or do they just have to acquire the permit after the fact?

So if no state license, and no local permit, the cost to acquire must be harder and a longer journey.

I cannot say how Laconia does things. I have two short-term rental condos in Hampton Beach (where the town encourages short-term rentals) and the state license and town permit seem to be completely isolated from each other. The town allows the permit to be passed from one owner to another and it's good for 10 years. The state requires a new license if the property changes hands. I did not realize the state required this and I was in violation for a few months. I self-reported and it cost me like 40 bucks or something. They were really cool about it.

Hampton seems to encourage (at times even requires) the ability to offer short term rentals because of all the mom and pop hotels and motels that are being replaced or reconfigured as condos. People that live here full time or just use the condo as a second home tend to spend a lot less money in local businesses than people that are on vacation for a short time. I'm sure there are property owners here that hate this, but Hampton Beach has always been a VERY seasonal vacation destination made up of mostly transients in "Summer season" (which now runs from May 1 to Nov 1 and seems to be growing), so short term rentals fit the mold perfectly. Literally the only industries here are hospitality and a little fishing (which mostly caters to hospitality and tourism).

I believe the city has good intentions for both the property owners and neighbors. But, the codes lack of enforcement is a problem. I personally would pull the occupancy permit for the property in violation. After a warning is given oh course


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