The City Council of Los Angeles supported in one accord on Wednesday, legislation upon whose enactment would legalize at-night renting of principal residential apartments and homes.
The unanimous decision has been arrived at following earlier on agitation by part of Los Angeles Parliamentarians for regulation of similar at-night renting of houses and apartments now popular due to the high number of virtual programs, for instance, Airbnb and VRBO.
However, the legislation has to undergo through Los Angeles Planning Commission’s scrutiny, whose membership is composed of Mayor Eric Garcetti’s appointees, prior to voting into law by the council.
Hoteliers, groups of people neighbouring each other, and housing pressure groups continue mounting pressure on local parliamentarians to enforce barriers to at-night rental arrangements. According to them, businesspeople have been misusing the system by offering temporary accommodation in residential places, worsening plans to have people own houses and interfering with neighbouring residents’ peace.
Airbnb together with homeowners renting their houses argues that at-night renting of houses enables earnings by people who have stopped working and the society at large, attract spend from people touring the area and supports the city’s financial forecast.
According to estimates from the city’s official, Airbnb and VRBO will pay accommodation levies in excess of $52 in the coming financial year.
According to Jose Huizar, who sits in the Council, prior to Wednesday’s vote, the suggested legislation aimed at arriving on a compromise between the rental companies and homeowners. “We established laws that made the growth of those operating fairly possible and eliminated those who disrupted their neighbours’ peace,” said Huizar.
The yet to be adopted rules stipulates homeowners renting their homes to be registered with the city failure to which, fines are applied. Virtual entities like Airbnb also risk being fined should they advertise homes not registered or failure to provide own address.
Apartments under rent stabilization regulations would, however, fail the eligibility to be hired for short stays. Besides, there would be a capping on the number of days one can rent out their house.
According to Huizar’s estimates, the Council would tentatively enact the legislation in a period of four months.
Besides the possibility to enact the first set of legislation, Gil Cedillo who also sits in the Council has proposed a second set of laws seeking to allow homeowners rent out secondary residential homes for use at night.
Cedillo’s idea received no voting on Wednesday and has been positively received by a section of homeowners in the business together with HomeAway agents. The latter contend that vacation rentals provide the much-required choice for families on travel preferring home comfort to that of a hotel.
Opponents are wary the passage of the initial legislation would invalidate that proposed by Cedillo.