Post by High Priestess on Sept 13, 2018 8:48:06 GMT
PUtting people in jail for being Airbnb hosts? City leaders in Miami Beach have gone insane.
reason.com/blog/2018/09/12/miami-beach-jail-airbnb-hosts-60-days
reason.com/blog/2018/09/12/miami-beach-jail-airbnb-hosts-60-days
Today the Miami Beach City Council will consider, at the Mayor's request, an ordinance to reclassify unlawful short-term rentals as a misdemeanor, up from a civil fine, Miami New Times reports. Under current law, renting a home or apartment for less than six months without special permission from the city can result in a fine of up to $1,000 for homeowners. If Airbnb rentals are reclassified as misdemeanor offenses, hosts could be facing 60 days in jail....
Yes, people continue to do as they please with their own property, and Mayor Gelber just doesn't seem able to accept that. Miami Beach's aggressive policing of short-term rentals has made headlines for years. In 2016, the city started imposing $20,000 fines for unauthorized short-term rentals—a penalty that one city councilman has described as "grossly disproportional" to the offense. As of last year, the city had issued more than $6.5 million in fines, but had collected only about $125,000.
Miami Beach now also faces at least one lawsuit over that policy, with longtime resident Natalie Nichols suing the city on the grounds that the Florida Constitution prohibits excessive fines.
The huge fines and restrictions on where short-term rentals can take place are bad enough, says Christina Sandefur, a vice president with the Goldwater Institute, which is representing Nichols in her lawsuit against the city. But with the new proposal, "the city literally wants to turn people who rent their homes into outlaws," Sandefur says. "Miami Beach should stop severely punishing responsible home-sharers and instead use its resources to go after real crimes."
Yes, people continue to do as they please with their own property, and Mayor Gelber just doesn't seem able to accept that. Miami Beach's aggressive policing of short-term rentals has made headlines for years. In 2016, the city started imposing $20,000 fines for unauthorized short-term rentals—a penalty that one city councilman has described as "grossly disproportional" to the offense. As of last year, the city had issued more than $6.5 million in fines, but had collected only about $125,000.
Miami Beach now also faces at least one lawsuit over that policy, with longtime resident Natalie Nichols suing the city on the grounds that the Florida Constitution prohibits excessive fines.
The huge fines and restrictions on where short-term rentals can take place are bad enough, says Christina Sandefur, a vice president with the Goldwater Institute, which is representing Nichols in her lawsuit against the city. But with the new proposal, "the city literally wants to turn people who rent their homes into outlaws," Sandefur says. "Miami Beach should stop severely punishing responsible home-sharers and instead use its resources to go after real crimes."