Post by High Priestess on Nov 29, 2016 17:37:49 GMT
Here's some good thinking coming out of Tennessee:
www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/contributors/2016/11/27/short-term-rental-regulations-trample-rights-americans/93961132/
Care for a side dish of totalitariansim with your eggs and coffee?
www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/contributors/2016/11/27/short-term-rental-regulations-trample-rights-americans/93961132/
Care for a side dish of totalitariansim with your eggs and coffee?
It’s not just Nashville where property rights are under siege. In Austin, Texas, homeowners are battling an aggressive city council bent on imposing nanny state regulations in the short-term and eliminating them entirely in the next several years.
One of Austin’s more brazen short-term rental regulations is a ban on outside assemblies of seven or more people at any time between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. That provision eliminates backyard barbecues with the family and birthday parties with the kids.
Inside assemblies are also regulated by the city. Austin’s ordinance forbids more than 10 people from gathering inside a short-term rental property at any one time, even if the property can accommodate many people. This not only presents a problem for large family gatherings, but also hits some STR owners in the pocketbook since they can no longer rent to capacity.
Austin city government regulating how many friends you can have over isn’t even the zaniest part of the ordinance. Owners and guests are also prohibited from having more than two adults per bedroom present during the hours of 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. And those same adults are outlawed from engaging in any “group activity other than sleeping” during those hours, raising some interesting questions about the kinds of activities that city officials are trying to regulate.
While these regulations are, by themselves, rather ridiculous, it’s the city’s new enforcement powers that are truly alarming.
Under the ordinance, code enforcement officials or their representatives have the authority to conduct warrantless searches, at any reasonable time, of “all buildings, dwelling units, guest rooms, and premises” to scope-out any potential violations. Worse, since some of the city’s regulations aren’t in effect until the evening hours, it’s conceivable that an official could show up at your door in the dead of night to search every nook-and-cranny of your home without ever having to obtain a warrant.
That’s not just bad policy — that’s wildly un-American. Austin has so bungled the homesharing issue that a group of homeowners, represented by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, have launched a lawsuit against the city seeking to have the ordinance completely overturned. The plaintiff’s case identifies at least a half-dozen ways in which the ordinance is unconstitutional and deserving of repeal.
One of Austin’s more brazen short-term rental regulations is a ban on outside assemblies of seven or more people at any time between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. That provision eliminates backyard barbecues with the family and birthday parties with the kids.
Inside assemblies are also regulated by the city. Austin’s ordinance forbids more than 10 people from gathering inside a short-term rental property at any one time, even if the property can accommodate many people. This not only presents a problem for large family gatherings, but also hits some STR owners in the pocketbook since they can no longer rent to capacity.
Austin city government regulating how many friends you can have over isn’t even the zaniest part of the ordinance. Owners and guests are also prohibited from having more than two adults per bedroom present during the hours of 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. And those same adults are outlawed from engaging in any “group activity other than sleeping” during those hours, raising some interesting questions about the kinds of activities that city officials are trying to regulate.
While these regulations are, by themselves, rather ridiculous, it’s the city’s new enforcement powers that are truly alarming.
Under the ordinance, code enforcement officials or their representatives have the authority to conduct warrantless searches, at any reasonable time, of “all buildings, dwelling units, guest rooms, and premises” to scope-out any potential violations. Worse, since some of the city’s regulations aren’t in effect until the evening hours, it’s conceivable that an official could show up at your door in the dead of night to search every nook-and-cranny of your home without ever having to obtain a warrant.
That’s not just bad policy — that’s wildly un-American. Austin has so bungled the homesharing issue that a group of homeowners, represented by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, have launched a lawsuit against the city seeking to have the ordinance completely overturned. The plaintiff’s case identifies at least a half-dozen ways in which the ordinance is unconstitutional and deserving of repeal.
