State law allows counties to ask platforms like Airbnb and VRBO to remove listings for unlicensed short-term rentals

Summit County officials can now ask vacation rental services like Airbnb and VRBO to remove property listings that do not have short-term rental licenses.

On Tuesday, Sept. 24, the Summit County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to approve Ordinance No. 22. Summit County Short-Term Rental Program Coordinator Brandi Timm said the ordinance does not amend or change the county’s existing short-term rental laws but is “just another tool to help workers enforce the law on properties advertising without a license.”

A bill passed by the state Legislature last year, House Bill 23-1287Allowed counties to require vacation rental companies to require a rental license number on any advertisement on their websites. State law also allows vacation rental providers to remove a listing from their websites if the county notifies them that a short-term rental license has been suspended, revoked, or a notice of violation has been issued due to the lack of a license. Regulation 22 adopts these regulatory provisions.

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Timm said the new regulation is intended to “expand the existing enforcement process” and “should not be used until all other forms of enforcement have been exhausted.”

If someone is posting an ad without a license, the only contact information for county staff is the owner’s mailing address. A non-compliance letter is sent to the owner, including county contact information and information on how to comply with regulations, she added. However, if the mailing address is incorrect, it is not possible to contact the property owner to remedy the violation, she added.

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New regulation

With the new regulation, county employees can now contact Airbnb or VRBO to remove a listing, which sends a notice to the owner to help open a channel of communication with the county, Timm said. The main use of this regulation would be to enforce the law against people renting without a short-term rental license, she added. County officials have reportedly never revoked short-term rental licenses since the new regulations went into effect.

When the county first introduced short-term rental regulations in 2023, there were about 250 unlicensed properties advertised, but that number has now dropped to about five properties, she added.

“These are people we have been working with — or trying to work with — for many, many months and we just can’t communicate with them,” she said. “So this would be a tool that we would use for that purpose.”

People managing short-term rentals raise doubts

County staff met with the Summit Alliance for Vacation Rental Managers last montha group representing local short-term rental managers that raised concerns, including the possibility of ads being accidentally removed, Timm said.

During public comments at the commissioner’s meeting, county residents expressed similar concerns that Airbnb or VRBO could remove listings in the event of an accident, resulting in loss of income for people renting their properties short-term.

Richard Mason, a property owner in the unincorporated Peak 7 neighborhood of Summit County, said it could be a “big problem” for people renting short-term properties if their listing is accidentally taken down or the platform otherwise blocks them from communicating with potential buyers. .be guests.

Sharon Ogle, a property owner in the Highlands Ranch subdivision, said she was following a four-property owner on social media whose listings were all accidentally removed from listing platforms.

“Therefore, I would make sure that companies have a proven method of easily restoring these quotations,” she said.

Some short-term rental owners had more general concerns about the county’s short-term rental regulations. One property owner in unincorporated Summit County, Todd Ruelle, noted that his group’s lawsuit filed in Summit County Court alleges that the county’s short-term rental laws are illegal.

Richard Mason, who also owns property in unincorporated Summit County, said, “My biggest question is… when will this end?” referring to municipal regulations regarding short-term rental.

The district’s response

Commissioner Eric Mamula responded to some of the public comments, noting that he is also a business owner who must deal with changing regulations and licensing requirements. Mamula said he was surprised to see short-term rental owners oppose the ordinance because it aims to crack down on people who rent their property short-term without a license, bypassing regulations that everyone else must follow.

“I’m a little surprised by some of the comments because really if I were an owner, like in another company, when someone doesn’t follow the regulations, I would want them to be held accountable,” he said.

Commissioner Nina Waters also noted her surprise that she had “so much outpouring of calls, texts, emails and contacts from the (short-term rental) industry” with concerns about this regulation.

“This type of ordinance is intended to stop any (short-term rentals) that do not meet our standards of being appropriate landlords in our community,” Waters said. “We hold them accountable to that standard.”

Commissioner Tamara Pogue, who noted that she was the only commissioner on the board when the county initially passed the short-term rental regulations, also noted that the ordinance is intended to crack down on unlicensed short-term rentals.

“We had so many testimonies. We had all kinds of meetings and mostly what I heard from the short-term rental industry was that they wanted us to do a better job of enforcing the law,” Pogue said. “That people who are productive members of this industry and who work very hard … to remain economically viable were frustrated by the fact that some (short-term rental) owners were not receiving licenses.”