Vacation rental rules changing in South Tahoe
By Kathryn Reed
Vacation rental owners are likely going to have to pay more money to get a permit in South Lake Tahoe as well as contend with other new regulations.
The South Lake Tahoe City Council on Feb. 17 spent the bulk of the meeting talking about how to revise the 2003 ordinance that was amended in 2011.
The council is going to have a public workshop soon to gather more input. After that, a revised ordinance is expected to come back to the council for adoption in April.
Noise is the No. 1 complaint about vacation renters. Some of the proposed ordinance changes are the result of those complaints.
Of the 1,574 permitted vacation rentals in the city, there were 158 calls to 911 complaining about a vacation rental. Not everyone who spoke Tuesday believes that is enough of a problem to warrant changes. But those also don’t account for all of the complainers.
“The city routinely receives complaints. The number of calls about general complaints are not tracked, as they come into various offices within the city,” City Manager Nancy Kerry told Lake Tahoe News.
A major issue still to be resolved is what to do with Airbnb like rentals where people are in their residence renting a room, a bed or even a mattress. There was no consensus among the council members as to whether those types of rentals should be subject to paying the transient occupancy tax.
What the council did agree to is to change the code so only two people may stay in a room unless the occupants are 10 years old or younger.
When it comes to occupancy limits, the word “overnight” will be removed. This means groups that rent multiple houses on a street cannot legally visit one another. If the house sleeps eight – then only eight people are allowed in the house no matter the time of day.
It was pointed out, though, that all enforcement regarding vacation rentals is complaint driven. Police officers aren’t going to be peeking in windows to see how many people are gathered around the dinner table.
Outdoor hot tubs will be off limits after 10pm. This came about because people were complaining of loud talkers after that hour. Part of the problem is people tend to raise their voices when the jets are on.
But, again, cops aren’t going to be looking over fences to see if people are soaking after hours unless neighbors complain.
While some members of the public suggested requiring rentals have a kill switch for the bubbles at 10pm, the council went with the more restrictive “no hot tubing after 10pm” mandate. And for those who want to violate that policy, the penalty starts at $250 and could escalate to the owner losing his or her vacation rental permit.
Amplified music after 10pm is going to be a no-no, too, with the same punishment for not following the rules.
The council opted to forego the staff recommendation to provide free parking permits to neighborhoods impacted by the vacation rentals.
Forcing renters to park immediately in front of the home will be removed from the code because it’s not enforceable.
Still to be decided is how many bear boxes a rental might need to install if and when there are trash violations.
The exact fee structure is also up in the air. Those who manage their own rentals will pay more than those that are locally managed. “Professionally managed” was changed to “locally managed” to accommodate owner-occupied Airbnb’ers as well as people who live in the area and have vacation rentals.
The issue is that out-of-town owners who don’t use a management firm tend to have more infractions. The higher fee is designed to be an incentive for them to turn control over to someone locally.
The city said increasing fees is necessary so more enforcement personnel may be hired. The part-time compliance auditor position is going to be full time, and a full-time enforcement officer will be hired. Those salaries will be paid with the fees.
While the council agreed to the above recommendations, the electeds can still change their minds before the vote. (Councilman Tom Davis recused himself from the discussion and direction to staff because of his affiliation with Tahoe Keys Resort.)
I’m glad to read that vacation rentals are being addresed by the city council. Yes, some short term renters can be noisy with way too many people packed into a house and cars lining the street and making lots of noise till sunrise.
But the same can be said for some full time residents!
Partyin’ every night with the volume turned way up! Suppose you have friends or relatives in town and you
are doing the very same thing as the vacation rental people are doing?
Where do we draw the line??? “Oh it’s okay because we live here round”. Or if you have friends over for a bbq, are you guilty to???
This has been a resort town for a very long time. Our vistors our usually here just a short time. Are they annoying? Sometimes, but remember, they also keep this local economy going.
Some complaints about noise or cars in the road are justified. Calling the SLTPD? Yes, but they got alot to do, considering the size of staff and all that they have to deal with already. Just deal with the folks that are bothering you or talk to the folks about the noisy people and all ten cars parked in front of a house and wait for them to leave or quiet down.
Oh well, another day in paradise, OLS
I agree with you, OLS. The restrictions on what a person will be “allowed” to do on their own property is a bit disconcerting. When we so freely give away other people’s rights, it’s only a matter of time before our own are taken also.
As a vacation home owner this does not help with renting when people can choose to go to a hotel North Lake, Incline which don’t have the same restrictions. We pay our taxes and fees and it is hard enough to get people to rent over the last two winters and now more fees and restrictions. I have year round neighbors that are louder then my renters and like OLS says what happens to them. Behind Raleys at Stateline there are many houses that have more then two people per roomn do they get fined? The more the city puts on us the more we have to charge and there are way too many choices for visitors to make rather then just SLT. Without the visitors there is no economy in SLT. We have had one complaint and we will never rent to that person again. Self policing.
Wow. The 4th Reich? People can’t visit a different rental house? This will sure help bring in the tourist dollars. Well meaning perhaps. Overreaching for sure.
Dogula, you seem to sway to both sides of this issue. Haven’t you on multiple occasions complained about people building “on their own property” what you refer to as multi bedroom Mc mansions to be used as vacation rentals?
Bigs, my point on the complaint about certain contractors being able to build ten bedroom “houses” was that your government agencies, which you pay dearly for, do not actually protect you in any real way. They are greedy, and can be bought off easily. So what’s the point of having them, and zoning, if you can still end up with a hotel next door? If the agencies are going to exist, why not hold them to their stated purpose? If they won’t do that, get rid of them! Better we should ALL be free to use our own property as we see fit.
‘how many bear boxes a rental might need to install’
Might? It’s my personal opinion that ALL vacation rentals MUST be required to have bear proof trash enclosures.
It’s time to take substantive steps to end the black bear buffet!
Walter…
You mentioned that people can choose to go to a HOTEL in North Lake or Incline…
The conversation is about vacation rental houses/cabins — not hotels. It would be interesting to know how North Tahoe, West Tahoe & Incline Village handles these vacation rental issues.
I also don’t think airb&b should be included – since owners are only renting out a room while the owners are on site.
it is my opinion that all homes that recieve 2 trash ccomplain s in a year be required to have bear boxes, just like they are proposing for vacation rentals, the increase in fees are a Money grab by the police department to pay 40% of a sargents salary and another officer. The way the current fees are structure it is enough to pay for the program as well as bring on a full time auditor and enforcement person
As a person that lives between two vacation rentals, I feel a update to this ordnance is long overdue. On any given weekend my nerborhood fills up with strangers that have no respect for the full time residents. Homes that are designed for up to 12 people and 2 cars have had 30 plus and 10 cars. Hot tubs are regularly used until 2,3 in the morning. My bear box fills up with other people’s trash. Enforcement is practically nonexistent. Over the years I have never talked to a actual person on the City’s Vacation Rental Hotline, and have never had my calls returned. The city needs more restrictions on these businesses and better enforcement.
Rules that have real teeth, and are enforced are the only thing that will work. There already were rules/laws on the books, but were not enforced, due to the city of SLT having it’s hands tied by the Tax Assessor?
I still think the renters need to have something to lose, or they will never care about following the rules.
I don’t buy the local residents should sacrifice their rights, for the good of the town getting some business. We should respect the visitors rights, and they should respect ours, as well as the vacation home owners, no one should be trampling on the others rights.
What a poach on the residents this is. They’ve turned neighborhoods into hotel districts while the hotels are falling into the ground – renting rooms by the week/month. Do you all realize you’re not allowed to have a small hobby shop in your home? It might cause a parking issue, etc…. This is all about money- residents and neighborhoods be damned!
It makes no difference what changes are made in the ordinance – it’s not enforced anyway.
Once again the fox is guarding the hen house. Management companies making the rules and crying when fines are raised. 2 people per bedroom is a great start. Amplified music after 10pm is not good, it should never be allowed. Higher fees for out of town managers ? just another suggestion by local managers to up their business. The house next to me with the most problems is a locally managed company.
In the county, bear boxes are required for vacation rentals, what’s wrong with the city ?
Police won’t be “looking” for problems, that’s ok, but they should be proactive if something doesn’t look right, as in lots of cars. But what about the management companies ? They should be required to check on properties to make sure the correct amount of people are there, the correct amount of cars are there and the noise is kept to a minimum. Why are the neighbors being used as “police”, to complain and start any investigation of infractions? Management companies want their share of the rent money and take as little responsibility as possible.
Cars, if the permitted number of cars are at a property, they will all fit in the driveway or directly in front of the property, no reason to allow them to park all over the neighborhood.
Remember, these are total strangers coming into our homes on a daily basis, bringing with them, traffic, noise, lights, trash, parties and an overall disturbance to our neighborhoods. They need to be tightly regulated or better, banned ! Put them back on HWY 50 in motels and give us our lives and neighborhoods and all the reasons we live here, starting with peace and quiet and uncrowded neighborhoods, back !
Thanks Steven. I have been involved for 15 years and have seen the ineffectiveness of almost all talk and no action. Are you my secret double?
There are neighbors and there are strangers. Neighbors give a darn because they are neighbors. Strangers (short term renters) tend to try a get their moneys worth without any regard for the disturbances they create. They ignore they are in residential zones and not commercial zones. Something as simple as large prominent signs informing guests noise (especially from drinking hottubers (new English word) will bring serious consequences like being kicked out and losing their rental fees.
Civility can be enforced but not if the city council continues to be all talk (I wonder why, Tom and Hal) with no effective enforcement. Laws are worthless without enforcement. (Would you pay your taxes knowing their were no penalties for scofflaws.)
Put me in charge of enforcement and the problems will be reduced 90% within one year. I know it works as
I have seen it work. Much of the work can be done with volunteers if the legal authorities back it up.
When are people going to get that South Tahoe is in a class all by itself.
You cannot have your cake and eat it too. If you want the income from allowing vacation rentals in residential areas, you have to spend some of that money on enforcement of the laws. On Valentines day the SLTPD had two officers and a Sargent. Guy gets killed crossing Ski Run and all of a sudden we have a huge manpower shortage. People in vacation rentals are going to be so low on the priority pole that unless they have caught the house on fire no one will go out to see why six drunk Shriners from Duluth are in the outside hot tub singing the Whiffandpoof song at the top of their lungs at three AM. Hire a dedicated enforcement official to investigate all complaints, have a set fine standard for all infractions and take away the ability for repeat offenders to rent their property.
Dogula, when you live in ANY civilized society you have to understand that it is NOT your God given right to only do things your way. Your property, societies rules.
The business of commercial lodging in single family neighborhoods fails to comply with sensible residential zoning and quality of life parameters, at the same time reducing demand for commercial hotels and motels which are more appropriately equipped to deal with accompanying problems and issues such as noise, hot tubs, over-occupancy, trash, minors, parties, car alarms, disruptions, ample parking lots and so on, with full time managers, security, etc. Keep the noisy partiers out of the residential neighborhoods and in the hotels and motels where they can party all night.
After watching the meeting I believe this new council is committed to enforcement. The Chief proposed changes that will allow the complaints to be acted upon more effectively by code enforcement which is going to be hired and will work weekends at night and into the early morning.
This has nothing to do with more government control and a money grab. Its about giving us back the peace and quiet we all deserve. The council is dealing with this because of the complaints by residents within the city.
Its complaint driven so if you have had issues with VHRs…CALL!
As to people who say this comes with the territory… trash on the streets from too much garbage by renters, excessive noise at 3 am because 4 people are in the hot tub, 20 people in a 3 BR house…these do not come with the territory. Trees and clean air and peace and quiet come with the territory.
reza
Vacation rental enforcement specific personnel working weekends, holidays and nights into the early morning would be great. And it should all be paid for from permits and fines. The TOT should not be squandered on enforcement.
The county needs to adopt the same.
The last time the City raised the vacation rental permit fees it was largely for better enforcement, funding the hiring of a full time vacation rental enforcement officer by the police department. What happened? Promises made and subsequently forgotten?
The city Council are acting like idiots.
When you cross the line of telling people what they can do inside their house, how many people can be asleep in a single bedroom, you have entered quicksand territory. How do you define bedroom? Do pull out couches in a living room count. My guess is there are hundreds of details you have not considered
I believe the proposal on the table goes very far toward violating the civil rights of a class of people (tourists) and I hope somebody with big bucks comes for you with lawsuits.
Noise, garbage, illegally parked cars etc are things that can be enforced since they can be seen and heard outside the house.
Enforce the rules you have, don’t add additionally unenforceable regulations.
A large family rents a couple of houses for a family reunion and they cannot visit one another??? Yes that works, you can do this….NOT.
Do the council think anyone, tourist or resident, should be subject to some cop demanding headcounts and identification on the people inside a house without a warrant? How many 12 year old kids even have identification to prove they are not 10?
Can you imagine the opportunities for payback that you are creating, where irate neighbors (like some who have written comments above) call in false complaints just because they are angry? Absolute perfect conditions for abuse.
Where is he rule that jails or fines you for filing a false complaint?
Haddi T said it all above: South Lake Tahoe is in a class all by itself. Very true, and a low class it is.
The rule of two people per bedroom plus one extra is a standard the courts have upheld with regard to long term rentals. If it were not for this standard, landlords would not be able to regulate how many tenants were living in their rental property.
The city is way overstepping their bounds. You can’t visit each other? Seriously? No more than 2 people in a room? That should be dependent on the size of the room!
I’m not saying that vacation rentals don’t have problems, but this isn’t a good way to fix them.
As far as bear boxes, I think they’re a waste of money. The bear proof cans with the screw-on lids work just fine. Bear boxes are unsightly, difficult to use, they cause snow removal issues, and they cause visibility issues on roads. Ban the bear boxes, use the cans instead!
In my experience the County is doing a good job with this problem. There was a rental near me that was a noise problem. People in a hot tub keeping me awake at 1 Am, repeatedly. I called the number I got from a postcard sent to me by the Tax collector for the Sheriff. They sent a Deputy and offered to have the Deputy call me after the visit. Within a half hour the problem was gone.
After about six calls over two years the noise problem dropped to about once every two years. I since learned that there is a warning in the house that a call to the Sheriff will result in the renter losing their deposit. I think that the owner gets fined for a call, but I am not sure.
Maybe the City could learn from the county.
Vacation rentals. Some very good comments made here in regards to that element in our neighborhoods as well as that “party house” a few doors down that have full time residents or friends and relatives up for a visit.
Putting a curfew on hot tubs seems a bit much. Not tubbing after 10 pm? I think that’s going a bit too far. I’m not a hot tub owner, but if I were, I’d use that damn bubbling thing any time I wanted!
As I said earlier, I’m glad the city is looking into this issue. It’s long overdue. It is a difficult problem to deal with. We want peaceful, safe neighborhoods, yet at the same time we want people coming to Tahoe and enjoying all we have to offer…(and droppin’ a few dollars into the local economy as well!!).
We don’t want a bunch of crazy partyin’ people on our street. Heck, I just evicted that bunch next door and my rental is being repaired as we speak. I’ve owned that little place for over 40 years and I ain’t gonna let er’ go! She’ll be lookin’ good as new in no time!
Ready for a GOOD neighbor and tennant… Mostly, I want a good neighbor who takes care of that little red house who gets along with all of us here on this street.
Take care, Old Long Skiis (aka, The grumpy old man on Knox)
I like seeing policy that helps sell why one should use local business. I don’t like seeing policy that dictates what someone does inside their house. What if a big family comes up and rents a few homes on the street, you can’t make a law making it illegal for them to visit each other.
What you can do is extend the noise violations to the owner of the property and the people staying there. Each time a new complaint is called in, the infraction increases in cost to the home owner. That should motivate the owner to manage their property better.
LeanForward, its complaint based. If they are visiting and not disturbing the peace, the police will not cite them unless there is a complaint and the violation is going on when the code enforcement officer or police arrive. No harm, no foul.
Don’t you think those of us that are surrounded by vacation homes have some rights too. Most people are not a-holes and will not complain unless there is something to complain about.
That’s much better, reza. At first, I was like, how the heck are they going to enforce these rules?
Be a good neighbor and don’t cause problems, fine. But if you start disturbing your neighbors, watch out!
Irish,
I meant that people can rent a house in Incline or North Lake. They can go to a hotel in South Lake and not face any of these restrictions.
It would be great to see what happens in Incline and North Lake and how they deal with the issue.
I must have the best vacation rental in Tahoe next to me. Six years and I have had around six bad groups. The first owner gave me a new $1,000 snow-blower when he sold. The new owner installed a VERY expensive fence and moved it back onto his land to allow me to continue parking there.
I called the police one time and they arrived within minutes. The owner was cited and asked me to call him instead of the police next time.
Even though the home has two bear boxes the management company hauls the trash away. I get to use their bear box for free.
My local neighbors son has a rap recording studio in the back yard with two pit bulls that bark day and night. They leave their kitchen trash out for me to clean-up after the bears and have a one ton diesel with modified exhaust that rattles my windows everyday for twenty minutes while it warms up. Not to mention the constant wood smoke from the thirty year old stove.
I enjoy meeting the vacation renters from all over the country and world.
We have many of these rentals in my North Upper neighborhood. One of the roots of the problem is the vacation renters themselves. They seldom get outside their ordinary lives, so when they do, civility and common sense goes out the window. I listened to a group of 50 something’s literally yelling at the top of their lungs this past Saturday night at 3:00 AM. Outside. In the yard. Playing horseshoes. ‘I’m on vacation’ is the prevailing attitude and is reason so many other countries hate American tourists. It’s like I tell my kids, ‘act like you have been there before’ man.
Rentals, vacation homes, vacation rentals and permanant neighbors who own their home.
Sometimes you get lucky and your surrounded by good people, other times it can make your life a living hell. Sleepless nights from barking dogs, endless parties, cars coming and going at all times of the day and night, blaring music at 3 am, people hootin’ and hollern’ till sunrise… well, you get the general idea.
I’ve seen both the really good side and the really bad side of that right here in my neighborhood.
Good neighbors are very important to me. I’m fortunate in that my full time and part time residents are all excellent!
Past residents around here have not allways worked out so well, so then they move on either thru eviction, forclosure or a sale of property. And then the procsess starts all over with new folks livin’ right around you.
Hope I get some good neighbors on the next go round.
OLS
I am a vacation home owner and I put in my rental agreement that no one is allowed to be outside in the hot tub after 10 and that you need to keep noise down after 10 but am I to be these renters police it’s impossible they do is they want sometimes it depends on who they are and how respectful they are. If there’s a noise issue and the police show up the renters should be ticketed and in every rental agreement it should state the regulations for the city of Tahoe noise after 10 o’clock and you could be ticketed. Fining The vacation owner isn’t going to solve the problem because the owner cannot do anything about the noise.
I wonder…