Short-Term Rental Headaches
As the East Hampton Town Board tries to figure out what to do in the face of vocal complaints about a proposed registration requirement for rental properties, its members would do well to consider a recent report by the New York State attorney general about one fast-growing aspect: short-term accommodations booked online.
Eric Schneiderman, who was just re-elected, made news last month when he released the results of a study that found nearly three-quarters of all New York City
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rentals on the popular Airbnb site were illegal. Considering that East Hampton in high season is more or less an extension of the city, it is reasonable to assume that the rate of violations would be a similar here.
Anecdotally, this certainly seems to be borne out, with hosts boasting of dozens of testimonials from guests amassed in 2014 alone, while the town code allows no more than two short-term rentals in any six-month period. Compound these observations by the high hundreds of rentals listed on that site and competing ones, and East Hampton has a huge regulatory headache.
Mr. Schneiderman’s report estimated that because many short-term rentals should have been classified as hotel stays under the law, the city was likely to be owed millions a year in unpaid accommodation taxes. And it raised the question of whether safety measures, such as fire-escape routes and sprinklers, were available.
There, as here, private short-term rentals seem to sharply reduce the availability of permanent residential housing, the report concluded. The impact could be especially acute in East Hampton, where a full-blown crisis in affordable workforce housing has both employees and employers seeking answers.
Unlike East Hampton, the city prohibits rentals of fewer than 30 days in most residential buildings. By comparison, East Hampton’s allowing a limited number of rentals for as little as one night without a host present might appear overly generous and likely illegal under county law.
Though Suffolk officials might be hesitant to wade into the short-term rental debate, county law requires that any facility providing lodging on an overnight basis must be registered and must collect a “hotel” tax of 3 percent. Aggressive implementation of the regulation might mean that the tools to count and control Airbnb rentals and others are already at hand.
Less obvious is what steps can be taken to reduce the number of shared or multi-family rentals. If a permit system like that used elsewhere on Long Island could help with enforcement, it should be on the table.
It can be difficult to remember in the cold days of mid-fall just how terrible traffic and crowds have become during East Hampton’s summers. But officials must not forget that uncontrolled rentals, particularly those for just a night or two, are a large part of the problem. The registry, as drafted, may not have been the answer, but this is an issue that cannot be left unresolved.