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© Historic Charleston Foundation
Posted: November 7, 2018
| Short Term Rental Enforcement Status by the numbers. Reported by the City of Charleston as of November 6th, 2018. |
| 1,649
STR units advertised |
· 2055 advertisements were listed prior to the start of enforcement.
· 972 under review for confirmation · 642 advertisements confirmed (advertisement matched with address) · 145 compliant (approved and permitted) · 200 not compliant |
| 145
Letters Issued for Non-compliant listings |
· 60 August
· 60 September · 25 October |
| 23
Cases taken to court |
· Sixteen cases were heard by Livability Court in October
· Seven cases were heard by Livability Court in November · 22 convictions and 1 dismissal |
| 60
Total # of summons issued |
· 35 summons issued between October 29th and November 9th
|
| 643
# of advertisements removed |
· Number of advertisements removed since enforcement began
· 127 of these are a direct result of enforcement of department |
| 22
# of new permits issued |
· 22 new permits issued
· 383 total permits issued (existing B&B’s and overlay properties) · 89 under review
|
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The city of Charleston’s new Short Term Rental (STR) Ordinance will take effect as of midnight July 9, 2018. The ordinance, adopted by City Council in April, establishes clear STR…
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If HCF were truly committed to historic preservation, they would be supportive of short term rentals and advocating for less hotels downtown. Instead, corporations make money and average owners are denied that opportunity. AirBnB rentals are embraced throughout Europe (to include major tourist cities like Paris, Prague, and everywhere in between). It seems like Charleston isn’t as friendly to tourists as everyone would like to believe.
Hi Thomas. The Foundation does, in fact, advocate against the over-proliferation of hotels in the downtown area. As to Short Term Rentals, for the Foundation, this is a quality of life issue, not only South of Broad, but throughout all of Charleston. With non-owner occupied short term rentals, the houses, particularly those in the historic district, are subject to being bought by corporations who maintain these rental properties and have no ties to the community. Those in neighboring properties lose the benefit of having “neighbors” and long-term rental housing rates tend to rise throughout the area. The latter is particularly troubling to the Foundation as we are actively working to bring more attainable housing options into the community. The Foundation, as members of the Short Term Rental Task Force, spent almost two years studying the issue including researching best practices from other communities and the benefits and unintended consequences STRs brought other communities. As a STR does not operate in isolation and affects the neighborhood(s) as a whole, our position is to support quality of life for the neighborhoods.
Honestly, I have no problem with the short term rentals that are legal. They have asked the city for an exception and received it. Most spent lots of money on legal fees and such just so that they are legal. Also, taxes are collected. With illegal rentals, taxes are not collected… only taken by the owners and never paid to the city! (They cannot pay the taxes because they don’t have a license to operate legally.) These are the folks that need to be fined and back taxes collected for the city. Only fair…. perhaps also vrbo and Airbnb need to fined for listing illegal rentals that they know are illegal. (And they do know.) They both have said if the city tells them to take the listings down they will comply. Has the city not asked them to do so?
Hi Jason. Thanks for your input. The city is monitoring STR ads. To date, 715 ads have been removed for illegally operated STRS. As of a report to City Council tonight, 1,611 STRs are suspected of operating without a license. Only 289 STR permits have been issued. While the STR websites will remove ads, they will do so only when someone has been proven to be operating illegally… The city first has to track down the owner as many of these properties are owned by absentee owners, issue a cease and desist order and issue a summons to appear in Livability Court. There are three officers working full-time on this issue since enforcement went into effect in July.