In December, the City Council passed new Los Angeles Airbnb laws in order to regulate short-term rentals in the city. The new regulations are set to take effect on July 1, 2019.
The New Los Angeles Short-Term Rental Regulations
If you’re an Airbnb Los Angeles real estate investor, come July, you will no longer be able to list your rental property on any of the vacation rental websites in the city. That’s because the new Los Angeles Airbnb laws will only allow for the use of primary residences (where the host lives for at least 6 months out of the year) to be rented out for the short-term. Any rentals that fall under the Rent Stabilization Ordinance will also be prohibited from being used as a short-term rental. Accessory dwellings permitted before January 1, 2017 will be exempt from the ordinance.
Hosts will be required by law to apply for a registration number. Without this, they will not be able to list their property on any vacation rental websites.
In addition to this limitation, homeowners will only be allowed to host Airbnb guests for up to 120 days a year. While homeowners can try to apply for an exemption to this cap, it will require them to have a good record as a short-term rental host. Even then, the city still has the right to deny any homeowner the ability to rent out property all year if they have any nuisance violations.
Airbnb and other popular websites will now be responsible for keeping tracking of how many days a short-term rental is occupied by guests. Under the new Los Angeles Airbnb laws, these websites will be subject to $1000 fines daily for any violations.
What the New Los Angeles Airbnb Laws Hope to Achieve
One of the major reasons for prohibiting rental properties from being used as short-term rentals is to prevent apartments from being converted into “rogue hotels.”
City Councilman Paul Cortez believes that Los Angeles short-term rentals have largely contributed to the problem of a shortage of housing inventory, homelessness, and rising property prices. On this matter, the Councilman said in reference to the new ordinance:
“We’ve contributed to the higher prices that make the city so unaffordable, and we have to take action today to change this.”
Learn More: Housing Market Trends: How Airbnb Affects Home Prices and Rents
Airbnb’s Response
Airbnb has stated that it believes if the city really wants to curb the actions of “bad actors” who violate the rules, more comprehensive Los Angeles Airbnb laws must be set.
City Councilman Mike Bonin, a proponent of the new ordinance has said:
“This doesn’t satisfy anybody 100 percent, but this comes about as close as this body can come after years of work to striking a balance between those interests.”
While the new ordinance is set to take effect in July, it could be postponed as the city council is set to take up an ordinance regulating non-primary residences. Even if the new Los Angeles Airbnb laws do take effect this summer, it is likely they will be up for review after 6 months to a 1 year in order to perfect the ongoing Airbnb regulations.
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Still want to invest in LA real estate? Read Los Angeles Real Estate Market 2018 and Long Term Rental Properties: All You Need to Know