VRMA Administrator
A new report called Kansas City’s regulation of short-term rentals “ineffective and inefficient,” noting that just 7 percent of them actually comply with city law. According to the report, short-term rental sites listed 4,175 residences between August 2018 and August 2022. During that time, the city only issued 296 permits, leaving 93 percent operating outside city law. “With nearly all the short-term rental market operating outside the city's permit program, the city does not know where these units are operating, whether they're allowed to operate in those locations, whether they are safely operating, and, importantly, who is operating them,” City Auditor Douglas Jones told the City Council. “If permits are effectively not required to operate a short term rental, no amount of subsequent rules or prohibitions passed by the city will matter.” Some residents have been calling on the city to strengthen its enforcement of problematic short-term rentals and pass tougher policies restricting rentals. But the audit says the city’s existing policies are not strong enough to begin with, which makes enforcement difficult. The audit recommended an ordinance prohibiting hosts from listing a short-term rental without a permit and a law that addresses how hosting sites facilitate transactions with unpermitted rentals.
KCUR (Missouri) (12/08/22) Celisa Calacal
