Live data from Hacker News

Portland Does Little when AirBnB Hosts Rent Multiple Apartments

wweek.com

11–20 of 42 posts

Re: Portland Does Little when AirBnB Hosts Rent Multiple Apartments

#11
> “It’s theoretically unenforceable unless you have someone sitting outside the door and checking the box that ‘Yes, they stay here 270 days out of the year,’"

What about taxes? It has to be illegal to claim one place as your primary residence for tax purposes then another as your primary residence for AirBNB purposes.

Re: Portland Does Little when AirBnB Hosts Rent Multiple Apartments

#12
post #2

I will never understand the desire to control one's neighbors' property. I don't care who owns it and it's none of my business how they use it.

So it's OK with you if your neighbor rents out his property to a sketchy couple that open a meth lab?

It doesn't matter if they're a sketchy couple, and local law enforcement would provide for removing any meth lab (or other illegal activity) and the associated people.

Re: Portland Does Little when AirBnB Hosts Rent Multiple Apartments

#13
post #3
post #2

I will never understand the desire to control one's neighbors' property. I don't care who owns it and it's none of my business how they use it.

Your neighbor's actions have an affect on your home, including day to day comfort and how much your home is worth. HOAs exist for a reason. I'm not sure I'd want to live next to an apartment that constantly has new guests, any of which could do who knows what to the building.

Relax, enjoy your home, enjoy your neighbors, enjoy their guests.

Re: Portland Does Little when AirBnB Hosts Rent Multiple Apartments

#15
post #2

I will never understand the desire to control one's neighbors' property. I don't care who owns it and it's none of my business how they use it.

So it's OK with you if your neighbor rents out his property to a sketchy couple that open a meth lab?

...or your neighbor could open a meth lab and you may never know about until you find out that half your building has cancer from inhaling the fumes.

We have condominium boards and neighborhood regulations in place so that if or when there is bad behavior there's recourse against those actions (yes, I know most condo boards would have regulations against renting. Most of the times they wouldn't get involved unless there was an issue though).

One of my neighbors rents out their place on Airbnb almost every other weekend. The tenants are almost always well behaved... unlike an owner that lives on my floor that I've had to have the condo board send a letter to because of late night parties.

Re: Portland Does Little when AirBnB Hosts Rent Multiple Apartments

#16

> “It’s theoretically unenforceable unless you have someone sitting outside the door and checking the box that ‘Yes, they stay here 270 days out of the year,’" What about taxes? It has to be illegal to claim one place as your primary residence for tax purposes then another as your primary residence for AirBNB purposes.

It is. If you're claiming a homestead exemption, and then renting the place out, that's illegal. If Portland's property tax agency is online, and you had the AirBNB address, you could easily confirm this (as the exemption would be listed on the property index page).

Re: Portland Does Little when AirBnB Hosts Rent Multiple Apartments

#17
post #14

couldn't AirBnB just restrict rentals to 90 nights/year in portland? or couldn't the city just look for rentals that are available for more than 90 nights/year?

Yes, but AirBNB would prefer to skirt regulations as long as possible in order to grow revenue and market share.

See: Uber.

Re: Portland Does Little when AirBnB Hosts Rent Multiple Apartments

#18
post #2

I will never understand the desire to control one's neighbors' property. I don't care who owns it and it's none of my business how they use it.

There are lots of extreme examples one can come up with to show why caring how your neighbors use their land is warranted. Think dumping toxic waste, using their land for as an outdoor shooting gallery at all hours of the day, etc. Just about everyone understands that one can not and should not be allowed to do anything they please with the land they own. The question is where to draw the line.

This is where elections, the court system, and societal norms come into play. Make your voice heard at the local level. Get involved. Convince your neighbors that AirBnB is a good thing and shouldn't be any of their or your business. Perhaps your view will prevail with regard to AirBnB.

I suggest though that saying that how land is used is none of your business (or mine) is not the right method. It makes you sound extreme. There are far too many people on the planet and far too many people with nefarious intent to let everyone do as they please with their land.

Re: Portland Does Little when AirBnB Hosts Rent Multiple Apartments

#19
post #2

I will never understand the desire to control one's neighbors' property. I don't care who owns it and it's none of my business how they use it.

Try being seriously under-unemployed in a recession for 5 years, watch a single demographic group of "I've got mine, so the hell with everyone else" entitled brats make tons of money in SF playing casino capitalism with mostly fake valuation companies that don't make any money, and then watch them cash their chips in, go into a city with a major housing crisis and push up prices so high through real estate speculation that nobody actually living there can afford to live there anymore. It's really, really easy to understand why people are mad about it, whether you agree with them or not.

Real estate has gone up 30-50% since I moved to Portland 4 years ago, so of course, so have rents. 10+%/yr is a crazy number. Most people didn't make that much more income in the same time frame. I have friends that live in a house and rent a part of the house on AirBNB, and it helps them, and for that I am happy. But I'm torn about whether it's positive overall for the city to let out-of-state management companies buy out what's left of Portland's (very, very limited) supply of real estate and flip it for guerrilla hotel usage.

I'm not saying AirBNB should be illegal, but Portlanders generally don't want to become California's vacation home, they don't want to copy the dog-eat-dog jungle that is modern San Francisco, they've never been an Ayn Rand libertarian whatever, and their strong tradition of progressive, heavily interventionist government planning (for things like, say, affordable housing) are being put in jeopardy by these disruptions.

It's all quite understandable, again, whether you agree with it or not.

Re: Portland Does Little when AirBnB Hosts Rent Multiple Apartments

#20
post #5
post #2

I will never understand the desire to control one's neighbors' property. I don't care who owns it and it's none of my business how they use it.

I don't understand your not understanding. Could you explain? I don't see a desire to preserve the value of one's own property, or certain qualities of the environment in which one lives, as difficult to understand, if that's what you mean.

I had a neighbor who was doing AirBnB style rentals. I moved to this property because it is quiet and offers me some privacy.

Most of the problems that arise in our building are from short-term rentals who have no respect for the property or the tenants. They often leave trash, vandalize, and misuse the property to fit their short-term needs. Tenants and owners are subject to rules and consequences which helps moderate behavior.

While I don't have an issue with the principle of the matter, most short term rentals seem to be done illegally and there's little oversight over these guests. To get into this building I had to submit to a credit, criminal, and background check. If I wanted to live next to a new person every other week, I would have chosen so.

Post reply on HN