Permit Anarchy - Lodging Newsletter April 30, 2023

Technology is a wonderful thing. Not just today's ever-present software news and artificial intelligence, but the earlier technologies of telephones, radio, television, and even medicine.

 

Just a hundred years ago people died from diseases that today are cured with vaccines and affordable drugs. More people died of tuberculosis in history than there are people alive on the globe today. Just 100 years ago, the chance of dying from an impacted tooth was unacceptably high.

 

But technology, in the form of software, has also squashed us in many ways. In an earlier newsletter I made the case that Bill Gates (he being a stand-in for the entire software industry) was responsible for over-complicating  the world that we live in today.  

 

Until personal computers and word processing, lawmakers didn't draft laws that were hundreds of pages long, because editing, debating and changing the document was simply unwieldy. Laws could be understandable and enforceable.

 

The internet further added to the stew of confusion because it allows anyone and everyone to participate in government, or better said, to harass government officials  Was Ben Franklin clairvoyant when he said, "Freedom of the press should be reserved to those who can afford one"?

 

Thomas Jefferson, when asked a thorny question, said "It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg, what business would it be of mine?"  He foresaw that the right of the individual should be paramount.

 

Sadly, today Jefferson's wisdom has been swept aside by cities and counties that grant themselves supreme power to manipulate every little aspect of our lives.

 

In the scheme of things, the vacation rental industry is not earth-shatteringly important. But even here bureaucrats embrace intricate schemes to usurp property owners' rights by limiting or prohibiting the renting of homes.

 

With the noose getting tighter on vacation rental rights, lodging managers and property owners now have no choice but to waste time and money to comply with unnecessary regulations that serve no valid purpose.  

 

This newsletter talks about those and urges every person to diligently protect their rights.

 

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If common sense was common, then governments that provide regulation for regular property rentals, would draft regulations identical to those for short term rentals, but they do not. City and county councils, made of people with no experience in property rights (or governing in general), fabricate the silliest of ideas. Here are a few:

 

 

These ignorant ideas prove that officials have no valid goals and no experience in regulating housing. If you think some of these don’t seem too bad, remember the, "What's good for the goose is good for the gander" should apply. Those same politicians would never dream of imposing these rules on long-term rentals, or goodness sake, on their own homes. They enjoy the freedom while taking yours away.

 

These exclusionary regulations are not a far cry from others which were found to be reprehensible over time. Such as red-lining that discouraged mortgages to minorities and even deed covenants that harassed religions out of their neighborhoods.

 

CONSIDERATE BUT CAUTIOUS

 

Until such time as wiser minds make laws based on foundational ethics rather than discrimination, here is what property owners must do to protect their rental rights.

 

 

It has been said, "The way to never get in trouble is to never do anything wrong." That applies to how to win and keep a vacation rental permit. Keep homes well maintained, hospitality clean and overseen by local executive level managers.

 

These managers have years of experience at operating homes well, controlling guest behavior and being your local voice.