As of last week, 176 short-term vacation rentals were found to be operating illegally within unincorporated Hamilton County.
New regulations against the short-term rentals, which property owners typically operate through listing sites such as Airbnb or Vrbo, were imposed by the Hamilton County Commission earlier this year.
According to the county attorney’s office, the county has taken six property owners illegally operating short-term rentals to court. All but one of those cases has been dismissed as the owners received the proper certification from the county.
As of Friday, the county is taking the one case back to court as it continues to operate illegally, Rheubin Taylor, the Hamilton County attorney, said in a phone interview.
The six short-term rentals taken to court, Taylor said, are not necessarily among the 176 known to be operating illegally, as the county just discovered those listed without a permit within the past week.
The county’s regulations require property owners to pay a $750 annual fee to operate a short-term rental, including $250 for inspection.
The county’s building inspection department, fire marshal and groundwater department — if the property has a septic system — must approve of the short-term rental as well.
Based on the number of bedrooms, a limit is set in place for the number of people allowed to stay at the rental. Parking must be accommodated by the property owner as well, so as to not crowd on-street parking surrounding the residence.
The county’s regulations only cover properties in unincorporated Hamilton County. Municipalities would be responsible for their own regulations.
The city of Chattanooga has imposed its own regulations. Hearings on property owners in the city allegedly operating a short-term rental illegally will begin Nov. 15.
Enforcement
As part of its enforcement mechanism, the county contracted Granicus, a company that scans short-term rental listing sites to find rentals known not to have been permitted under the county’s regulations.
Nathan Janeway, the county’s director of development services, said in a phone interview that the county is sending letters to short-term rentals that are operating illegally. The property owners will be given a 30-day notice, he said.
“We just got our consultant up and running this past week,” Janeway said Thursday. “We’ve had a list of the bad actors for really less than five business days.”
Taylor said that once the county takes a property owner to court, the judge typically has held a hearing on a temporary restraining order against the property within two weeks of filing.
“Most of the matters were resolved at that stage,” Taylor said. “We haven’t had to go to trial as of yet.”
If a case were to go to trial, Taylor said the matter wouldn’t be resolved until at least 30 to 45 days after an initial hearing.
Janeway said he doesn’t see an enforcement issue in terms of prosecuting someone in violation of the county’s regulations, but it could take time.
“Courts are full of people being prosecuted,” Janeway said. “Depending on when we can get docketed and all that kind of stuff, that can cause a time delay.”
Aside from petitioning a court to shut down an illegal short-term rental, Taylor said the only fine the county can impose for violating a county regulation, due to state law, is $50 a day.
Janeway said this differs from the city as it is considered to be home rule, a legal designation that gives cities more autonomy in Tennessee.
“All of our powers are derived through the state constitution and state regulations,” Janeway said. “Whereas the city can impose fines to their heart’s content, we have to have that authority derived through the state, and currently we don’t have it.”
On Wednesday, the Hamilton County Commission held a committee meeting on short-term vacation rentals.
At that meeting, Commissioner David Sharpe, D-Red Bank, said the county should lobby the state legislature to allow counties to impose heftier fines for violating regulations against short-term rentals.
“So we could put these penalties on folks and bend them into compliance or ceasing to exist in that operational function,” Sharpe said. “As we prepare for our next legislative agenda as a county governmental body, I think that’s something that should be on the table for us to discuss moving forward.”
Taylor said he would like for his office to have more resources to handle enforcement of the short-term rental regulations.
“Right now, I have one secretary that basically handles receipts of all these complaints when they come in from neighborhoods, coordinates with the various departments of the county to see if these property owners are in compliance, if they have applied for certification, if the sheriff’s department has had any notices of any disturbances,” Taylor said. “I got one secretary that does all of that.”
Taylor said he would also like more people who have been negatively affected by short-term rentals in their neighborhood to testify in court.
“We know whether or not a property owner has registered their property and sought to get certification to operate it as a short-term rental. That’s all we can really testify for on behalf of the county,” Taylor said. “It takes individuals who are living in those communities to say that these are properties being rented out to outsiders.”
He said the county has to be careful with that notion, however, as in some cases it could be family or friends visiting a property and not necessarily a vacation rental.
“Somebody assuming that you operate a short-term vacation rental may be an error,” Taylor said. “That’s why it’s important to have the neighbors to come and testify as to what their experiences have been with these people that are coming to these houses.”
Resident concerns
At Wednesday’s committee meeting, a handful of people on each side of the issue spoke before the County Commission.
One such person was Ceri Hampton, a resident who lives in unincorporated Hamilton County in East Brainerd.
She said in a phone interview that between 65 and 70 households in her neighborhood have signed a petition to shut down a short-term rental neighboring her house that began operating earlier this year.
Parking is among the neighborhood’s concerns, she said, as renters park on the street, crowding throughway traffic.
“Our neighborhood streets are very narrow,” Hampton said. “If an emergency vehicle needs to get through with the number of cars parked there frequently, it would be difficult.”
Hampton also said there have been other disturbances from renters.
“The parties have been loud,” Hampton said. “We have smelled and seen people smoking marijuana in the backyard. Lots of drinking, loud music, stuff like that.”
There was also a shooting on the property in September, according to a news release from the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office.
According to the release, four different houses and multiple vehicles were hit multiple times. Sixty casings were found in a one-block area. The investigation into the shooting is ongoing, commissioners said at Wednesday’s meeting.
Starla Melkersen, a resident of Lookout Valley who said she owns and operates four Airbnbs legally within the city limits, also spoke at Wednesday’s meeting.
She said in a phone interview she’s looking to open others on properties her family owns in unincorporated Hamilton County, but she’s concerned about the negative attention short-term rentals receive.
“They’re getting a bad rap in Chattanooga and the surrounding areas because the rules aren’t being enforced,” Melkersen said. “All of the ones that they were complaining about were illegal ones, but everybody automatically says, ‘Oh well, short-term vacation rentals are bad.'”
Melkersen said there should be regulations against short-term rentals, but the fees, to her, are unreasonable.
“There’s so many hoops to jump through to get one open when I already own the property, and I’m paying property taxes on it,” Melkersen said.
Hampton said she’s not against short-term rentals inherently. Her family uses them when they travel, she said. For her, the regulations need to be more strict.
“They have a lot of short-term rental properties that are being illegally operated. We need legislation for stricter penalties,” Hampton said. “There needs to be stricter penalties and a better way of finding these properties that are not going through the legal platform. It’s a big problem.”
Contact Ben Sessoms at bsessoms@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.