Less than half of short-term vacation rentals operating in Hamilton County are properly permitted, according to data provided by local municipalities compared with estimates provided by short-term rental data and analytics provider AirDNA.
According to AirDNA, which gathers data from listing companies, Hamilton County has 1,321 short-term vacation rentals.
The Chattanooga Times Free Press surveyed local municipalities to see how many are permitted.
About 36%, or 482, of the rentals are permitted, including 399 in Chattanooga, 10 in East Ridge, 16 in Collegedale, 12 in Soddy-Daisy, 8 in Red Bank and 37 in unincorporated Hamilton County. Other Hamilton County municipalities either do not allow short-term rentals or do not require a permit to operate one.
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Hamilton County and the cities of Chattanooga and Soddy-Daisy currently have moratoriums in place on new short-term rental permits as their governing bodies consider new regulations for short-term rental properties, leaving some law-abiding owners feeling as though they are being punished for issues stemming from unauthorized rentals.
“I do feel in some way that the majority of the complaints that the council has gotten tired of listening to have come from the unpermitted units,” Brad Wardlaw, a short-term vacation rental owner in Chattanooga, said by phone of the Chattanooga City Council. “That’s mainly due to a lack of council enforcement, but I’m also a firm believer that the overlay area that they have is very arbitrary and precluding people from being able to freely use their property as they choose.”
Under the city of Chattanooga’s existing rules, new vacation rentals are only allowed in a designated area, known as an overlay, which mostly includes the districts represented by Councilwoman Marvene Noel, of Orchard Knob; Councilman Chip Henderson, of Lookout Valley; Councilwoman Jenny Hill, of North Chattanooga; Councilwoman Raquetta Dotley, of East Lake; and Councilwoman Demetrus Coonrod, of Eastdale.
Wardlaw said he has other properties in the city he would consider using as short-term vacation rentals, but he is unable to do so because they are located outside the overlay zone.
He guesses most of the city’s unauthorized rentals are located outside its overlay zone, but it’s difficult to determine exactly where they are located since most rental hosting platforms do not provide addresses of the properties they advertise until they are rented.
Companies such as Airbnb and VRBO collect occupancy taxes that are distributed directly to municipalities, counties and the state of Tennessee regardless of whether the property is properly permitted, said Wardlaw, who questions how the city of Chattanooga will make up for the loss of that revenue if it cracks down on unauthorized properties.
New Hamilton County short-term rental regulations — a draft of which will be read Wednesday at the Hamilton County Commission meeting, and for which final approval is expected to occur at the April 19 commission meeting — would require short-term rentals to meet building, fire and septic codes for health and safety reasons, County Commissioner Gene-o Shipley, R-Soddy-Daisy, said by phone.
Currently, those properties are not inspected.
The new regulations also address other issues that affect neighborhood residents, such as parking, he said.
The county is hiring software company Granicus to identify unauthorized short-term rentals so officials can enforce compliance with the regulations, Shipley said. Chattanooga has already implemented similar software.
Contact Emily Crisman at ecrisman@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6508.