December 3, 2024
By Maria Patiño Gutierrez, Director of Policy and Research
Want to tell the City Council we need stronger enforcement of home-sharing companies like Airbnb? You can submit public comment to the Housing and Homeless Committee by clicking here.
In 2018, the City of Los Angeles passed the Home-Sharing Ordinance (HSO) to regulate companies like Airbnb and VRBO, whose users have been gobbling up the city’s already limited inventory of affordable units for use as short-term rentals. The HSO stipulates that short-term rental hosts must register with the city, pay an annual fee, and list only their primary residence for–the home where they live for at least six months out of the year–and not any otherwise vacant investment properties or rental units.
Unfortunately, the HSO has been poorly enforced since implementation began in 2019. In their study of Los Angeles-area listings, Better Neighbors LA found that short-term rental hosts have been using dubious exemptions to skirt registration requirements, and that many listings are using invalid registration numbers.
Strengthening the registration rules will not be enough to stop violators. We need stronger penalties. The current fine of $605 per day for advertising a rental unit in violation of the HSO does not do enough to deter bad actors. We would like to see Los Angeles City Council adopt a new fine structure to better protect the city’s affordable rental housing stock, including:
- Creating a new $50,000 fine for fraudulent behavior by egregious violators. The fine would be a one-time fine per unit, rather than a per-day fine, and would be for falsely claiming an exemption, using another person’s registration number, using a false registration number, using a false address, using the same registration number for more than one unit on multiple listings, and falsely claiming primary registration. It would also apply to landlords who provide registration letters for tenants who don’t actually live in their units.
- Creating a new $1,000 fine per listing for a platform’s failure to share data every month. Currently, the HSO requires platforms without a Platform Agreement to send the Los Angeles Planning Department a list of all listings with the registration number, host name, address, and number of days booked. Right now, only Airbnb has a Platform Agreement with the city, however there are many more short-term rental platforms advertising listings in L.A. If these platforms were required to pay a fine per listing, then they would be much more likely to ensure the compliance of their listings with the HSO.
A stronger fine structure will strengthen the city’s enforcement efforts and make evading the HSO more difficult for especially egregious violators. Ultimately, it will protect and preserve affordable rental housing for the people who actually live in Los Angeles.
