Local officials may soon have an easier time enforcing local rules about short-term rentals in their communities.
A legislative committee on Thursday unanimously passed a bill that would allow cities, towns and counties that regulate short-term rentals to use a listing on a website like Airbnb or Vrbo to prove violation of local rules as long as officials have other information proving the property is a short-term rental.
Rep. Neil Walter, R-St. George, the sponsor of HB256, said it isn’t meant to tell municipalities what to do, but rather help them make sure listings are following local rules.
Short-term rentals in Utah account for millions in business each year – about $130 million for Airbnb hosts alone in 2019, according to the company. But with the money has come concerns.
In some communities, neighbors complain that renters in short-term units sometimes leave behind messes, or that rental units displace permanent residents.
Under current state law, local governments are not allowed to stop short-term rental operators from listing properties on rental websites like Airbnb and Vrbo, and the governments cannot use these sites to find and prosecute unlicensed short-term rentals.
That means regulators must rely on complaints from residents to locate illegal vacation rental properties.
Walter’s bill adds to the law passed in 2017. Local officials still can’t use a listing as the sole source of information, he said.
But if the bill passes, officials could use the listing to find and prosecute unlicensed short-term rentals as long as they have other evidence.
The Utah Association of Realtors and Utah League of Cities and Towns spoke in support of the bill, calling it a good balance between private property rights, local needs and housing affordability.
Expedia, which owns Vrbo, also supports the bill, Walter told the committee. While Airbnb allows people to list part of a property, Vrbo only allows the rental of an entire home.
Entire home listings are increasing in Utah, with more than 23,000 short-term listings in 2023, according to research by Moira Dillow, a housing, real estate and construction analyst for the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute and Dejan Eskic, a senior researcher.
Dillow and Eskic found short-term rentals are eating into the existing housing supply in Utah’s centers of tourism, particularly Summit and Grand counties with their proximity to summer and winter recreation
Listings make up 1.8% of the statewide housing stock, but that number varies widely by county.
In 2023, short-term rentals made up 0.1% of the housing stock in Box Elder County and 23.8% of the housing stock in Summit County.
They were 1% or less of the housing stock in 13 counties, and more than 5% in Garfield, Grand, Kane, Rich, Summit and Wayne counties.
Short-term rentals of an entire home made up about 4.3% of the housing stock in Washington County, where Jordan Hess, the county’s legislative director, estimates thousands of short-term rentals operate illegally.
Hess also spoke on behalf of the Housing Action Coalition of Washington County.
He supports the bill because, he said, it maintains local authority, addresses the affordable housing crisis by potentially putting those homes on the market and rewards those who play by the rules.
No one spoke in opposition to the bill.
Megan Banta is The Salt Lake Tribune’s data enterprise reporter, a philanthropically supported position. The Tribune retains control over all editorial decisions.
