New Ordinance Impacts Maui Short Term Rental

Maui county will be seeing a serious change in the ordinance governing short term rental home permit applications. Via Jarred Burkett, Maui County Planner of the Permitting Department, in summary said:

Short term rental or officially transient short term rental applications will be grandfathered in and receive a permit under the old ordinance if applications are received by the end of business day, September 26th, 2018, assuming the application is approved.

The new ordinance is effective September 27, 2018. All applications must be in by the 26th; no ifs, ands, or buts.

What’s the Good News

Although at first this may seem discouraging, but in reality it will benefit short term rental owners who are already approved and in compliance. Under this new ordinance, it will restrict the supply of vacation rentals and will ultimately increase the already strong demand for vacation rental units.

The new ordinance creates a stricter barrier to entry and those interested in a short term rental property will only be able to get one if they buy a vacation rental property that has been grandfathered in. However, any owners submitting applications from September 27, 2018 onward, requires the owners to have owned the property for at least 5 years.

The new ordinance comes as a result of the Maui residents who have voiced their opposition or complaints about short term rentals.

Maui County Cracks Down Further

Just announced this month, the Maui County Planning Department has entered into a contract with LODGINGRevs to help the county identify illegal operations of short term rentals.

Again, the stronger enforcement against illegal short term rentals will only benefit owners as the supply of vacation rentable properties is being reduced. Typically, these illegal vacation rentals are undercutting the prices of the hard working, honest, and legally operating vacation rental properties.

The intent of the crackdown is to prevent new or continued operations of illegal vacations rentals. It is also meant to support those who run their short term rental legally and under the proper laws.

LODGINGRevs is a tech company that is an expert in short term rental compliance across the United States. Their website states through their highly specialized computer algorithms and programming, they are able to identify the location of properties or names of operators who are out of compliance with the online advertisement of their vacation rental.

Illegal short term rental operators are often advertising their properties without exterior photos, addresses, or location information in order to avoid detection. It is LODGINGRevs special software that is believed to be the answer to Maui County’s problems.