Juneau citizens who operate short-term rental properties will need to sign up their businesses in the city by in the fall of this year.
The Juneau Assembly approved the program in a meeting on Monday night. City officials say it will make sure that rental companies pay sales tax and give information on the expanding short-term rental market. This is information that may eventually help determine restrictions for them in the housing shortage in Juneau.
Assembly Member Wade Bryon claimed this was a result of a number of meetings in the past year.
Its style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”We’ve likely had 20 hours worth of discussions of short-term rentals” he added. “This law was not made from a night-time .”
The registration program assigns an unique number to each device and oblige operators to list the number on their online listings. The fee will be $25 for each failure to include the number in a listing.
The Assembly looked at an earlier draft of the plan during its June meeting, but the Assembly decided to make it more work after rental operators criticized the program. The revised version eliminates the requirement that rental operators provide emergency contact details or to describe amenities included in registration.
The Assembly also voted to approve a later date to begin the program. It’ll be in effect for 90 days instead of 30 days.
However, five short-term rental providers spoke against the new version. Bed and breakfast proprietor Dale Anderson told the Assembly that the extra paperwork will cause a burden to owners who pay taxes.
“I consider it offensive that you have put these arduous restrictions on my business. I’ve completely jumped over the guidelines in accordance with CBJ guidelines to deter criminals,” he said.
Mayor Beth Weldon introduced an amendment to permit property managers to sign up on behalf of owners of the property. This was after Juneau residents Kelli Ballou discussed her job as an agent for landlords of short-term rentals.
The span style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”If the owner of the property who pays me has to own his own company license as well as a tax-payer account as well as do quarterly reporting and annual renewals for registration which takes all the value of the service I’m offering to them.” she added. “I don’t have much value in the event that they need to complete every single task .”
The amendment was approved together with a separate one which states that the fiscal responsibility for taxes and penalties ultimately fall on the owner of the property.
The registration program doesn’t restrict how many rentals a individual can sign up for and does not require a registration fee. However, Assembly members have acknowledged that they’ve been discussing about what they could do to tighten the rules on short-term rentals. For instance, Sitka requires short-term rental owners to stay on their property for a portion of the time.
The span style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”There is a chance that regulations could be in the near future,” Juneau Assembly member Michelle Hale said on Monday. “That may be taking place, and I don’t think it’s a good idea to pretend it’s not happening. .”
Members Maria Gladziszewski said the registration program will allow them to follow the steps with care.
It’s a span style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”This is my personal view of gathering information. There is community pressure to address short-term rentals” she explained. “I’m not in support of doing something about short-term rentals, when we don’t have the data .”
The registration process will start at the end of October.
