The L.A. City Council has unanimously voted, to impose new rules for regulating a online platforms such as Airbnb.
The law goes into effect in July, allows Angelenos to host such rentals only in their “primary residence,” not a second home or investment property
The long-standing debate has pitted a coalition of tenant advocates, neighborhood activists and the hotel industry against companies such as Airbnb, HomeAway and their hosts.
Rival camps of hotel workers and Airbnb hosts have packed city hearings in contrasting shirts of red and blue.
As it stands now, renting out a home for fewer than 30 days at a time is legally barred in much of the city, according to planning officials.
But L.A. has rarely cracked down on such rentals, and their operators have fought — and sometimes won — when it has tried to do so.
Bonin said the existing rules have been “absolutely unenforceable.”
Under the new rules, Angelenos can host such rentals only in their “primary residence,” defined as the place where they live at least half of the year.
Hosts must register with the city, pay lodging taxes, keep records for city inspection and make sure they have working smoke detectors, fire extinguishers & info on emergency exits, among other requirements.
Hosts can offer their homes for short stays of up to 120 days annually.
However, Angelenos can exceed that cap and welcome temporary guests all year if they do not have multiple citations from the city in recent years.
Airbnb hosts complained the new law was saddled with steep fees and would bar responsible hosts from earning income from their homes.
Airbnb deputy policy mgr. Connie Llanos called the passage of the new law “an important step” to legalize home sharing for many L.A. hosts.
Critics of such rentals, in turn, billed the new regulations as a welcome compromise that would protect renters.
The rules also impose new requirements on hosting platforms such as Airbnb and HomeAway.
They can’t process booking from a host, not registered with L.A., or who exceeded the annual limit on how many days they can rent out their home.
If the platforms do so, they can be hit with fines of $1,000 a day.
And the online platforms must regularly hand over host information to the city, a step that L.A. officials say will help with enforcement.
That could be a sticking point for some companies.
Airbnb, has cautioned the city it will not provide names and addresses unless it gets a subpoena, according to the planning department.
Airbnb has, however, floated the idea of creating a system that could forward information to the city when hosts register with its website.
But it said it would do so ONLY IF L.A. allowed for “vacation rentals” — renting out something other than a primary residence for short stays, such as a second home or investment property.
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