New Short Term Rental Regulations in Pittsburgh
New to Real Estate · Pittsburgh, PA · Member since 2021 · 1 post · 2 votes
New Short Term Rental Regulations in Pittsburgh
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Elise Bickel TauberBusiness Member
Real Estate Agent · Cranberry Twp · Member since 2017 · 384 posts · 198 votesPittsburgh (inside the city) has been making a lot of changes including the recently passed rental registration and occupancy permits for long term rentals, etc. They need to continue to find a way to make money. I honestly think even with the best plans in place, things like this can still happen. Fake ids, parties that get out of hand, etc. People will always find a way. I'm sure that airbnb will make changes to their platform as well, but the city itself shouldn't try to regulate private business. Just my opinion. Keep an eye on the proposal and lets see what happens!
10 Replies
- Real Estate Broker · Cody, WY · Member since 2010 · 28k+ posts · 41k+ votes4y
Quote from @Matt Kotlar:
For all of those who hadn’t heard, there was a shooting in the North Side at an Airbnb.
Proprietors will have to have a business license and a short term rental license that lasts 12 months.
As more people behave badly, government will start to crack down. I suspect AirBnB may be forced to do something, as well. Some things I would like to see from AirBnB and other platforms:
1. Proof of ownership. The person renting the unit must be the property owner, period;
2. Entrance cameras to monitor who goes in and comes out. This would prevent large groups from entering what should be utilized as a single-family home;
3. Noise monitors. Sound gets too loud, shut it down.
This would help prevent parties, as well as large family/friend groups that get too loud and annoy the neighbors, which is probably the biggest complaint with vacation homes.
The DIY Landlord Book4.7248 Reviews - 4yLiam TenniesPro MemberReal Estate Agent · Pittsburgh, PA · Member since 2020 · 44 posts · 40 votes
Overall I think it's a good thing, but it will certainly hurt current STR hosts based in Pittsburgh during the transition. There are places all over the country that have been vacation rental markets for decades and have regulations already in place. IMO it's better to invest in a place where rules are established rather than unwritten for the fact they are more likely to change on you and affect your business negatively. It's inevitable.
Agree with Nathan above that noise monitors and doorcams can help avoid situations like what happened in the North Side. I had a party thrown in one of mine and had it shut down within and hour - but always feel for the neighbors in those situations.
- 4yElise Bickel TauberBusiness MemberReal Estate Agent · Cranberry Twp · Member since 2017 · 384 posts · 198 votes
Pittsburgh (inside the city) has been making a lot of changes including the recently passed rental registration and occupancy permits for long term rentals, etc. They need to continue to find a way to make money. I honestly think even with the best plans in place, things like this can still happen. Fake ids, parties that get out of hand, etc. People will always find a way. I'm sure that airbnb will make changes to their platform as well, but the city itself shouldn't try to regulate private business. Just my opinion. Keep an eye on the proposal and lets see what happens!
- 4yDave StokleyBusiness MemberProperty Manager · Cleveland, OH · Member since 2015 · 699 posts · 799 votes
Classic overreaction to the wrong variable. STRs don't cause shootings, guns and criminals do. In 2021 in Pittsburgh there were:
- 51 homicides
- 176 non-fatal shootings
- 288 aggravated assaults with a firearm
- 3889 shots fired
How many of those were in STRs? 1%? Less?
And how is a business license going to prevent a shooting?
Funny thing is I am not at all opposed to requiring registration and perhaps even licensure. But do it for the right reasons.
- 4yDave StokleyBusiness MemberProperty Manager · Cleveland, OH · Member since 2015 · 699 posts · 799 votes
Quote from @Nathan Gesner:
Quote from @Matt Kotlar:
For all of those who hadn’t heard, there was a shooting in the North Side at an Airbnb.
Proprietors will have to have a business license and a short term rental license that lasts 12 months.
As more people behave badly, government will start to crack down. I suspect AirBnB may be forced to do something, as well. Some things I would like to see from AirBnB and other platforms:
1. Proof of ownership. The person renting the unit must be the property owner, period;
2. Entrance cameras to monitor who goes in and comes out. This would prevent large groups from entering what should be utilized as a single-family home;
3. Noise monitors. Sound gets too loud, shut it down.
This would help prevent parties, as well as large family/friend groups that get too loud and annoy the neighbors, which is probably the biggest complaint with vacation homes.
You know none of these things will ever happen, primarily because they are impractical for Airbnb to enforce. Airbnb seems perfectly content to let local governments legislate and then do their best to help enforce.
Curious how proof of ownership would solve the problem? I think you're getting at accountability, which I agree is important, but it seems like there are better ways. I manage STRs for a bunch of out-of-state owners and the fact that I'm local means the places are actually a lot better run than if someone was managing them remotely. I think you start by requiring registration. Maybe you require a local contact. Maybe you make owners subject to the same fines as any guests receive for noise violations. And obviously if there is criminal activity your permit is in jeopardy.
Entrance cameras? You would need someone monitoring it 24/7. That's not practical and it's impossible to enforce. Similar issue for noise monitors.
What I would really like to see Airbnb do is take more responsibility for guest quality control, starting with automatically preventing locals from booking places. Would also love for Airbnb to do more background checking on their users. I suspect they are doing some, as occasionally we'll have a booking cancelled proactively by airbnb with the message "we’ve received quality assurance information regarding this guest and we’re no longer able to support them as a member of our Airbnb community."
- Handyman · Pittsburgh, PA · Member since 2018 · 5k+ posts · 13k+ votes4y
Again, regulating STRs in the City of Pittsburgh is just a proposal at this point.
Long-term rentals will start to be registered and inspected come May, but that's been brewing for a while in Pittsburgh proper. And anybody who knows anything about this and doesn't admit that local landlords brought down a whole hell of a lot of it down on themselves must be truly enjoying their massive cognitive dissonance.
This city's rental situations desperately need deep reforms, especially in high-concentration areas, in the small urban multifamilies common here down in the C/D classes. The city's politics and finances are in the kind of disarray that only eighty-some years of monolithic one-party rule could allow. This region is not easy on hobby landlords. - Austin, TX · Member since 2019 · 5k+ posts · 5k+ votes4y
What percentage of Renters intends to have a big loud party that would get them booted from a hotel room (???)
Couldn't it just be handled by AirBnB saying no loud parties like this allowed, just travelers, and blacklist those who disobey the rules;
or would that pretty much put a nail in this businesses coffin (???)
- 4yDave StokleyBusiness MemberProperty Manager · Cleveland, OH · Member since 2015 · 699 posts · 799 votes
Quote from @Scott Mac:
What percentage of Renters intends to have a big loud party that would get them booted from a hotel room (???)
Couldn't it just be handled by AirBnB saying no loud parties like this allowed, just travelers, and blacklist those who disobey the rules;
or would that pretty much put a nail in this businesses coffin (???)
I don't think it would ruin their business at all. They are desperate for hosts and stricter standards for guests should make hosts more comfortable signing up. Personally we've hosted many thousands of guests and can count major issues on one or two hands. But we also try to be pretty thorough screening our guests - no 1-night stays and no locals.
- Pittsburgh · Member since 2018 · 16 posts · 9 votes4y
Noise monitors and cameras are certainly helpful in holding guests accountable. Ideally, hosts will do everything in their power beforehand to vet incoming guests. However, someone willing to throw a 200 person party that leads to this will not care about Airbnb's "no party policy" or any additional rules a host puts into place.
Whatever regulations come down from the city are likely to be nothing more than theater. What the news isn't reporting (for the most part) is that the police were at the property earlier in the night and several calls had come in about this party. The police chose to do nothing. They didn't even file a report. Responsible hosts in Pittsburgh have stories of doing everything in their power to stop or prevent parties, but have received no help from police.
This is more of a crime problem and less of a short term rental problem. On the STR side of things, as @Dave Stokley mentioned, Airbnb could do more to vet their guests and empower hosts to do the same. Anyone host who has been doing this for any length of time has been taken advantage of by an Airbnb guest in some way. The best things that hosts can do is scrutinize their guests to the best of their ability. Additionally, hosts should be the best neighbor they can be by making themselves available to the neighbors and the local police with full transparency on how they operate their STRs.
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