Games with the Sevier County Gestapo

[Collin Hays]

Eighteen months ago, Sevier County TN suddenly decided they needed to "inspect" any short-term rentals in Sevier County for "safety", in exchange for a yearly fee of $300.  We have about a dozen properties that had to pay the $300 fee and wait for an inspection.  Here has been our experience, including the latest:

- The inspector requires you to be on site when he comes, and he has no-showed on three occasions.

- The inspections are all over the map.  One inspector might cite you for your barbeque grill, while the other one completely ignores it. But no matter what, they find issues that you have to correct, no way around it.  If your house is in really good shape, that's a problem, because they are going to dig as deep as they can to find things to cite you on. 

- They don't always inspect. Even though you pay the $300, there's no guarantee they will inspect at all.  At one property, we had paid for two years of inspections. Finally, the inspector shows up on a Friday a.m. and says "I'm shutting you down, because your smoke alarms aren't synced correctly."  We had guests arriving that day.  

- "Shut you down" is a favorite phrase of the inspectors.  They really like it. 

- Reinspection almost never occurs.  If you call to remind them, they often can't even locate your file.

Clearly, this was a nothing but a cash grab for the county cloaked under the guest of public welfare. Their stated reason for starting the inspection program was "guest safety". But guest safety wasn't important enough to them to actually staff this to inspect thousands of cabins and do so on any consistent basis. If you ask enough questions, the inspectors will sometimes even readily admit as much.  

[Bruce Woodruff]

Quote from @Collin Hays:

Quote from @Mat Garcia:

Can the Short-Term Rental landlords band together and letter-write/protest and force some type of vote or stop to this? This policy sounds absurd, arbitrary and totally abusive! Maybe in the spirit on freedom you can start today, on this July 4th!

 I have talked to two owners who have not submitted their $300 and are simply claiming ignorance. Neither has ever been contacted. I am not advocating doing this as it is fundamentally dishonest, but it is very tempting!

"When tyranny becomes law, revolution becomes duty"
Thomas Jefferson