Posted on 12/30/2018 11:26:53 AM PST by Kaslin
>We’ve been covering this story for a while, so we knew it was coming, but now it’s official. Massachusetts has passed a new law that was basically designed to run Airbnb out of business in their state. Governor Charlie Baker has signed it and it takes effect in July. Baker and his supporters continue to issue bizarre claims about how they’re being “fair” to all sides, but what this boils down to is a huge win for the lobbying interests who forced this issue through behind the scenes. (Boston Globe)
Governor Charlie Baker on Friday signed first-of-its-kind legislation to tax and regulate the short-term housing rental market in Massachusetts, capping years of debate over how to navigate an industry that has exploded through companies like Airbnb.
The new rules will take effect July 1 and could transform a market that spans the state, from Cape Cod summer homes to Boston apartment buildings to Western Massachusetts vacation retreats.
The bill requires every rental host to register with the state, mandates they carry insurance, and opens the potential for local taxes on top of a new state levy. A chief negotiator for the House said the goal is to register every short-term rental in the state by September, and local officials, including in Boston, say the new law will help buttress their own efforts to regulate the booming market.
Baker is touting this as a compromise which he claims is able to, “avoid placing undue burdens on occasional renters.” This is nonsense, of course, because in order to qualify for the exemptions to most (though not all) of these new burdens on hosts, you can only rent out your room for a maximum of fourteen nights per year. For most hosts, that’s not going to be worth the bother of signing up for the app in the first place.
And what are these burdens? First of all, anyone with a spare room will now have to carry the same type of insurance as a hotel chain, basically wiping out any profit they might make. On top of that, they’ll be paying a 5.7 percent state tax, plus another 6% tax if municipal or county governments decide to impose one.
Further, hosts will be legally required to list themselves on a publicly available registry. Proponents claim this allows neighbors to know who is renting out rooms to “strangers” but it’s obviously intended as an intimidation tactic, opening up hosts to public shaming, abuse or worse.
The bottom line here is that the hotel industry and their lobbyists have won a massive victory. They don’t like private citizens cutting into their business so they’ve greased the palms of enough politicians to essentially shut Airbnb down in the state. As the New York Times reported more than a year ago, leaked documents from the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA) revealed, “a multipronged, national campaign approach at the local, state and federal level.” The goal of that campaign was to enlist elected Democrats to pass laws which would choke the life out of Airbnb and protect their profits. They specifically mentioned Boston as one of their key target markets, and now they have succeeded in bribing the state government to shut Airbnb down.
It’s true that some people have begun “abusing” the system by purchasing large amounts of property and renting it out like a hotel using the app service. Perhaps a law like this might have been more palatable if it were applied only to people with more than ten rental units or something along those lines. But for all the private individuals with an extra room or a guest house who were using the system as originally intended and making a little extra money, this basically shuts them out of the game.
Airbnb already has one lawsuit in progress against Boston for similar municipal laws they passed earlier. Now they’re saying a new suit against the state may be coming. But if they find no satisfaction through the courts we’re probably seeing the beginning of the death of the gig economy along with the chance for private citizens to profit from their own homes or apartments.
Our legislature,House and Senate,is something like 95% Rat.And these are Massachusetts Rats....*not* Wyoming Rats.No filthy,scummy piece of legislation would surprise me here.
Just waiting to see if they’ll tax unused bedrooms because of potential use as a rental room.
That’s the point of a lot of regulation. Big money can buy rules that keep out the competition - heck just the costs of compliance can put one out of business.
But they’re all for our safety, doncha know.
Baker, the chosen successor of Carpetbagger RomneyCARE,
is beholden to both RomneyCARE and the Rattlesnake.
What a horrible state MA is.
Booming market no more.
Not gonna lie, I’d be less likely to buy a house if I knew the next door neighbor was renting their place out to multiple people each week.
You cannot defeat supply and demand. MA is a relatively small state. What is going to stop visitors from renting out rooms in neighboring towns across the state line?
Mixed feelings on this.
Private residences are not zoned to be businesses.
These people also are skirting around the fees and licenses hotels and motels are paying. Now one may argue some hotels/motels got tax breaks/deals to build in a city, and that may have some merit.
Further you probably would not like being next to a property always rented out to strangers who dont care about the neighborhood.
At the same time more govt laws on how a person can use their own property is anathema.
Basically it boils down to people acting as a private business abusing a personal residence as cover for a business and thus govt has to then define the difference between someone who does it intermittently and someone actually trying to be a stealth business with the intent to avoid the normal business requirements all other hotel/motel/rental businesses that are above board deal with.
Its not the same as renting a room out to a tenant either. Becaud airbnb folks are not classified as landlords and dont have the hassles landlords must deal with.
this is how politics work...you pay off the politicos so they can “legally” crush your competition.....
AIRBnB is a leftist company. Hoisted by their own petard.
Yep. Professional, 100% Leftist Scum Rats. I hate the politics in this state.
Normal business requirements like what? When you list them, you should ask if they are reasonable or justified for municipal services provided or some other reason.
More anti-freedom, NWO, socialist, racist, agist BS from the communist north.
They should raise taxes also to fund airbnb oversight and enforcement.
The corrupt Fascist Demokkrats running the state of Massachusetts showing that they’re for sale to the highest bidder, once again.
Coming soon to a Democrat controlled state near you...
We’re renting an entire house for a week when we visit a Houston suburb. It’s very nice and just around the corner from the relatives we are visiting. There are no hotels in the vicinity, and we really couldn’t afford a two-bedroom suite in one, or restaurant meals for three people for a week.
So AirBnB works just fine for us.
No biggie. I have no plans to ever go to Assachusetts.
Next up Uber.
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