Should My Neighbor Be Allowed to Turn His House Into a Short-Term Rental?
It's a debate that is raging in all of America’s major cities.
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Want to add more newsletters?
Delivered daily
Kiplinger Today
Profit and prosper with the best of Kiplinger's advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and much more delivered daily. Smart money moves start here.
Sent five days a week
Kiplinger A Step Ahead
Get practical help to make better financial decisions in your everyday life, from spending to savings on top deals.
Delivered daily
Kiplinger Closing Bell
Get today's biggest financial and investing headlines delivered to your inbox every day the U.S. stock market is open.
Sent twice a week
Kiplinger Adviser Intel
Financial pros across the country share best practices and fresh tactics to preserve and grow your wealth.
Delivered weekly
Kiplinger Tax Tips
Trim your federal and state tax bills with practical tax-planning and tax-cutting strategies.
Sent twice a week
Kiplinger Retirement Tips
Your twice-a-week guide to planning and enjoying a financially secure and richly rewarding retirement
Sent bimonthly.
Kiplinger Adviser Angle
Insights for advisers, wealth managers and other financial professionals.
Sent twice a week
Kiplinger Investing Weekly
Your twice-a-week roundup of promising stocks, funds, companies and industries you should consider, ones you should avoid, and why.
Sent weekly for six weeks
Kiplinger Invest for Retirement
Your step-by-step six-part series on how to invest for retirement, from devising a successful strategy to exactly which investments to choose.
Q. I live in a quiet neighborhood, zoned for single-family residential homes, near the downtown of a city popular with tourists from all over the world. The house next to mine sold recently, and the new owner seems to be renting it out by the night and weekend through an online lodging service. Some of the guests like to party on their vacation, which is disturbing the evening peace on our block. I’m also worried that this practice will depress our property values. Do you find my concerns legitimate?
A. I sure do, not only ethically but also legally. The debate over these short-term rentals is raging in all of America’s major cities. It’s a classic clash between different rights—for example, the right of entrepreneurial landlords to make a buck and the right of neighbors to maintain the atmosphere of their locale. In some cities, there is the added concern that investors who buy homes in order to profit from short-term rentals are pricing young home buyers out of the market. All of this calls for public discussion and compromise that respects both sides.
Some rental apartment buildings prohibit brief sublets by tenants who might want to earn extra income when they’re away. That’s the landlord’s right. Some condominium boards—acting on behalf of all the unit owners—also ban brief rentals, as well as invite condo owners to report violations they see or suspect.
From just $107.88 $24.99 for Kiplinger Personal Finance
Become a smarter, better informed investor. Subscribe from just $107.88 $24.99, plus get up to 4 Special Issues
Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free Newsletters
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail.
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice - straight to your e-mail.
But some apartment-building owners, who control all the leases, may be tempted to plunge into the tourist rental market themselves to earn much more on a nightly basis than on a monthly or yearly lease. If neighboring tenants find this to be a nuisance, they have every right to find out whether the landlord’s practice of turning the apartment building into a de facto hotel violates local zoning.
Ditto if the house next door has become a tourist crash pad. Talk to your neighborhood association and zoning officials about whether this is allowed. A reasonable compromise might be new zoning laws that don’t ban such short-term rentals but limit their frequency.
Have a money-and-ethics question you’d like answered in this column? Write to editor in chief Knight Kiplinger at ethics@kiplinger.com.
-
Dow Adds 1,206 Points to Top 50,000: Stock Market TodayThe S&P 500 and Nasdaq also had strong finishes to a volatile week, with beaten-down tech stocks outperforming.
-
Ask the Tax Editor: Federal Income Tax DeductionsAsk the Editor In this week's Ask the Editor Q&A, Joy Taylor answers questions on federal income tax deductions
-
States With No-Fault Car Insurance Laws (and How No-Fault Car Insurance Works)A breakdown of the confusing rules around no-fault car insurance in every state where it exists.
-
Should Nondisclosure Agreements Be Banned in Sexual Harassment Settlements?Business Costs & Regulation Knight Kiplinger offers his advice on how companies can improve their handling of harassment problems.
-
Are Incentives to Lure New Businesses Fair to Current Employers?Business Costs & Regulation Job growth and spending at an existing firm should be worth just as much in incentives as new jobs and capital investment brought in from outside.
-
Ways to Protect Borrowers From Predatory Home Lendingreal estate Land contracts drain low-income communities of resources.
-
Should Employers Be Barred From Asking Job Applicants What They Earn?
business The effort to ban the “What are you earning?” question is part of a broader movement to make all compensation totally transparent.
-
Should Minor-League Ballplayers Get a Big Pay Raise?business Pro athletes must keep their bodies and skills in shape 12 months a year, and all should be paid accordingly.
-
What Should Doctors and Drugmakers Do to Stop Painkiller Addiction?business Physicians and dentists need mandatory pain-management training, starting in medical and dental schools and continuing thereafter.
-
How Can We Discourage Bogus News Stories?Politics Only the big online advertising networks can cut off the lifeblood and reduce the financial incentive to create phony stories.
-
Should a Criminal Record Rule Out a Job Applicant?business The goal is an appropriate balance between fairness to job applicants and the employer’s right—indeed, legal obligation—to create a workplace that is safe for employees, customers and business interests.
