Four Los Angeles City Council members introduced a motion Tuesday seeking to address illegal short-term rental listings on various home-sharing platforms.
The motion presented by council members Bob Blumenfield, Nithya Raman, Katy Yaroslavsky and Tim McOsker seeks to further enhance the city’s Home-Sharing Ordinance, which was adopted in 2018 to restrict short-term rentals through regulations and guidelines.
The motion instructs the Planning Department and other departments to draft a Private Right of Action clause for the Home-Sharing Ordinance, allowing any interested party to pursue legal action within 180 days to enforce the ordinance when “unlawful activities occur.”
According to a report from the advocacy group Better Neighbors L.A., in 2022, there were more than 4,000 illegal listings on AirBnB alone, with a majority of the listings being non-compliant with the city’s ordinance.
The motion indicates AirBnB is the only platform making “meaningful efforts” to comply through a platform agreement between the company and the city.
The city of Los Angeles issued 27 citations in 2022, and the problem continues, with no fines issued in the first two months of 2023, officials said.
Better Neighbors L.A. reported that in the five years since the Home-Sharing Ordinance has been in effect, there have only been 10 fines with an accrual of more than $500, none of which have been paid. In addition, the group estimates that non-compliant listings resulted in a loss of nearly 8,000 housing units, and a 20% decline in hotel worker hours.
AirBnB shares listing information through an Application Programming Interface, the motion states, that ensures real-time data, allowing the city and the company to take down illegal listings.
The motion introduced Tuesday would also instruct the Planning Department and the city attorney to implement a registry and reporting system to all short-term rental platforms, such as through API or a platform agreement, to ensure illegal proprieties are removed.
City Council members called for reports on improving enforcement of the ordinance in April 2022, but those have yet to be provided. In addition, the council called for “swift action” when crimes or incidents of violence occur at short-term rentals.
While information from those incoming reports will provide “critical recommendations” and inform next steps to improve enforcement of the ordinance, “more must be done,” the motion reads.