Arizona House Bill Puts Some Limits On Short-Term Rentals

By Claire Caulfield
Howard Fischer, Capitol Media Services
Published: Friday, March 8, 2019 - 8:48am

Arizona lawmakers in the House advanced a bill Thursday that would prohibit property owners from renting out houses for special events like concerts or banquets.

HB2672 is a reaction to a growing number of complaints from neighborhoods about “party-houses” listened on Airbnb and other short-term rental sites.

The bill, proposed by Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, originally included a hard limit on the number of guests and on the number of people who could be on a rental property after 10 p.m. Those provisions were recently removed.

Rep. Jay Lawrence, R-Scottsdale, said the bill water watered down because, “real estate agents are a very powerful entity within this body. Many real estate licenses exist. And the real estate lobby is a powerful lobby."

If the bill is signed into law, property owners would be required to give local law enforcement their contact information in case of a complaint at the rental property and special events would be banned.

Rep. Isela Blanc, D-Tempe, said the measure doesn’t go far enough to stop short-term rentals from changing the character of existing neighborhoods and hurting the supply of affordable housing.

"These are large, money-grubbing capital investors who are using property rights in the state of Arizona as a way to have billions and billions of dollars go into their pocketbooks,” she said.

In 2016 Gov. Ducey signed a bill overruling any city ordinances that limit short-term rentals. Cities and towns can only oversee noise and parking complaints.

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