City of Atlanta issues crackdown warning for short-term rental owners

ATLANTA - The City of Atlanta has a new warning for people running short-term rentals: City Hall will soon begin cracking down on who can rent out their home.

The city will soon begin enforcing a new ordinance designed to have short-term rental owners "held accountable" for community standards.

With the popularity of short-term rental businesses including AirBnb, the city is caught in the middle and no one seems to be happy.

"I have had to call the police more since 2016 than I have in my lifetime to come take care of parties, loud noise, pot smoke," one frustrated resident told the Atlanta City Council at a recent meeting.

The City Council passed a new ordinance in May was set for the spring, and business owners have been pushing back against the new policy.

"It's changed so many times. There's been amendments. It's been extended. So people are looking at it like, oh, it's another thing," he said.

Part of the new regulation includes a permit requirement. But out of the 7,000 short-term rental owners, the city says it has received 1,200 applications and only 10% of all owners have been approved.

The new regulation also restricts the number of short-term rentals a person can rent out. Each owner can do a rental for part of the home he or she live in and one other property. That is it.

On Wednesday, Atlanta city councilman Dustin Hillis, who is familiar with complaints from stable long-term apartment dwellers asked what is going on at the Cyan on Peachtree Apartments. Cyan recently announced that it was planning to open the opportunity for residents to rent out their apartment, with the management of the building taking a cut from the bookings.

"Cyan on Peachtree … how are apartment complexes that have one owner able to subject their whole building to short-term rentals? I don't understand that," Hillis said.

Greg Pace, the director of Atlanta's Office of Buildings says no permits have been issued for short-term rentals to the complex. However, the rules do allow, if the owner wants it, for the tenants to rent their own apartment. The number of potential nights is limited.

You can learn more about the short-term rental ordinance at the City of Atlanta's website.