Gila County Ordinance 2023-08
Gila County enacted a short-term rental ordinance with drastic overreaching provisions that make it impractical, if not impossible, to remain in business. While we do understand the need for some regulation of the short-term home rental industry, ordinance 2023-08 includes requirements that amount to an extreme government overreach and do not serve the community and our guest's best interest. We are specifically concerned about our guest's privacy, which is at risk. Until the ordinance is repealed or scaled back to address some of the impractical provisions, we will remain closed.
What is this all about? Read below to learn more.
● Item number 11 on page 13 states "The occupancy of these premises is limited to two (2) people per legal bedroom."
This effectively means for a family of 4, two people must remain at home. To allow the kids or another couple to sleep on the futon, window seat or sleeping bags on the floor by the fireplace, would place us in violation of the ordinance. ●Item number 3.7.1 and 3.7.2 on page 14 state "No later than twenty-four (24) hours before every stay the owner shall perform a background check on the person booking a vacation or short-term rental." and "The owner shall retain a printout of the background check for twelve (12) months after the booking date."
The ordinance does not require a background check for everyone in the party, nor does it specify the manner in which the background check data should be secured.
Our concerns are that:
We do not want to gather personal information from our guests, personal information that is required to run a background check.
We are not comfortable retaining the personal information obtained from our guests, long after their stay has ended.
For those guests that do submit to a background check, there are no specified requirements prescribed for the host to ensure safe storage of personal data obtained from the guest.
The cost for a background check only serves to drive up the cost to the guest. Whether the host or guest pays for the background check, the cost will ultimately be passed on to the guest. In fact, this ordinance does not include hotels and motels which are basically providing the same type of service - a place to stay overnight.
In short, this provision is ineffective (not everyone that will be on premises is required to complete a backgroung check), increases the cost for a stay and most importantly, places guests personal information unnecessarily at risk .
● Item number 3.3.1 on page 10 states "In the event of an emergency, any person designated as an emergency contact shall respond in-person within one (1) hour." This effectively means for any hosts that live over one hour away from the rented premises, they must hire a designated person to respond to an emergency request, or face a very hefty fine. The only practical solution for many is to either hire someone local that will respond to an emergency or to cease operations. We have NEVER had an emergency situation requiring someone onsite within one hour. This effectively raises the nightly rate for short-term rentals to cover the cost of hiring someone to be available for an emergency response within one hour.
What can you do?
Contact the Gila County Board of Supervisors to express your concerns. Please be logical, state facts and try to keep feelings and emotions out of the communication. Provide a practical solution or suggestion. The supervisors are elected officials that do listen to the public! In fact, they listened to several complaining residents before considering this new, well intentioned but poorly executed ordinance.
Please make us aware of any potential or pending actions (including litigation) regarding ordinance 2023-08. We can be reached via email. (We will keep a record of all inquiries and referrals.)
Please read the ordinance to better understand how it impacts both hosts and guests.
Click on the link below to read Gila County Ordinance 2023-08: Gila County Ordinance 2023-08
