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If you own a place, can't you rent it out?
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You can in NZ, BUT if you do, it qualifies as a commercial property, which introduces several tax issues. The argument is a commercial operator should not be penalised by having to compete with someone who does not pay taxes.
I have owned a couple of homes and I had thought about renting one of the them at one time, but after checking into what I would have to go through to do that I figured it wouldn't be worth my time. Like Ian said, there are extra tax issues involved. Not only that, but then once you do go that route and you become a landlord then you are responsible for anything that goes wrong with the home. If something happens to the plumbing or electric problems within the home, etc., then it is the responsibility of the landlord to fix it and pay for it out of his own pocket. At least that is how it is here in Florida. I don't know if that is the way it is other places, but I do know that is how it is here. I have a friend that use to rent homes and she was always complaining that she would have to go fix something at one of her homes, because something wasn't working right.
Though if worse came to worse, you can always raise the rent to recoup losses, which I think that is what my friend did a couple of times. Once I found out that I would have to fix something if it broke down and pay for it myself, I decided that it just wasn't worth it to even think about doing it at all.
Yes, I overlooked the responsibility of having to fix things, including fixing things damaged by the renter who then flees. Like many other things, being a landlord involves skills. If you don't have them, learn fast or stay away from it.
Yeah, a need to fix things can be annoying and proceeds should be taxed, but why is that concerning New York: ".... under state law, it is illegal in most buildings for an apartment to be rented out for less than 30 days unless the permanent tenant is residing in the apartment at the same time." ? https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/03/ny...
I think it undermines the concept of private property more than many things ruled undermining the freedom of speech, for example.
Re fleeing renter: don't you take collateral for such instances?
Fleeing renter: it is hard to recoup losses if they take off in the middle of the night. Insurance doesn't normally cover renters that just leave or in some instances tear up the home before they leave. Normally the landlord is stuck holding the bag (with the bag being empty of course). :-) As far as NYC coming down on Airbnb it seems that people have been abusing the system of renting out their homes there. State laws throughout the U.S. must all be different.
I know that when I was on vacation two years ago in North Carolina, I rented two Airbnb's. I was there for three weeks, but the first one I rented, the landlords lived upstairs and they were renting the downstairs. The second Airbnb, the landlord wasn't even on the property. They were renting the whole house and they lived somewhere else in the state. So laws must vary from state to state.
From the reading the article of NYC renting out the Airbnb's, obviously landlords are abusing their homes that they are renting. With regular apartments (not Airbnb) renters have to live in an apartment no less than six months in some places. It seems that the government in NYC wants to keep better tabs on what the landlord does with renting out their homes. Also from reading the articles it seems there are lots of Airbnb's around the city of NY. I suppose that renters are not paying as much renting from an Airbnb opposed to renting from a regular apartment.
Property rights on apartments are more complicated, at least in some places, because there tends to also be some joint aspects with other apartments. Also, there is the problem of overall building maintenance. You might maintain your own apartment, but someone has to maintain accessways, elevators, and overall structural issues. If someone lt some yobbos in who just left their rubbish somewhere but not near the rented apartment, other owners might be upset. So in many places, property rights regarding apartments are not completely residing with an apartment owner.
Airbnb is operating as a hotel/motel. if you're renting out your home for a couple days at a time, that's exactly what your house has become. Things is, hotels and motels have a whole host of regulations they must follow in order to operate. Airbnb, like Uber and Lyft are doing with "ridesharing," is trying to ignore those regulations by claiming they're something else. Even if you operate your home under the banner of "vacation rental" like a lot of people have done for years, you're still subject to certain regulations, and calling yourself an "airbnb" doesn't (or shouldn't) exempt you from the regulations everyone else has to play by.
J.J. wrote: "Airbnb is operating as a hotel/motel. if you're renting out your home for a couple days at a time, that's exactly what your house has become. Things is, hotels and motels have a whole host of regul..."What's the difference between renting out for 10 days or one year? They are regular apartments and duration of the rent or frequency of changing tenants doesn't necessarily make them a hotel in my eyes -:)
Just some definition I found on the internet: http://www.businessdictionary.com/def...
And even if one looks at them as 'indie hotels' why shouldn't they be let compete. Why here regulation amounting to practically killing the possibility to airbnb is fine and gun control, for example, isn't?
Not that I'm necessarily pro airbnb and against the hotels, just thinking out loud..
Nik, in NZ anyway, there is no reason why you cannot rent out your property, provided you accept that by doing so you have made it a business and you must comply with commercial law. Thus the building must be inspected from time to time to show that it is fit for purpose and properly maintained, and is kept clean, etc. These inspections incur a fee that must be paid. There are also further tax compliance laws - GST (our version of VAT) and requirements for appropriate record-keeping, and a number of other aspects, including proper declaration of income. The problem is, a lot of these "indies" try to avoid paying tax on income, and that is frowned on by the IRD
Ian wrote: "Nik, in NZ anyway, there is no reason why you cannot rent out your property, provided you accept that by doing so you have made it a business and you must comply with commercial law. Thus the build..."Sounds much better than in NY, where the press claims that it's illegal to rent out for less than 30 days unless a permanent tenant lives in the place, but who would want to rent with a tenant?
Seems an odd law - presumably a back door way to stop renting :-)
Nik wrote: "J.J. wrote: "Airbnb is operating as a hotel/motel. if you're renting out your home for a couple days at a time, that's exactly what your house has become. Things is, hotels and motels have a whole ..."Whatever you want to call it, the point is, rentals have regulations they must comply with in order to operate. But these "sharing" companies expect to operate without complying with those regulations. Not saying they should be regulated more than anyone else, but they should be required to abide by the same regulations as everyone else.
Additionally, property is zoned for specific uses. Residential, commercial, mixed- use, etc. When you buy a property, the zoning is already in place, so you know what you can and cannot do with your property beforehand. Sure, you can go to the town or city to apply for re-zoning, but if your property is not zoned for commercial use, then you cannot use it for a commercial endeavor. It's not to trample your rights, but to avoid trampling the rights of surrounding property owners who buy their properties on the understanding of what does and does not go on around them.
J.J. wrote: "Not saying they should be regulated more than anyone else, but they should be required to abide by the same regulations as everyone else...."Agree with that, however that's not how the things are in New York, it seems -:)
So far, airbnb hosts I stayed at all offered tax invoices, so I assume they were registered as 'commercial'
Platform like AirBnB avails the possibility to rent out your place on daily basis. Much like hotels. So what? If I leave New York for a couple of weeks, why can't I possibly rent out my place for a fee while away, if someone's willing to pay? Why for a year - 'yes' and for a day - 'no'? That's the meaning of ownership that you can do whatever as long as you do not interfere with enjoyment of other owners. Of course, it's a direct competition to hotel biz, as private daily rentals are much cheaper. Probably totally unrelated, but hotels have lobbies...
https://www.vox.com/2018/6/22/1748580...
I use airbnb a lot to save on costs, but I guess - there are places that limit that option.
From what I hear from a friend from NY, renting out on daily basis is pretty much castrated these days. But should it be so? What do you think?