City of Lexington launches short-term rental phone and online reporting system
Originally published by WEKU.
Officials with Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government are working to keep up with an ever-growing number of short-term rentals. The City this week launched a 24/7 phone hotline and online reporting program for citizens to register complaints. Revenue Director Wes Holbrook said the tool will help separate actual violations from unsubstantiated complaints.
“Rather than maybe waiting to hear that there was a party and it might have been a short-term rental from police later on down the road or that there was an occupancy violation. It might have been in a short-term rental later on down the road. That way we all have this information. We can use it to investigate and then, if we’re able to substantiate a violation, then potentially issue a citation,” said Holbrook.
Lexington started requiring short-term rental licensing the first of this year. Holbrook said there are 729 registered S-T-Rs. He noted some 11 hundred are operating in the bluegrass community.
The idea is to get to any violations sooner. Holbrook said the new system does seek to identify violators.
“So whenever people call to make complaints, it might be after the fact and they might not have some documentation to really substantiate that. This way there’s a tool that allows us to be able to collect photos and videos that the complainants can attach. And that way we can use that either to issue a citation or as part of the evidence-gathering process,” said Holbrook.
Holbrook said the complaints vary and include noise ordinance violations or parties with the number of people onsite exceeding the short-term rental occupancy limit. If you’d like to contact the hotline or the online site it’s
859-710-9048 or visit https://secure.hostcompliance.com/lexington-fayette-urban-county-ky/complaints/type.
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Originally published by WEKU.
Republished with permission.
