Hampton will be reaching out to known short-term rental owners this week as the effective date on the city’s new regulations looms.
Hampton Community Development Director Bonnie Brown told WHRO that the city wants to give operators a heads-up.
“That informs them of what all the new regulations are and what the path is to come into compliance with those regulations,” Brown said. “That’ll give them a couple months.”
Hampton City Council approved the new rules for Airbnb and Vrbo style rentals in June. They go into effect in September and the city will begin enforcing the policies starting in October.
Under the approved rules, short-term rentals are capped to 1% of residences within each of the city’s 51 zones. Units are required to be 300 feet from other short-term rentals to be permitted, with exceptions for clusters of two adjacent properties.
Owners will need to acquire a business license, apply for a permit and schedule a unit inspection with the city. They will also need to assign a responsible local person who can quickly attend to nuisances or issues should they arise.
Short-term rentals operating legally during the city’s grace period will also have to comply with the new rules and acquire a permit by the end of 2024. Any in-progress permit applications will automatically be converted into the city’s new process.
Brown said permits will be processed on a first come, first served basis.
“We had about 80 or so that were in contact with us,” said Brown. “We know there are hundreds operating.”
There are upwards of 400 short-term rentals available in Hampton “at any given time,” according to Brown.
Using data collected by short-term rental tracking software Host Compliance, Hampton has identified suspected short-term rental operators not registered with the city and mapped their locations.
A map from April noted 321 suspected short-term rentals in Hampton, including owner information and links to past listings on rental platform sites.
Failure to comply with Hampton’s short-term rental rules can result in a notice of violation and a criminal summons, as well as a $1,000 fine. Continued failure to comply can lead to additional fines every 10 days after an abatement period.
“It could become expensive for operators to not comply with the code,” said Brown.
But cracking down on the hundreds of non-compliant short-term rentals in Hampton could take time. The city currently employs 12 inspectors who will be tasked with enforcing short-term rental rules on top of other code enforcement duties.
“We know we can’t do them all at once,” Brown said. “We think that we’ll get to at least a first touch on all of the short-term rentals that are operating illegally by the … summer of 2025.”
Brown said her staff is in contact with the court to determine how best to manage dockets as enforcement picks up.
“We’re going to do complaint-based enforcement first,” she said. “They’ll prioritize those versus the ones that are just operating without complaints.”
A list of approved short-term rentals in Hampton, as well as a map of the city’s 51 short-term rental zones, can be found online at Hampton.gov/STRs.
