Short-term rental hosts sue Clark County over ordinance

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) - A group of short-term rental hosts is suing Clark County over a recently passed ordinance regulating the rentals.

The founders of this group say they’re not opposed to regulations or paying taxes. Their hope through taking this action is that it will lead to what they call fair regulations that protect private property ownership.

“I’ve been renting property out for 19 years the best year of my life was as a short-term rental,” Louis Koorndyk said.

Koorndyk bought an investment property and turned it into a short-term rental to make more money. But since renting out properties for less than 31 days in unincorporated Clark County was illegal, he accrued $62,000 in fines and liens against his properties.

“And that ties your hands. You can’t sell your property without paying those, I couldn’t when the interest rates went nice and low I couldn’t refinance with $60,000 in liens against your property so it hurt.”

Two years ago, Koorndyk and Jackie Flores created the group “Greater Las Vegas Short-Term Rental Association” to advocate for property rights. On Thursday, they filed a lawsuit against Clark County, the Commissioners and the State of Nevada. The lawsuit states the county’s newly approved short-term rental rules are unconstitutional.

“Where they’re giving themselves power to come to your property, your private property at any time that they want. They want you to shut everything down by 9 pm and you can’t even use your pool at a certain time.”

Commissioners spent months hosting town halls on proposed regulations. Regulations now include a minimum two-night stay for all reservations and no more than one license per person

Property owners must enter a lottery system where no more than 1% of the over 12,000 illegal short-term rental properties will be licensed.

“Hopefully there will be an injunction and everyone can come together and start talking and figure this out and come up with something much more fair what they have now is not fair.”

“They created a system where about 80% of the people relying on this income are not going to be able to apply for a license.”

Then there will be a six-month application period that starts Sept. 1 to March 1, 2023.

Copyright 2022 KVVU. All rights reserved.