Unknown: This is a 20 Plus page ordinance in the city of
Charleston. It goes over all the rules and regulations for short
term rentals. Lucky for you, I read through this whole thing,
and we're going to talk about it today. What's up everyone?
Welcome back. As always, I'm Bill Olson, your favorite
YouTubing realtor here in Charleston. And as I said,
Today, we're talking all about the rules and regulations for
short term rentals, or Airbnb is in the city of Charleston. Now,
this video isn't meant to replace you knowing this, but
it's to help you better understand everything that's in
here so that you can operate a legal Airbnb. Now first, we need
to define short term rental according to the ordinance a
short term rental is any rental term less than 30 days with in
the short term rental ordinance. They have divided Charleston
into four different categories or zones. There's category one,
category two, or category three. And can you guess the last one,
if you guessed short term rental overlay zone, you are correct.
Now each area has its own special set of rules and
regulations for what part of a home, if any, can be used as a
short term rental. Let's start with the peninsula of
Charleston, there are some general rules that apply to just
about every area and short term rentals are allowed in almost
all parts of downtown. Of course, there are some strict
limitations these blanket rules are for mainly categories one
and two. These general rules are First, you must reside on the
property as your primary residence. Now this is proved
with your 4% property owner occupied tax application.
Second, you must be physically present on the property or
generally available when a tenant is occupying your rental.
In addition to this, you must spend the night on the property
anytime a guest is staying with you. Thirdly, you can only have
one short term rental unit on any residential property. And it
must not exceed accommodations for more than four adults. Next,
you need to provide parking for your unit. One off street
parking space must be designated for the rental tenant. Now this
is an addition to any parking required for yourself as a
resident of the home. And lastly, as if that wasn't
enough, the rental must be of secondary use, meaning you
cannot rent out the entire main home. Now if you're still with
me and you want to learn more. Let's keep going because it gets
a little more strict. So let's dive into category one. This is
mainly the Historic District, which is just about everything
south of Calhoun street with some other small areas to the
north. This is where it gets even trickier to operate a legal
Airbnb, because your rental unit must be listed on the National
Register of Historic Places that in category two, which is mainly
everything on the Upper Peninsula area, the structure
housing, the rental must have been constructed at least 50
years ago. Now the third area on the peninsula is that short term
rental overlay zone, which is largely the cannon borough and
Elliot borough neighborhoods. This area operates under a
special set of its own complicated short term rental
loss. So in order to qualify for a short term rental in this
overlay zone, the lot must be commercially zoned. And located
entirely in that overlay zone may not be designated as
affordable or workforce housing and the owner of the building
must comply with all business licensing and revenue collection
laws of the City County. In the state. Any other commercial
operations on the lot must be completely separate and
independent from the short term rental except for the driveway.
Any common areas or areas servicing more than one short
term rental and a lot are strictly prohibited. You may not
advertise the short term rental on the exterior when they
signed. And lastly, no more than nine units may be converted to
short term rentals on any single lot. So while you don't have to
live on the property and you can operate a short term rental, it
is extremely hard still with me because there's more. I told you
this was not going to be easy. Now we're going to cover the
last area which is category three. Now this is the non
peninsula area of Charleston including most of West Ashley
James Island, John's Island and Daniel Island. Now if your
property is within the city limits in these areas, the home
must
Your primary residence, you must reside on the property at any
time it is being rented to a short term tenant. Again, only
one unit per property that can house up to four adults, you
need to provide one off street parking space in addition to the
required parking for the main residence, and it must be a
secondary dwelling. So basically, in category three,
it's the same as category two without the 50 year old minimum
criteria. Now remember, all of this is just within the city
limits of Charleston. The let's talk about if you live within
the county of Charleston. of this is a little less strict,
but does have its drawbacks and limitations. Now, if your
property falls within the county, but outside the city
limits, you can obtain a short term rental permit for a primary
or non primary residence. Now in order to do this, you must have
obtained a business license, provide adequate off street
parking and abide by all other zoning rules. No here, there are
three types of short term rentals allowed based on the
various zoning rules. One is the limited home rental. This is
engaging in short term rentals of a primary residence. And with
this, you cannot exceed 72 days in a calendar year. Number two
is the extended home rental. This is engaging in short term
rentals of an investment property, which can't exceed 144
days in a calendar year. And you must obtain special exception
from county zoning and the third is commercial guesthouse. This
is engaging in short term rentals in commercially zoned
districts with all of these restrictions. I know you're
probably thinking one thing, but what about the beaches? How did
they get around all this? Well, generally speaking, the beaches
are fairly welcoming to short term rentals. Use need to obtain
a business license through the local municipality. This applies
to eila palms, Folly Beach, Kiawah Island, Seabrook Island
and edisto Island. Now each island will have a few other
ordinances, but basically, it's breeze to own a short term
rental there, you've probably noticed I left one island off,
and that's Sullivan's Island. The reason is, Simons Island is
openly hostile to short term rentals, anything less than 30
days is illegal. They did this to preserve the quiet
residential nature of the island. Now if you search, you
may see a few operating short term rentals. Those were
grandfathered in when the short term rentals were banned, but
they are few and far between. So now that we've covered all the
rules, you probably have some more questions. Or if you're
still unsure of your property qualifies, check out the
frequently asked questions on the Charleston government
website. And there's also a questionnaire where you can go
through and answer questions about the property and it'll
tell you if it thinks you're going to qualify or not. So I'll
link that below as well as a link to the entire ordinance for
your reference. And one last thing to remember when it comes
to the legality of short term rentals. If your property falls
under any Hoa bylaws, be sure to check to see if you're allowed
to operate a short term rental most Hoa is prohibit rentals
less than six months. So now that we've discussed if a
property meets the necessary requirements, let's talk about
how to formally apply for your short term rental permit,
there's a bunch of stuff that you're going to need. First is a
notarized copy of the application, you're going to
need to submit that to the city's permit Center. This can
be done online, or downtown at the gallery Art Center. The rest
of the documents you're going to need are going to be on this
application, but I'm going to go through them right now for you a
site plan or survey of the property drawn to scale
photographs of the current views of the exterior of the building
where the short term rental unit is proposed to be located.
Complete floor plans again drawn to scale for category one homes,
you'll need documentation that shows that the structure is
listed on the National Register of Historic Places. And for
category two, you'll need documents showing that the
structure being used as a short term rental is at least 50 years
old, you'll need a copy of your driver's license, you'll need
the documentation showing that the property qualifies for the
4% legal residence tax rate. And lastly, we have the application
fees and there are quite a few applications will have to submit
a $200 zoning application review fee $40 fire and safety
inspection fee $32.21 plan review fee and an initial $32.61
per number of floors in the unit being inspected. In addition to
that because there's always more a $64 business license fee plus
an additional $3
dollars and 90 cents per $1,000 of expected income. So what
happens if you decide to just forego all of this and operate
illegally? Well, Charleston has a special task force. That sole
purpose is to find illegally operating short term rentals. If
caught. You can be fined over $1,000 per day, or even jailed
for 30 days. Check out these other videos that I've got for
you all about Charleston and we'll see on the next one back