Data shows Nashville's codes and police departments received at least 975 complaints from homes with short-term rental permits over a 22-month period.
As Nashville considers banning or placing a moratorium on certain short-term rental properties, much of the debate has been based on anecdotes.
One side tells of wild parties terrorizing neighborhoods, and the other talks of wholesome, responsible homeowners supplementing their income through rental platforms like Airbnb.
But because the city doesn't centrally track which complaints were lodged against rental properties, council members haven’t seen data showing the scope of problems.
To help fill in the void, The Tennessean requested complaint information from both the Metro Police Department and the Department of Codes and Building Safety, which is responsible for permitting short-term rentals — then used software to compare addresses to the city’s list of active short-term rental permits. Complaint and permit data is considered public under the state’s open records act.
In total, the city received at least 975 complaints against 568 Davidson County addresses with active short-term rental permits, from April 1, 2015 to February 14, 2017. The permitting process began in April 2015. Some police complaints were listed at intersections, so the figures may be higher.
Also, the Tennessean only requested certain types of police calls: those for disorderly or intoxicated persons, indecent exposure, and a broad group of calls called “Want Officer for Investigation / Assistance” that includes noise complaints. Altogether, police received 647 calls at short-term rentals in the roughly 22 months. For some context, there were a 457,000 total complaints, citywide, in those categories during that time frame. The other 328 calls were fielded by the Codes Department.
Four addresses had double-digit complaints, with the highest two at 26 each. Three of them were multifamily complexes with more than one rental permit, while one was a single-family home with 10 complaints. About 40 percent of the addresses where the police were summoned only had one complaint.
There are some important caveats with the data.
Some of the complaints may be unrelated to the property’s use as a short-term rental. A person might complain about trash in their neighbor’s yard, for instance, but the city’s data doesn’t indicate if it was on a day the property was being rented. Likewise, people might have complained about property maintenance at an address, regardless of its rental status.
The Codes Department doesn’t keep track of many unsubstantiated complaints, while the Police Department records all calls for service.
One of the people who called the police was Jim Rayome, who lives next to a large rental home in Sylvan Park — the one that received 10 complaints. His teenage daughter's room overlooks the pool, where he's seen renters partying with sexually explicit blow-up dolls, he said. Rayome called the cops when parties kept his family up in the middle of the night.
The homeowner, Jeff Estepp, lives elsewhere, and said he didn't learn of some of the complaints until months later. Police don't notify homeowners of calls for service, nor do they refer the complaints to the Codes Department.
“Now that we found out we had the complaints, we’ve been proactive about it,” said Estepp. He warns potential renters that they could be evicted or lose their deposit if the police are called.
Depending on one’s perspective about short-term rentals, the 975 complaints could be interpreted as either concerning or inconsequential.
Summers added that many neighbors with gripes don’t complain directly to the city departments, for fear of reprisal or other concerns. Some try to handle it through their city council office, which may not pass on the information to other officials.
On the other hand, hosts and industry representatives say the numbers show complaints about short-term rentals are insignificant compared to the city’s broader problems.
“Obviously the most egregious cases get the story,” said former Metro Councilman Jamie Hollin, a lobbyist for the Nashville Area Short Term Rental Association, “but the opposition to short-term rentals is not grounded in problems. It’s a policy dispute."
Most of the opposition, Hollin said, comes from people opposed to the very concept of allowing the rentals in residential neighborhoods.
The Metro Council is considering a moratorium or a ban on short-term rentals in multifamily buildings and those where the owner doesn't live on the property. Those types of properties accounted for 18 percent and 49 percent of the police complaints, respectively -- roughly the same proportions as the permits issued under each category.
One of the problems in the city government appears to be coordination. Nashville’s short-term rental ordinance requires, for instance, that properties to follow the city’s noise laws, and people typically call the police department to complain of loud parties. But the police have never referred a complaint to the codes department, which is responsible for enforcing rental permit violations, said Bill Penn, assistant director of the Codes Department. Some neighbors lodge noise complaints with the Codes Department directly.
When the Codes Department receives a complaint about a short-term rental — for having too many occupants, for example — it sends a notice to the permit holder right away, said Penn, and then it investigates the complaint. If the department can’t find proof, it closes the case.
After three verified complaints against one property, the Codes Department can move to revoke a permit. As of February 8, Metro had revoked five permits for violations ranging from having the wrong type of permit to noise complaints.
“What’s most disconcerting" about the 975 complaints, said Nashville Councilwoman Burkley Allen, "is the disparity with that number and how many we’ve actually revoked the permit for.” Allen helped write the city's existing short-term rental regulations.
One of the most common violations — renting a property without a permit — is hard to verify, officials say. A consultant's report from December estimated that the city has 4,600 short-term rental properties, with nearly half of those operating without a permit. But rental websites typically don’t list addresses, so officials have to match online rental photos to homes.
The city has one codes inspector assigned full-time to short-term rental properties, said Penn. The Metro Council passed a resolution on Tuesday ordering the department to fill vacancies, and the department was already in the process of hiring five new inspectors. They won’t be focused solely on short-term rentals, Penn said. Instead, they will enforce various laws covering abandoned vehicles, overgrown weeds, and other issues.
To be more proactive, Mayor Megan Barry’s office advocated for software that can help officials track whether rental properties are paying enough in taxes and complying with other regulations. It would also maintain a 24-hour hotline to take in short-term rental complaints. That proposal restarted in January when the council decided to seek other software bidders.
Santa Monica, Calif. - The city hired full-time employees to investigate short-term rentals. In 2015 that city restricted rentals to those where the property owner stays in the unit with the guest. After nine months, the city had cited 102 property owners with fines up to $500, according to news reports. City officials estimate that it cut illegal rentals by more than 40 percent.
New Orleans - Airbnb has an agreement with the city where it only rents properties that have city permits. It also collects taxes from hosts.
New York - The city threatens fines ranging from $1,000 to $7,500 for renting out a unit in a multifamily building for less than 30 days. It’s unclear how the law is being enforced.
Corrections and clarifications: An earlier version of this story misstated the proportion of police complaints from multifamily buildings and those where the owner doesn't live on the property. They account for 18 percent and 49 percent of the complaints, respectively.