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New short term rental laws go into effect for Scottsdale property owners

Two updates to two short term rental ordinances take effect Friday.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — After years of loud partying and trashed homes, new short term rental laws go into effect Friday.

Two updates to two Scottsdale ordinances address loopholes from the 2019 ordinances. Property owners now face harsher penalties for things like nuisance parties and noise complaints.

The City of Scottsdale and the Scottsdale Police Department are working together to keep neighborhoods safe and quiet.

"Our big goal is to remind people coming to rent, or people renting these place out that you're going to a residential neighborhood," Sergeant Kevin Quon explained. "We want you to be cordial neighbor, we want you to be having a good time but respectful of the area."

The updated ordinances allow officers to issue citations for nuisance parties. In the past, officers would issue violation notices for nuisance parties but now they have the power issue civil penalties on site. 

RELATED: Scottsdale rental owners to be held accountable with new ordinance

"Now we can hand out a citation to the homeowner or representative of the home for a nuisance party itself, which we didn’t have before," Sgt. Quon said. "Hopefully it will deter people or renters from throwing theses big bashes that aren’t regulated. It is a neighborhood, our noise ordinances are typically around 10 o'clock." 

The owner of a home with a nuisance party can get a minimum $750 fine on the first offense, to north of $2,500 for a fourth offense.   

You can also face fines if you don't have an emergency contact. 

Quon said the emergency contact needs to arrive on property within an hour of being called if there's a problem. That way, police have a point of contact to address the issue. 

If you don't have an emergency contact show up within an hour - or at all? Fines up to $500 are possible. 

"It's similar to an alarm, so when an alarm goes off you have 30 minutes to have a representative respond," Quon continued. "Well with short term rentals you have an hour so there's an emergency contact and within an hour they need to respond to the scene. It allows us to have communication. That’s the person responsible for the residence and we can talk with them and if there’s a violation, we can issue a notice of violation."

RELATED: Airbnb cracking down on 'party houses' in Arizona

Data shows Scottsdale Police have responded to more than 1,800 calls for service related to short term rentals since 2019. 

In the month of November alone, police responded to 175 calls related to short term rentals. 

"That was the highest for a one month period since the ordinance had gone into effect two years previously," Assistant City Manager Brent Stockwell said. 

Party responsibly or pay the price!

"This changes the game for how we respond and the ordinances give us more guidance," Quon said. "We have become a destination city and that's fantastic. It's education first, we don't want to write citations, we want to educate if we can and change behavior."

More changes could be coming according to the city. 

"We’re continuing the work, our short term rental staff team meets every other week to continue to work through this, we’ll be bringing additional ordinance recommendations as needed," Stockwell added.

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