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Excerpt from Point of View, an Op Ed piece in today's Palm Beach Post--
After reading all the reporting on sober homes (“Sober home
invasion,” May 1), another item that is being completely ignored by
residents is the growing issue of vacation rental properties. The home
next door to me was purchased by a Boca Raton resident, to be used as a
daily rental.
I sent emails to the Lake Worth City Commission and
mayor, to inquire about the city’s position on such issues, and received
only two responses: from Commissioners Christopher McVoy and Ryan
Maier. Not surprisingly, the other three did not respond. I do not
always agree with the two respondents, but they always respond.
Read the article...
9 comments:
A woman named Lewis who has hair like a poodle owns about 20 in Lake Worth. Havent seen much of her around. We have ordinances about how long you can rent for on our books. They were Grandfathered in.
This is disgusting; it makes a mockery out of single family zoning. I'd raise hell about this not being zoned as a business. They won't even let artists show their work to one person from their homes. It's beyond azzinine.
Our city is in one big horrible mess.
Then move if it's such a horrible mess
@8:58...is this one of our "leaders" with a solution to a very real problem?
Yup, its a very important issue and one that I've also complained about. Luckily, the City of Lake Worth DOES have a short term rental law that was on the books before the state changed the law. That means it is grandfathered in and can be enforced. Why isn't it?? Well, I've got my suspicions and 75% has to do with campaign contributions by the vacation rental crowd and the other 25% has to do with fear of litigation.
The sober home issue could also be addressed via our short tern rental law, if it was enforced, but the catch is it has to be enforced neutrally which means no short tern rentals either.
I urge folks who have these vacation rentals near them to make report them to the property appraiser if they are homesteaded, and many are, because that is homestead fraud. Then report them to tax collector because most are engaged in tax fraud as well, if they are rented for less than six months. Also report to the City, start with business license and rental license and then move up to code and complain that these folks are running an illegal business in a residential zoned area. If everyone took the time to do this, the result would be higher taxes collected on these folks which benefits all of us and run some of them out of town.
Another thing too to mention related to all these homes converted to vacation homes is that many are renting out there homes, yet receive full or double homestead exemption on them yet they do not live in them, I know of two in the city and there are likely hundreds, the home at 214 2nd Ave North has a double exemption yet is always rented out and listed on Airbnb for like $100 a night, even owned by a teacher who is not being ethical short changing the government not paying their fair share of taxes. Another at 504 5th Ave N rents too and has for 5-10 years yet receives homestead exemption and the owner lives in Hawaii and has for years. There is so much corruption, greed, and unethical people in this city renting out their homes yet get homestead exemption on them short changing our government and taxes, they we have to pay another cent to 7% tax, it is so unfair. The county and city need to crack down on all these cheating the government, it is not fair to the rest of us.
Hope you reported them both...
Report them, the property appraiser is good about investigating and collecting. The folks who are engaged in homestead tax fraud increase taxes on the rest of us who play by the rules. Also, if they are not paying bed taxes, report them to the tax collector, same issue. If you know someone is renting out a home on VRBO or elsewhere, take a screen shot or print out the ads and send them with your fraud report. I've reported a bunch and, while it takes too long on the homestead front, almost all have lost their homestead exemptions. The tax collector never reports back so I've no idea if my reports to that office have resulted in bed taxes being collected. I think at least 7 of the 10 I've reported in my LW neighborhood have lost their homestead exemption and since there is a time lag the other 3 or so could be losing theirs too. I've not spent any time reporting outside my own neighborhood but I'm sure its ripe for the picking. I've said the city should hire someone to do so b/c of all the tax money they could collect but it would probably be counter to the campaign money pot that our elected officials collect from. Thankfully property appraiser office and tax collector office seem most interested in facts and fraud.
These people are engaging in fraud and raising my tax burden so I've no problem reporting them. just put in your neighborhood on VRBO and then report those suckers. you can tell if they are regularly renting out b/c they will have reviews and rental history, etc.
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