Whitefish Council Gets Update From City’s First Short-Term Rental Code Enforcement Specialist
Thirty-four new short-term rentals have received permitting this year, with about half of those due to enforcement action from the city and the other half due to new owners taking action to comply with city code.
By Mike Kordenbrock
About five months into her job, Whitefish’s first short-term rental enforcement specialist, Codi Evenson, updated the city council earlier this week about what she’s seeing and how her work is going so far.
In November 2023, the council approved hiring an employee with the specific responsibility to enforce the city’s codes and regulations for short-term rentals at a time when the city’s busy tourism economy and ongoing housing crisis have led to increased scrutiny of that particular style of vacation rental.
There are 380 permits and licenses in the city for short-term rentals, and about 313 are actively listed online, according to a memo prepared by Evenson and shared with the council for the Aug. 19 work session. In total, Evenson reports that 34 new short-term rentals have received permitting this year, with about half of those due to enforcement action from the city and the other half due to new owners taking action to comply with city code.
Since starting in March, Evenson says she has taken enforcement action against 51 unpermitted short-term rental units, including 19 operating in areas where zoning prohibits them from doing business. Further, Evenson told the council that 22 short-term rentals that were operating outside of allowed zones have been removed from the market, or in some cases converted into monthly rentals. From July 2023 to July 2024, listings for short-term rentals in Whitefish are believed to have dipped by about 11.3%, according to Evenson’s presentation to the council.
The number of permitted and unpermitted rentals is lower than some members of the council expected, but Evenson said afterwards that she expects that number to continue to rise as she gathers more information. Part of that involves using RentalScape, which is software the city purchased to scrape data from short-term rental advertising websites on an hourly basis. The software helps cut through some of the noise when it comes to getting a picture of the short-term rental market in Whitefish by identifying specific addresses, as opposed to simply compiling total listings, which can present an inaccurate snapshot of the market. Evenson said that sometimes a single rental could be listed on three different websites, but that she has seen a single rental show up on as many as 10 websites.
Evenson said that the software has likely yet to come across some listings because bookings happened before she started working for the city in March. In other cases, rentals may not be listed, but owners are maintaining licenses to use for occasional bookings.
She also noted that some short-term rentals that are operating without permits and licensing are being arranged by word of mouth or falsified contracts.
“Like I said in my presentation, we must prove that advertising is taking place, and that money is exchanging hands. I do believe that as my position evolves, and we start becoming more aware of these bad actors, we will start to see more and more compliance and more ways to reach compliance,” Evenson said on Friday.
“I’m not entirely surprised that the numbers aren’t as high as we thought. However, it seems like good progress is being made and it seems clear that there are now potentially dozens of homes that are not short-term rentals that were trying to be, illegally,” Councilor Ben Davis said at the close of the council’s meeting. “I think we should continue doing what we’re doing, in my opinion. I’m perfectly happy going after the low- and medium-hanging fruit without trying to kill ourselves going after the really hard ones. And it’s early, and hopefully those results continue in the future.”
The main challenge so far has been enforcing the city’s regulations on short-term rental properties that advertise for short periods of time in an effort to avoid detection. Evenson characterized some of those as “vampire listings” which only go online outside of City Hall’s work hours and then go offline.
Other challenges that Evenson reported to the council include getting owners to cancel bookings after they’ve been notified they are operating in an area which is not zoned for short-term rentals. In several cases owners have not responded to enforcement letters sent by the city. Evenson shared with the council that City Attorney Angela Jacobs has become involved and is working to “develop and initiate legal actions” in some of those cases. Evenson has also helped design bright red violation notice door hangers that can be used in some cases to try and get owners to comply. The door hanger comes after an illegal rental has been identified, and two notices have been given to owners.
The first notice allows 15 days from the date of the letter to comply. The second notice comes by certified mail and allows an additional 10 days for compliance. The red door hanger stipulates an owner has 48 hours to comply, after which non-compliance can merit possible action from the city attorney.
Evenson described an overarching process that involves prioritizing taking care of the rentals that are not allowed to operate, and then focusing on resolving licensing issues and ensuring that rentals are compliant with city requirements and that their advertised listings note their license.
“I feel like with this position, there’s gonna be more and more layers added to it, right? We’re just peeling an onion back right now,” Evenson said, adding that some of the work will take the city into uncharted waters, and that it could involve some trial-and-error.
As the work to regulate short-term rentals continues, Evenson is also working to become certified as a fire inspector. Short-term rentals are required to undergo yearly inspections including an inspection for fire safety. That fire safety inspection is currently handled by the fire marshal, and so Evenson’s certification is expected to help reduce his already busy workload. Fire inspections include inspections of egress points and smoke detectors. Inspections also look at verifying required off-street parking, and placement of both emergency contact information and a registration number in a visible location near the front door.