Short Term Rentals in Condos and Townhomes present different challenges.

Short term rentaIs in a townhome or condo complex have challenges that free standing homes or ADUs do not have. For example, a free standing home can adjust trash capacity by procuring larger capacity bins to accomodate more people on the propery. Free standing homes are also water metered separtely so that they account for all additinal water used.

However, in a condo or townhome complex that is not the case. The complex that I live and own in is a small complex and we have had short term rentals. We share a common trash system and the units do not have individual water meters. The common trash system is sized to where each unit has 32 gallons of trash per week. It can not be increased due to the design of the development. Also, since there are not separate water meters, higher populations in a unit drive more water usage and that cost is passed onto all of the owners in the complex.

Additionally, move-in-move outs effectively happen weekly, so the additional traffic causes damage to common property and that repair cost is passed to all owners of the development. Tight spaces and minimal space between units means more challenges while backing up and driving through inner drives of the complex. Not to mention other things like cleaning up trash, answering questions on how things work in the complex, and enforcing the rules of the complex in general on people that have never lived there (prohibiting washing cars, parties, noise, smoking etc..). All these things are passed to the owner residents to deal with.

I think it is important to consider these types of developments separately from free standing homes and ADUs because of the way they are set up. For example, if my complex design included that each unit have its own trash management, water metering and drives were sized so that visitors did not require practice to maneuver automobiles through, I would be less concerned. Unfortunately these are things that will not be able to changed based on how some developments are designed and built.