Short-term rental owners reach deadline, now required to register with the City of Houston

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The City of Houston's first short-term rental ordinance is finally going to be enforced.

Starting April 2, property owners who don't register with the city can be fined or delisted from websites like Airbnb or VRBO. It's the first law of its kind in Houston.

"We were receiving complaints about bad behavior, noise, late-night parties, sometimes even violence," said Councilman Julian Ramirez, the chair of the city's Quality of Life Committee, which drew up the new law.

Ramirez showed ABC13 the city's new database, which has nearly 4,000 registered rentals that anyone can search. Click here to see the new database.

He says another 1,100 applications are pending, which he says means an estimated 83% of the city's short-term rentals have complied so far.

"We know what platforms they are being listed on, and we can go to the platforms and tell them, 'Hey, this needs to be de-listed,' if they're not going to comply," he said.

Property owners are now required to register with the city, provide contact information, undergo training, and pay a $275 fee every year. That fee is intended to support enforcement.

"Short-term rentals are not a new phenomenon," explained builder and housing advocate Laolu Davies-Yemitan. "What changed was the ease with which they became accessible -- the online access."

Davies-Yemitan said the new law will likely help police track rentals.

On the first of the year, the very first day this ordinance was in effect, but before enforcement started, Houston police said at least seven people were shot at two separate parties at short-term rentals.

And over the past five months, the City of Houston data requested by ABC13 shows that 228 formal complaints have been filed with the city about local short-term rentals.

The upcoming World Cup is expected to increase visitor numbers.

"People who are entrepreneurial want to capitalize on this influx of people, but then the city also has its responsibility and obligation to its visitors can be safe and if emergencies occur, there's a way the city can rapidly respond to that," Davies-Yemitan said.