Assertion: We must ban rentals because the Scottsdale ordinance prohibiting short term rentals is no longer in effect.
Fact: Short term rentals have existed since our community was founded. Scottsdale’s short term rental ordinance was never enforced.
Only recently, at the March 26 2018 DMMA Board Meeting did Board President Rich Sherman admit that the Scottsdale Rental ban had never been enforced.
The original/Current DM CC&Rs allow rentals in most villages and offered little in the way of rules beyond requiring leases and mandating owners to notify DMMA of a lease. It stipulates that owners have an intrinsic responsibility for tenant behavior. See DMMA CC&Rs (Section 1.2.2)
Of the 27 Villages in Desert Mountain 6 specified restricted them to a certain period including: Cochise Geronimo, Haciendas, Lone Mountain II, Lost Star, Seven Arrows and Saguaro Forest. The other 21 DM village CC&Rs were silent on such time period restrictions.
The city of Scottsdale has had regulations prohibiting any rental of a home for fewer than 30 days since the late 1950s, which many say was an effort to protect the tourism industry — specifically hotel room rates and occupancy.
In May 2016, Governor Ducey signed a law overturning local laws limiting prohibition of Short Term Rentals. This action essentially overturned Scottsdale’s existing ordinance prohibiting rentals. While this took the law off the books, it functionally made few changes. According to published material from City of Scottsdale, “Historically, it has been very difficult to prevent homes from being used for short term stays because of the time and effort required to meet court test for successful prosecution” Essentially the Scottsdale law was never enforced.
While the Scottsdale rental ordinance was never enforced and rentals in our community had existed for years, DMMA used implementation of the new state law as the fundamental call to action for its rental ban.
“Until the end of 2016, the City of Scottsdale maintained an ordinance prohibiting the rentals of private homes located within the city with terms of less than 30 days. The state of Arizona enacted a law, effective January 1, 2017, which now prevents cities, towns or counties from prohibiting short term rentals.”
“This new legislation has had an impact on many private communities, such as Desert Mountain, where Owners and Members are concerned about their continued ability to retain control…..”
“Your Board is very concerned about the potential for short-term, potentially nuisance-type of rental activities to invade Desert Mountain ….”
Remember, only recently, at the March 26 2018 DMMA Board Meeting did Board President Rich Sherman admit that the Scottsdale Rental ban had never been enforced.
Desert Mountain Homeowners Coalition 