Short term rentals will soon be allowed in all residential areas of Montgomery County, Maryland. A home rented on a daily or weekly basis is often referred to as an AirBnb--which is the dominant online booking web site for short term rentals.
Under current law, no residential rentals are permitted in Montgomery County for less than 30 days. Faced with widespread illegal daily and weekly rentals, the County Council passed legislation in October, 2017 to allow these rentals where the property is the primary residence of the owner or owner-authorized resident of the rental property. However, condominiums, homeowner associations and housing cooperatives will still be allowed to ban or restrict short term rentals.
Before a short term rental is allowed, a license must be obtained from the County. On behalf of the Community Associations Institute, attorney Tom Schild wrote to the Council and testified at the Council hearing to request changes to the proposed legislation to include provisions to better protect condos, HOAs, and coops. As enacted, the new law requires an applicant for a short term rental license to certify that the use is not prohibited by the association governing documents and
that the association fees for the property are not more than 30 days past due. Additionally, the person applying for a short term rental license must notify the condo, HOA or coop and the association can challenge an application which does not meet the licensing requirements.
To address concerns of neighboring residents about "party house" rentals, only registered guests will be allowed on the property with no visitors except persons visiting the primary resident.
Many condominium bylaws ban rentals of less than six months and some coop documents prohibit any sublease without the consent of the coop. For associations which do not currently restrict such use, the governing documents can be amended to restrict or prohibit short term rentals. The new law takes effect July 1, 2018.