Short-term rentals in Akron, explained properly.

Sec. 111.622(B)(12) requires payment of a two hundred fifty dollar application fee, which is non-refundable, with the annual application. The fee is set in the ordinance text itself (Ord. 291-2022), not in a separate dated fee schedule, so it is marked for review; confirm the current amount with the City.

Sec. 111.622(C) says registrations are valid for one calendar year and must be renewed by January 31 of each year. Sec. 111.623 says all operators shall apply to renew no earlier than one hundred eighty days and no later than sixty days before the expiration date. The two sections are in the same article and are not reconciled in the text read, so the renewal deadline is shown as needs-review; confirm the timing with the City before relying on either date.

Sec. 111.622(D) lists ten grounds. They include: missing application materials or fee; a revoked or suspended registration for the operator or the rental; delinquent tax or utility payments to the City, including the short-term rental excise tax; a material misrepresentation; certain prostitution or Ohio Revised Code Chapter 2925 or 3719 violations on the premises; uncorrected violations of the article; outstanding City department orders, unpaid fines or fees, or delinquent taxes on the property; three or more orders for noncompliance in the previous five years; and a conviction for violating the article in the previous five years.

The application must give the full legal name, mailing address, e-mail and phone number of the responsible person (Sec. 111.622(B)(3)). The Code defines a responsible person as a natural person designated by the operator with the duty, responsibility and authority to operate, maintain and manage the rental, whose principal residence or principal place of business is in the County of Summit or an adjoining county (Sec. 111.621). The person must be available 24/7 to respond within forty-five minutes of notification of a complaint about the condition, operation or conduct of occupants and be able to take remedial action. The contact information must also be posted at the entrance next to the registration certificate (Sec. 111.624(B)).

Sec. 111.624(F) says the short-term rental must be registered as a rental unit pursuant to Sec. 150.30, and Sec. 111.622(B)(6) requires evidence of compliance with the rental registry requirements of that section with the application. Sec. 150.30 itself was not read for this page.

Sec. 111.624(I) requires owners and operators to update the information provided with the application, including mailing address, e-mail, phone number, ownership or operation, within seven days of the change, in the manner the Mayor determines. The Mayor may also adopt procedural rules and regulations that owners and operators must follow (Sec. 111.625).

Sec. 111.624(C) limits the number of overnight occupants in a short-term rental unit to two occupants per sleeping room. The application must include a basic site plan identifying the number of sleeping rooms for maximum occupancy. The property also may not be used in a manner inconsistent with other chapters of the Code, including the Housing Code and Zoning Code, whose own occupancy limits were not read.

Each short-term rental unit must have fully functional life safety equipment installed to manufacturer specifications: smoke alarms meeting Sec. 150.08, a carbon monoxide detector within fifteen feet of each sleeping room, and a fire extinguisher meeting Sec. 150.08 (Sec. 111.624(D)). The application includes an Affidavit of Life Safety Compliance verifying the number, locations and operation of this equipment (Sec. 111.622(B)(7)).

Sec. 111.622(B)(8) lists proof of general liability insurance in the amount of at least one million dollars among the items the annual application must contain.

The registration certificate number must appear on all electronic and non-electronic advertisements (Sec. 111.624(B)(1)); the certificate must be on the platform listing as well (Sec. 111.622(A)). Inside the unit, the certificate must be displayed prominently at the entrance next to an advisory form listing the responsible person's contact information, the police and fire departments serving the area, all means of egress, and the activities and behaviors prohibited by the article. If the Mayor designates an official advisory form, that form must be used.

Sec. 111.624(E) requires a record of the periods the rental was rented, the price paid by transient guests and a copy of the rental agreement for each short-term rental, kept for at least seven years. Separately, operators must keep records of gross revenues for the excise tax (Sec. 104.53).

Sec. 111.624(H) requires each owner and operator to remain current on all existing tax liabilities to the City of Akron, including payment of the short-term rental excise tax and filing an Annual Akron Municipal Income tax return reflecting a Federal Schedule E rental property income/loss. The application also includes certificates of tax and public utility compliance or evidence of a payment plan (Sec. 111.622(B)(5)).

Each hosting platform facilitating short-term rentals in Akron must register with the Treasurer before commencing business, with an executed release allowing the Tax Commissioner to certify compliance (Sec. 104.54(B)). Platforms file a return on or before the last day of the month following each calendar quarter, or a shorter period set by the Tax Commissioner, and remit the tax held in trust (Sec. 104.55). The Treasurer may enter an agreement with a platform to set up a process for the platform to collect and pay the tax for transactions through that platform (Sec. 104.51(C)). Check with the City Treasurer or Division of Taxation about which platforms collect on a host's behalf.

An operator who fails to remit the tax, or to cause a platform to collect and remit it, within the time required pays a penalty equal to ten percent of the tax in addition to the tax. If the Treasurer determines non-payment is due to fraud, a penalty of twenty-five percent of the tax is added. Interest runs at one-half percent per month, or fraction of a month, on the tax from the date the remittance became delinquent until paid (Sec. 104.57). The Tax Commissioner may abate penalty or interest where a return was filed in good faith and an assessment paid on time. An assessment may be heard by the Tax Commissioner within thirty days of notice and appealed to the Board of Review within thirty days of the determination (Secs. 104.56, 104.58).

Article 3 of Chapter 104 levies an excise tax of three percent on rents paid by transient guests for lodging furnished by a hotel or motel (Sec. 104.62). The article defines a hotel or motel as an establishment where sleeping accommodations are offered for consideration to guests and five or more rooms are used for guests, in one or several structures. The short-term rental excise tax is a separate levy under Article 2. Check with the City Division of Taxation how a short-term rental with five or more rooms is treated; this page does not add the two rates together.

Violations of Article 37 carry administrative penalties of up to one hundred dollars for a first offense, up to five hundred dollars for a second, and up to one thousand dollars for a third and later offense, plus one hundred dollars per week for operating or advertising an unregistered rental, capped at four thousand five hundred dollars per calendar year (Sec. 111.629(A)). A violation is also a third-degree misdemeanor with a fine of not more than five hundred dollars, up to sixty days in jail, or both, with mandatory minimum fines of fifty, two hundred, three hundred fifty or five hundred dollars depending on prior convictions (Sec. 111.629(D)). A separate offense is committed each day a violation continues, the provisions impose strict liability, and each owner and operator is jointly and severally liable. The Mayor may waive or reduce an administrative penalty for good cause (Sec. 111.627(C)). Unpaid penalties are certified to the County Auditor as a special assessment against the real estate.

Sec. 111.627(D) and Sec. 111.629(E) allow revocation of the registration certificate if the use poses a risk to public health, safety and welfare; if in the preceding five years the property has been subject to three or more notices of violation or orders to comply under the Code (including the Housing, Zoning, Litter, Fire and Building Codes); or if an owner or operator has been convicted of violating the article within the past five years. A notice of violation or order to comply may be appealed to the Board of Housing Appeals by written notice to the Department of Neighborhood Assistance, Housing Division, within ten days after the notice is served, with a non-refundable deposit of fifteen dollars (Sec. 111.628). Notices may be served on the operator and owner at the e-mail address on the registration application.

The Department of Taxation's taxability guide lists hotel room rentals as taxable for stays under 30 days in facilities with 5 or more sleeping rooms. Its information release on bed and breakfasts quotes the Ohio Revised Code definition of a hotel (an establishment where sleeping accommodations are offered to guests and five or more rooms are used for guests, in one or several structures) and of transient guests (stays of less than thirty consecutive days), and says a bed and breakfast with fewer than five rooms available to transient guests is not a hotel and does not have to charge the tax on the room; food served on the premises is still taxed unless room and meal charges are separated. The Department gives the state sales tax rate as 5.75 percent. The information release dates from 1995 and cites older letters of R.C. 5739.01; the current text of the Revised Code could not be read for this page. How a whole-home short-term rental counts its rooms is not addressed by the sources read; check with the Department of Taxation. City and county lodging taxes are shown on each place's page.

Since September 1, 2019, a marketplace facilitator that meets substantial nexus in Ohio is treated as the seller for the sales it facilitates and must collect and pay Ohio sales tax on them. The Department of Taxation says that, to count as facilitating a sale, the marketplace must be selling a taxable good or service used or received in Ohio, and that this excludes lodging by a hotel. The Department pages read do not say whether booking platforms collect state sales tax on stays at short-term rentals that are hotels (five or more rooms); check with the platform and the Department. City rules on platform collection of city lodging taxes are shown on each place's page.