Short-term rentals in Beachwood, explained properly.

Sec. 1391.022 directs the Building Commissioner to conduct one interior and four exterior inspections of single-family residential short-term rental units on a schedule the Commissioner sets. The owner or agent is notified and must arrange an appointment within thirty days of the notice. If a scheduled inspection is cancelled on less than twenty-four hours' notice, a fee set by City Council must be paid before a re-inspection is scheduled. If the owner, agent or occupant refuses consent, the Commissioner may seek an administrative search warrant from a court within ten calendar days of the refusal. The section also says no criminal penalty, penalty or fine under the chapter attaches, and no certificate is denied, solely because of a refusal to consent to a full inspection; if no warrant is sought or issued the inspection does not take place and no certificate is issued. Repeated failure of the owner, manager or agent to attend may end the current certificate or lead to denial of recertification. The fee amounts are not shown here.

An agent is any person eighteen or older authorized by the owner to act on the owner's behalf. The owner who needs an agent or manager must keep one at all times and give the Building Commissioner the name, address and telephone number of the individual or individuals responsible. A post office box may not be the only address on the application.

Chapter 1391 sets a non-refundable application and renewal fee, a reinstatement fee after revocation, a fee for an untimely application submitted after the unit is found occupied, a fee for a denied application that is re-submitted, a fee if no application is submitted by the end of the calendar year, a fee for missing an inspection and a fee for a late inspection cancellation, each "as established by City Council". The fee schedule hasn't been reviewed yet, so no dollar amounts or schedule date are shown. Unpaid certificate fees may be assessed against the property and certified to the County Auditor for collection.

Reinstatement requires a new application, payment of the application fee, the reinstatement fee and any accrued fines, and completion of the procedure the Building Commissioner requires to show the property is back in substantial compliance. A certificate signed by the Building Commissioner is evidence that the premises comply with Chapters 1391 and 1393 and other applicable ordinances. Chapter 1393 and the penalty provisions for violations are not shown here.

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.