Category Archive : Property Management

LAS VEGAS, NV – Since the use of short term rental services such as Airbnb and VRBO were legalized in unincorporated Clark County, the ability of local officials to properly license renters and establish a series of regulations governing the industry has been slow and wrought with speed bumps, causing a great deal of frustration for those waiting to make their properties available to the many tourists that visit Southern Nevada each week. 

An initial batch of guidelines rolled out were received negatively by renters and were eventually ruled as being unconstitutional by a judge. A lawsuit is now pending with the Nevada Supreme Court against Clark County brought by the Greater Las Vegas Short-Term Rental Association (GLVSTRA), which claims that an overly complicated application process – including what they say was an inadequate amount of time to submit paperwork, prompting the county to extend deadlines – has been financially damaging to their members. 

In their process of writing these new regulations, they just threw anything and everything they could think to make it as difficult and as hard for people to get a license and to operate even after you have a license,” said GLVSTRA President Jacqueline Flores. “We really didn’t have a seat at the table.” 

According to a website that tracks properties listed on short term rental sites Airbnb and VRBO – known as AirDNA – the Las Vegas metropolitan area has approximately 13,000 active rentals, and officials in Clark County have said that they are attempting to “methodically” fine-tune their licensing process to ensure they are taxed properly. 

The issues originally stem from the passage of AB363 in 2021 by the Nevada State Legislature, which mandated that municipalities create licensing processes and regulations for short term rentals; previously, such rental units were illegal in Clark County, although enforcement of this ban was practically nonexistent.   

Since the passage of AB363, cities such as Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas have created procedures covering application, inspection, and enforcement, but many renters in Clark County have claimed their process in particular has been needlessly convoluted and overly strict. Some points of contention include a 1,000 feet minimum distance between rentals, a 10 p.m. curfew for outdoor activities, and radios, stereos and sound speakers being relegated to indoor use only. 

Issues with the application process – which included a pre-application lottery and tight deadlines the submission of paperwork – have resulted in extreme frustration on the part of renters, according to Flores, who claimed that Clark County has “purposefully created this convoluted mess” as a means to purposely discourage short-term rental owners from applying for licenses, reportedly in response to quality-of-life complaints issued by residents that have short term rental hosts as neighbors. 

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – Following the expiration of a specific COVID-19 expiration this past June, landlords in Las Vegas are now allowed to proceed with evicting tenants who have not been paying their rent, even if said tenant has applied for and is awaiting approval for participation in rental assistance programs.  

As a result of the expiration of these tenant protections – in addition to Nevada state Governor Joe Lombardo recently vetoing two similarly-themed bills – courtrooms across the Las Vegas Valley have encountered a surge of eviction cases recently, and are bracing for yet still more in the coming weeks. 

To compensate for the increased number of cases on the docket, the courts have been forced to add additional days and hours for hearing eviction cases in order to keep up with the huge workload. 

According to the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada, the increase in eviction cases they are handling has jumped from 300 or so on what would normally be termed a “busy day” to now over 400 to 500 a day. 

In addition to the expiration of COVID-19 protections, the main contributing factor for the rise in eviction rates in recent weeks comes from two bills that Governor Lombardo vetoed after they passed in the Nevada Legislature. The first one, AB340, would have changed the procedures governing evictions in order to give tenants an extended period of time to respond to an eviction notice; the second bill, SB355, would have placed a moratorium on evicting disabled and senior tenants who had applied for aid in paying their rent. 

Both of these bills were summarily vetoed by Lombardo, who said that AB340 would have made the eviction process unnecessarily longer than needed and would prove harmful to landlords statewide. 

AB340 would restructure Nevada’s summary eviction process in a manner that would impose additional and unnecessary delays and costs on those seeking to remove individuals who unlawfully remain on their property after the termination of their lease,” he said. “This bill would make our summary eviction process more time-consuming than our peer states and would create ambiguous threshold standards which could be ruled upon by a judge without any formal hearing, providing insufficient protections for Nevada property owners.” 

And while Lombardo agreed that SB78 would add transparency to the rental process, he objected to the bill’s “wide-ranging changes to accounting practices, traditional fee collection, certain disclosures and various notice requirements for landlords,” adding that it would have made the current shortage of rentals in Nevada even worse. 

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – Amid Clark County’s numerous delays issuing licenses for short term rentals within its borders, more and more homeowners are illegally listing their properties for rent on services like Airbnb and VRBO, risking serious fines if they are caught. 

Homeowners who are prospective short-term rental operators have been vocal in their complaints about the county’s slow licensing process as the typically busy summer season is passing them by; many are also worried about missing out on tourists visiting the region for upcoming Formula 1 races.  

Currently, Clark County officials have not provided a timeframe for when the first licenses will be issued, only initially stating that applications must be submitted by late June; this date was later pushed back to late August after some homeowners complained that they did not receive pertinent information in the mail following a March 29 pre-application lottery. 

According to Greater Las Vegas Short-Term Rental Association (GLVSTRA) President Jackie Flores, due to the delays some homeowners have resorted to clandestinely listing their rental properties online in order to help cover the costs incurred by their currently empty units. 

They’re stuck in a situation where they have bills to pay,” Flores said. “We have told [county officials] many, many, many times.” 

Homeowners who were previously operating short-term rentals were required to stop doing so in order to apply for a license. Leslie Doyle, 83, said that she has lost 50 percent of her income by doing so, and the delays are crippling her financially. 

Some of us will die waiting,” she said. “We [seniors] are the ones who need it most.” 

If caught, the penalties for running unlicensed short-term rentals in Clark County are stiff, ranging from $1,000 to $10,000 a day and even a potential visit from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. 

Currently, GLVSTRA is in the process of suing Clark County over the proposed regulations governing short term rentals, claiming that some of them are unconstitutional. Barring any delays, the Nevada State Supreme Court may hear the case in December. 

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – Being a landlord of a rental property typically comes with many responsibilities, and one of the major ones is dealing with regular upkeep, maintenance, and repairs that will inevitably be required as a result of not only normal wear and tear, but tenant negligence, acts of nature, or a variety of other factors. Issues could range from a leaky faucet or broken water pipe all the way up to replacing an HVAC System or even an entire roof.  

But while approaching a maintenance or repair job may seem fairly straightforward to the uninitiated, exactly who a landlord chooses to employ to go about it can have major financial repercussions for them, as well as their management company, if they are not familiar with the laws in their state that mandate licensure requirements based on the size and complexity of the job at hand. 

The Nevada State Contractors Board (NSCB) is a quasi-governmental consumer protection and advocacy agency empowered by the state – according to their website – to ensure “the integrity and professionalism of the construction industry in Nevada. The NSCB has the responsibility to promote quality construction by Nevada licensed contractors through a regulatory licensing system designed to protect the health, safety and welfare of the public.”

Essentially, the NSCB is tasked with “determining the qualifications of applicants prior to licensing, setting forth conditions for licenses, such as limiting the field and scope of the operations of a licensed contractor, bond requirements and establishing maximum contractual limits.” The NSCB is also empowered to create rules and regulations governing the construction industry within the boundaries of the state, and is able to enforce them by levying penalties upon violators, such as fines and other punitive measures.

One particular aspect of NSCB regulations that Nevada landlords should be especially careful to abide by comes to the type of individuals or companies they employ when conducting repairs on their rental properties. While a local handyman who does not meet specific NSCB licensing requirements may be acceptable to conduct minor maintenance or repairs upon a property, any work that goes above the value of $1,000 – and if it requires a specialty license such as electrical, plumbing and heating, refrigeration and air conditioning, roofing and siding, or so on – must be carried out by NSCB-licensed contractors who are considered experts at their respective trades.  

Not adhering to this important aspect of Nevada state law (NRS 624) can see a landlord slapped by the NSCB with numerous penalties, including significant fines and more.

Landlords should also beware of repairmen who tout themselves as being a “licensed handyman,” as no such thing actually exists within the state of Nevada. While anyone conducting business in the state must possess a business license, this is not the same thing as having a contractor’s license granted to qualified individuals or companies by the NSCB. Based on this fact, the scope of services that a handyman is able to provide in the state is curtailed by law, and attempting to circumvent that law for any reason could result in serious consequences. 

For one, a landlord could find themselves fined or otherwise penalized by the NSCB, as mentioned earlier in this document. But perhaps even more importantly, work carried out by an unlicensed handyman who does not meet the skill requirements mandated by state law could potentially carry out extremely shoddy repairs that ultimately could result in additional expenditures down the line at best, and potential danger to a landlord’s tenants and/or property at worst. 

Under Nevada state law (NRS 624.031), there are also numerous aspects of home repair and maintenance that are illegal to be carried out by a handyman, unlicensed contractor, or homeowner who intends to either sell or lease the residence within one year. These illegal acts include work normally performed by a licensed Plumbing, Electrical, or HVAC contractor; any work that requires an official permit to carry out; a job where the combined cost of material and labor are in excess of $1,000; and any work related to safety measures. 

Also, according to the NSCB, contracting without a license is considered a crime in the state of Nevada; as per the agency’s website, “It is unlawful for any person or combination of persons to engage in the business or act in the capacity of a contractor within the state of Nevada or submit a bid on a job situated within this state without having an active license.”

The first offense is a misdemeanor, second offense a gross misdemeanor, and third offense a Class E felony, according to the NSCB. 

As you can see, the facts clearly speak for themselves; a properly responsible landlord should always leave major repair work to properly licensed professionals, without fail. Cutting corners with a handyman just to hold onto a few bucks or avoid red tape can cost you way more than you save in the long run. 

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – Out of the record-breaking 75 bills that were vetoed by Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo in June that pertained to housing in the state, the lone piece of legislation that he signed into law at that time – SB 381, which prevents landlords from charging tenants certain fees to perform repairs – is officially due to take effect on July 1. 

SB 381 officially mandates landlords to not charge their tenants any fees for repair work or regular maintenance required by Nevada state law, as long as the reason for said work is a part of normal wear and tear or are issues that otherwise occur naturally over the course of time. 

However, if the repairs or maintenance or as a result of purposeful action or negligence on the part of the tenant, their occupants or guests, then the landlord is allowed to charge any fees that are deemed necessary for the work involved to restore the property to its previous state. 

As per the new law, Nevada landlords are unable to recoup the costs of repairs from their tenants by either a “pass through” – meaning a combination of interchange fees, assessment fees and payment processor fees that can be bundled together or itemized on the monthly rental bill and charged to the tenant – or by direct reimbursement, as long as the repairs in question are required by law to be paid for by the property owner. 

One major aspect of the law that must be highlighted is that SB 381 only applies to fees and costs associated with habitability – defined in NRS 118A.290 – which maintains that the landlord “shall at all times during the tenancy maintain the dwelling unit in a habitable condition.” This concerns keeping the property in suitable or good enough condition to live in, such as ensuring proper waterproofing, plumbing is in working order, adequate heating and electrical, and so on.  

That being said, landlords should still be allowed to charge fees for issues not related to habitability, according to legal experts.  

Property owners and managers are encouraged to seek out legal counsel to ensure that their paperwork and practices are in compliance with SB 381, and make revisions where needed. 

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – In addition to delays in the pre-approval process on the part of Clark County and early regulations that were considered overreaching and burdensome by many, the latest hurdle that applicants for short term rentals in the Las Vegas area are encountering is difficulties in obtaining insurance. 

According to Las Vegas insurance broker Tiffany VanTuyl, Clark County’s short-term rental regulations are utilizing uncommon and confusing terminology when it comes to insurance requirements which are causing issues for her clients who are attempting to submit applications. 

The problems, VanTuyl noted, are due to the regulations that specifically state the following: “Evidence of general liability insurance in the amount of at least five hundred thousand dollars per occurrence that indicates the property is used for transient lodging.” 

The complication is with the term “transient lodging,” which VanTuyl said is not utilized in her industry and is causing a roadblock for her clients who are attempting to obtain coverage. 

No insurance company that I’m familiar with uses that term,” she said. “They use either ‘short term rentals’ or ‘seasonal lodging.’ Every company uses different terminology, so it’s not a cookie cutter coverage.” 

VanTuyl stated that she has reached out to Clark County officials about the issue, but claimed that they have been dragging their feet on assisting her with a resolution, frustrating her clients who have already experienced problems with the short-term application process. 

They did say that they wanted it to say a specific terminology and I’ve sent documents from the underwriting department of two different companies, and they have not responded yet,” she said. 

Louis Koorndyk, co-founder of the Greater Las Vegas Short Term Rental Association. said that he has also been experiencing complaints from renters who have attempted to contact the county over the confusing terminology and have often received conflicting information in response. 

Whoever picked up the line at Clark County will say it absolutely has to say, ‘transient lodging,’ it cannot say seasonal,” Koorndyk said. “Then somebody else will make that exact same phone call and get different information, ‘yes, it may say seasonal.’ So, we have this confusion going on.” 

Clark County officials approved approximately 1,200 short-term rental pre-applications in May, allowing those individuals to proceed with the process of acquiring a full rental license. 

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – Clark County will be sending out notices to potential short-term rental applicants following the recent conclusion of a random lottery drawing, with anyone who submitted a pre-application slated to receive their results within eight weeks via certified mail and e-mail; an extended span of time that is causing frustration for many would-be renters.

Among those who pre-applied to run a short-term rental within the confines of Clark County, 1,169 of those applications were deemed as eligible, whereas 137 were declared ineligible.

Among the reasons for failing to qualify as a short-term operator that were cited by county officials included the property being located within 2,500 feet of a resort hotel; being located outside of unincorporated Clark County; being located in an ineligible township; and being located within a building that is classified as a timeshare or vacation home.

Despite the fact that county regulations mandate that all licensed short-term rentals maintain a minimum distance of 1,000 feet from one another, no distance requirements were mentioned after the lottery drawing.

The 1,169 pre-applicants who were successfully drawn in the lottery will be allowed to submit an official application to become licensed as a short-term rental owner operator upon receipt of their notice.

However, the eight-week delay in the notices going out is causing confusion among pre-applicants who are uncertain whether or not to begin making plans for the future, according to Greater Las Vegas Shorter Term Rental Association co-founder Louis Koorndyk.

“The host community is very frustrated with Clark County. They’re trying to make plans; they’re trying to plan their future. They’re trying to figure out, what do we do with this property?” he said. “Expedia has been reaching out to us and asked us questions. They’ve even emailed us saying, look, we’ve seen licensing process put in effect across the country. We haven’t seen anything take this long before.”

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – Members of the Nevada state legislature are currently mulling over legislation that, if passed, would institute a ceiling on the amount that landlords could increase the rent of their tenants, with the cap tied to the local cost of living index for the rental unit’s surrounding area, a number that would be determined by the Nevada State Housing Authority.

In addition, the legislation in its current form would also mandate that landlords would be prohibited from imposing any rent increases upon a tenant during the first year they inhabit the unit in question. 

The bill – authored by Nevada State Senator Pat Spearman – also includes language that would officially declare a housing crisis in the state if it were passed.

“A minimum-wage earner would need to work 62 hours to afford a studio apartment,” Senator Spearman said to the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee last week, adding that women and people of color are disproportionately affected by the affordability gap when it comes to housing options.

Senator Spearman also noted that approximately 30 percent of single-family homes in Nevada are currently owned by investors.

While several groups have come out in support of Spearman’s legislation, there is also a fair amount of opposition to it as well; State Senator Jeff Stone – who rents out properties himself – expressed concern over a clause in the bill that pertains to the degree of profit a landlord can gain from their rental units.

“How do you define reasonable return on investment, when there are so many variables that different landlords have to contend with?” Stone asked, who said that simple mom and pop landlords – among whose number he counts himself – to be disproportionately affected if this bill is passed in its current form.

“To create all these bureaucratic pathways that I have to go through to justify what I can charge a tenant, not to charge 5 percent when inflation is 8.5 percent, you’re already requiring landlords to take a 3.5 percent hit,” Stone said.

Stone said another clause in the bill governing new construction does not do enough to incentivize new housing developments and only offers an advantage to large-scale investors.

“You are going to hinder investment,” he said. “And if you hinder investment, it’s going to exacerbate the supply and demand issues that we have here in Nevada.”

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – Officials in Clark County Nevada unanimously voted Tuesday to amend their ordinances governing short-term rentals within its jurisdiction in order to update regulations that a judge had previously ruled to be unconstitutional.

Previously, a lawsuit filed by the Greater Las Vegas Short-Term Rental Association (GLVSTRA) had resulted in a preliminary injunction being imposed by District Court Judge Jessica Peterson, who had ruled that certain aspects of Clark County’s short term rental ordinances regulating the local industry were “vague” and “unconstitutional.” 

County attorney Lisa Logsdon said this week the commissioners agreed to clean up the language in their guidelines, noting that the county “took many of the court’s suggestions in drafting these amendments to ensure that the amendments address the court’s concerns with the ordinance.”

The changes to the ordinance are as follows:

• Renters are no longer required to sign applications under penalty of perjury.
• Inspectors must now provide 48 hours’ notice before showing up to inspect a property; previously, no advance notice was required.
• Large parties are still forbidden at short term rental properties, but the previously “vague” definition of what constitutes a large party has been stricken from the regulations.
• The county will now rely on existing code that regulates noise, lighting and air-quality standards.

However, GLVSTRA President and Director Jacqueline Flores issued a statement reacting to the news of Clark County’s revisions to their ordinance, saying that she did not believe they would be sufficient to alleviate the concerns of the over 700 homeowners that her organization represents.

“Many of those amendments do very little to fix the infirmities the Court has serious issues with and in other cases the County just didn’t fix some of the Sections at all,” she said. “The County is doing very little or nothing at all to satisfy the unconstitutionality of those provisions.” 

Logsdon noted that Clark County officials are eager to arrive at an agreement that would satisfy GLVSTRA’s lawsuit, saying that the district attorney’s office had requested that the association draft a “written settlement offer” and submit it for their consideration. 

Flores responded that there was a lack of interest on the part of Clark County commissioners last month to discuss a potential settlement, but noted that if their attitude is now different, she would be willing to discuss it with them.

“If the County Commissioners have now changed their mind, then we welcome that conversation,” she said.

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – The Nevada Legislature last week introduced Assembly Bill 340, which, if passed, will change how landlords in Nevada can evict tenants from their properties by forcing them to first file an affidavit in court before they are allowed to start the eviction process. 

AB 340 was presented to the Nevada Legislature Assembly Judiciary Committee last Wednesday, with the sponsors of the legislation saying that its intent is to protect tenants in the state who are struggling to keep up with increases in their rent.

A local organization backing the bill, Battle Born Progress, said that it would give tenants more time to respond to an eviction request by mandating landlords to file a court order before they can serve an eviction notice.

“If a landlord needs to evict a tenant that can still happen,” said Battle Born Progress representative Will Pregman. “But there needs to be an ability for the tenant to reasonably respond to it.”

But while some groups are supporting the bill, many others are criticizing it; Derek Moellinger of Vice Realty Group, which manages apartment complexes, issued a statement condemning AB 340 while also referencing a previous piece of pandemic-era legislation – AB 486, set to expire in June – which stays an eviction proceeding if a tenant has an application for rental assistance pending.

“Landlords have been destroyed in the state because of AB 486. Now the state seeks to further damage landlords with this new bill. I am an investor and I manage almost 1000 properties and I will not put one dollar of my own money into Nevada,” he said. “I counsel every one of my investors to move out of this state and move to a state that actually has fair eviction laws. Right now, in Nevada a tenant can claim to have applied for rental assistance and with that claim, whether true or not, the eviction process will take a minimum of six months and can go as long as a year. During that entire time, the landlord receives no money; and when the tenant finally moves out, the landlord has no recourse to regain any of that lost money. The tenant can then break back into the unit and it is not considered a crime. It’s a civil matter, and the landlord must go back to court and try to remove this person again.”

“These are the kinds of laws that landlords have to deal with in Nevada right now and it’s insane to me that the state wants to further punitively damage landlords when housing is the scarcest resource Nevada has,” Moellinger continued. “You have Investors like me and my friends who have millions of dollars at their disposal and refuse to spend a dollar of it in Nevada anymore. We used to be the reasons blocks were repaired and we were the reason tenants were placed. We were the reason things improved for low-income people. Now it’s a disaster in this state and it’s only going to get worse because the state is chasing away the only people who are willing to actually make a difference, which are owners.”

AB 340 would have to be approved by the state assembly and senate before it could be signed into law by Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo.

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – Last week, Clark County held a lottery to rank applicants for potential licenses to operate short term rentals via services such as Airbnb and Vrbo, although a group representing rental operators criticized the drawing, calling it unnecessary and confusing.

Greater Las Vegas Short-Term Rental Association (GLVSTRA) President Jacqueline Flores complained about the lottery, essentially calling it a waste of time.

“It is important to highlight that the Clark County Short Term Rental Lottery today will serve no purpose other than to merely establish the order in which applications will be reviewed by the County staff,” she said. “This is not what will ultimately determine who will get a license.”

The lottery, which was held on March 29 in a closed-door meeting that was streamed online and broadcast on local public television stations, placed the 1,306 forms that the county had received over the course of a six-month application process into a “random number selector.” However, while officials have yet to reveal how many licenses they will ultimately grant to applicants, they have clarified that they will not exceed 1 percent of the county’s existing “housing stock.”

The lottery – carried out by Smartplay International Inc., with the results tallied by consulting firm Baker Tilly U.S. LLP – took place despite a preliminary injunction having been imposed by District Court Judge Jessica Peterson, who had ruled that certain aspects of Clark County’s short term rental ordinances regulating the local industry where “vague” and “unconstitutional.”

That injunction came as a result of a lawsuit filed against the county by GLVSTRA, which has petitioned the Nevada Supreme Court to rule on the case. Currently, Clark County officials are attempting to make changes to the short-term rental ordinances that were struck down by the District Court judge last month.

Before Clark County began the process of establishing legal short-term rentals within its boundaries, officials estimated that there had been previously as many as 10,000 homes without permits being rented out illegally.

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – Despite the fact that Clark County officials have recently stated they plan to make changes to some of the rules governing the short-term rental industry within their jurisdiction, that doesn’t appear to be enough for the Greater Las Vegas Short-Term Rental Association (GLVSTRA), which has announced they want the Nevada Supreme Court to rule on whether or not the short-term regulations county officials have laid in place are constitutional or not.

GLVSTRA has been engaging in a legal battle with Clark County regarding what they refer to as overly strict and intrusive ordinances put in place regarding homes rented through services such as Airbnb and Vrbo. In February, District Court Judge Jessica Peterson ruled that aspects of the ordinances are unconstitutional and issued a preliminary injunction to temporarily block them.

Sections of Clark County’s ordinances that Peterson declared unconstitutional included a clause that mandated that those seeking to establish a short-term rental must sign their application under penalty of perjury; in addition, random inspections of rental properties with no notice, vague definitions over what is considered a “party” or a “disturbance,” and the ability of the county to issue “discretionary fines and penalties” were also temporarily struck down by last month’s ruling.

Despite clearing that legal hurdle, GLVSTRA appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court this week because they say their full array of claims against Clark County were not addressed by the District Court Judge’s ruling, according to GLVSTRA President Jacqueline Flores.

Flores said that her organization takes particular exception to Clark County’s use of a lottery system to determine which short-term rental applicants will be granted licenses, in addition to requirements mandating specific minimum distances between rental properties and hotels.

Despite attempts to sit down and hash things out with Clark County officials, Flores said the two sides were unable to come to a fair and equitable arrangement, thus necessitating the organization’s move to appeal the case to the state’s highest court.

“We have been trying to work with the county commissioners in good faith and they have refused to do that so far,” Flores said. “We need a Nevada Supreme Court ruling. That way we’re able to address all those municipalities at the same time, and ultimately the entire state.”

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.