Article Courtesy of ABC
ACTION NEWS
By
Keely McCormick
Published April 3, 2023
|
WATCH VIDEO |
|
PASCO COUNTY — Tampa Bay Homeowners are pushing back against massive corporate
rental companies.
Neighborhood groups in the Tampa Bay area say corporate rental companies are
taking over their neighborhoods. It's something we've seen nationwide, but
especially here in Tampa Bay's hot housing market as the price of paradise
increases.
Michael Smith from Meadow Point said, “1,458 homes and
somewhere in the neighborhood of 250 to 300 of them are
actually rental homes and they’re owned by large
corporations."
Smith said the corporate rentals are taking over his
neighborhood. The price of living in paradise is high, and
for some people renting is the only option.
Smith said he doesn't have an issue with renters, he wants
to see accountability from the rental companies.
“Nobody came by from the rental company to inspect to make
sure it was ready for the new renter. They are flipping it
as fast as they can,” Smith said.
He said they have a hard time getting a hold of the company
because they're not based in Tampa, an issue many
neighborhood groups are facing.
“We had a renter who over a period of a little over two
years ran up 30 violations, and some of these were just out
of control, and we would send, of course, the warnings and
fines to the rental company, which was out of state it went
to a P.O. box we never got resolution," Jim Hammond, the HOA
President for Plantation Palms in Pasco County said.
|
|
Tampa Bay Homeowners are pushing back against massive
corporate rental companies. Neighborhood groups in the Tampa Bay
area say corporate rental companies are taking over their
neighborhoods. It's something we've seen nationwide, but especially
here in Tampa Bay's hot housing market as the price of paradise
increases.
|
He said on top of accountability issues, the companies do not keep up with yard
maintenance.
“When you take a look at some of the other rentals, especially the big corporate
ones, you can pick 'em out they haven’t invested. They don’t paint the house.
They don’t have new roofs on. The yard doesn't look well maintained,” Hammond
said.
Now Hammond is pushing back. The Plantation Palms HOA went through a long
process to amend its governing documents to make it harder for corporate
companies to buy homes within their HOA.
“The package included language that said you can buy a house in Plantation Palm,
but you can not rent it without living in it for at least two years," Hammond
said.
It also added stricter language to prevent homes from being rented on Airbnb and
to keep sex offenders out of the community.
Hammond explained this was not a quick and simple process, but he thinks it will
make a big difference.
Now Hammond is hearing from several other neighborhood groups in the area who
want to make those same changes.
|