At our GMM (general membership meeting) this morning, we had an engaging discussion about the state of Transient Vacation Rentals on Kauai.You see, the County Council passed an ordinance that went into effect last March, 2008, defining the rules and regulations of operating a transient vacation rental on our island. There were really two main components of this ordinance. First were  the rules and regulations for those owners who were operating transient vacation rentals outside the VDA (visitor destination area).  This means that anyone North of Princeville, say Hanalei, Wainiha, or Haena, with homes along or nearby to the beach, would be considered outside the VDA. The county established some extremely contingent criteria for what an owner had to submit in order to receive a NCUC (non-conforming use certificate) from the Planning Department of the County of Kauai. Along with a long list of criteria, the owners of these vacation rentals outside the VDA had to provide a "notarized affidavit". The ordinance stated that each owner needed to have their NCUC by March 31st, 2009.

Today we learned from Louie Abrams, our realtor board's super committed community expert and veteran of real estate and vacation renting, that over 200 applications over the approximately 500 that were submitted, were sent back, many because the affidavits were not notarized. This issue should not be taken lightly. The county's current attitude does not seem to be demonstrating much leniency on this issue and if these applications are eventually rejected, that means the properties in question will NOT be able to vacation rent their properties legally. For many buyers who purchase second homes on Kauai, generating cashflow from renting the home when an owner is off-island is important to the overall financial cost of ownership. A four-bedroom home on Hanalei Bay might rent for 6-7K a week and be occupied 75% of the time. That's a good chunk of cash to be generated by a home that you use part of the time.  So, we're coming down to the wire ( over the next several months) with regards to the status on the properties outside the VDA.

This Hanalei Bay Home is outside the VDA but could possibly be a legal vacation rental with a proper Non-conforming Use Certificate

The second group of properties, are the hundreds, perhaps thousands of owners of condos and single-family homes, that are within the visitor destination area of Kauai. The planning department has not even begun to get to the applications of these properties. But, not to worry. Even if you missed the deadline for filing for your permit for this type of property, you can approach the county at any time to get your license. The county of Kauai is wanting owners to put their operating license number of the vacation rental on any marketing, advertising, and promotional stuff. This is a new twist to a business that has been operating for several decades very informally.