Residents of Breckenridge and Silverthorne hoping to voice complaints about short-term rentals will want to write down this phone number: 970-368-2044.<\/p>\n
After enacting new rules regarding short-term rentals last year, the towns are requiring the owners of short-term rentals to obtain a specific business license and list a responsible agent who can respond to complaints within 60 minutes in most cases.<\/p>\n
To take these complaints, Summit County’s towns have partnered with the Texas-based company STR Helper<\/a> to create a new hotline that allows residents to report issues with short-term rentals, including things like illegal parking, piled up trash or excessive noise.<\/p>\n The calls are being forwarded to the company’s answering center in Logan, Utah. A company representative said STR Helper has almost 90 clients, and they just sent the town of Dillon a contract on Wednesday.<\/p>\n While Breckenridge was the first jurisdiction<\/a> in Summit County to create new rules<\/a> on short-term rentals last year, others already have or will soon follow suit. The rules are an attempt to rein in the booming business involving renting out a home or room inside a home for any term less than 30 days, listings someone might find on the popular accommodation websites VRBO.com or Airbnb.com.<\/p>\n Silverthorne’s ordinance<\/a> technically went into effect on Oct. 24, when the town’s elected leaders approved its new rules for short-term rentals on second reading, but town staff gave owners a grace period until Jan. 1 to come into compliance.<\/p>\n Silverthorne will begin educating people about and advertising for the call center in the next week, according to town staff, but the hotline is taking complaints for Silverthorne and Breckenridge.<\/p>\n To file a complaint, someone only needs to call the hotline, tell the person on the other end where the rental is and give an address. The caller will be asked for a name and, if he or she wants to give one, a phone number where the caller can be reached.<\/p>\n The receptionist will take the complaint and give the caller a case number before trying to reach the designated agent, who will then have up to one hour to address the underlying issue that led to the complaint. That’s unless the complaint comes between the hours of 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. in Silverthorne, in which case the agent will have only 30 minutes.<\/p>\n If the property turns out to not be a short-term rental, based on the severity of the issue, the caller could be referred by the call center to either non-emergency dispatch or 911, Silverthorne’s accounting coordinator Matthew Farley said via email.<\/p>\n Dillon’s new rules<\/a> governing short-term rentals will take effect April 1. Additionally, Summit County approved its regulations<\/a> regarding short-term rentals for unincorporated areas in the county in December. Based on the county’s anticipated timeline<\/a>, the new permitting system for short-term rentals will go live in late February.<\/p>\n The required deadline for a permit application to be submitted to the county for any rental operating in the unincorporated areas of Summit County will be June 1 and enforcement begins June 30. The county set this timeline to let owners get through the 2018\u201319 ski season before enforcement of the new regulations begins.<\/p>\nRecommended Stories For You<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n