The ever-increasing popularity of short-term lodging
reservation websites that allow individuals to list their spare rooms,
apartments, condos or entire homes has given way to a host of new legal issues
for municipalities, condo associations and landlords.
This panel
will discuss the impact of these types of websites and hosting businesses on a
variety of real estate, tax and public law concerns, with a focus on how
different municipalities are addressing the impact on the traditional rental
markets, the rise of de facto hotels, and tax implications through new
regulations, statutes and recent court decisions.
Specific topics include:
- Local and state statutes and ordinances, including
Boston’s short-term rental ordinance, the commonwealth’s STR statute
(effective July 1, 2019), municipal ordinances, and other efforts to regulate
and ban Airbnbs
- Recent court decisions, including the recently settled
Airbnb lawsuit against Boston’s STR ordinance
- Business and residential zoning issues
- Landlord/tenant issues, including terminating
tenancies, drafting effective leases and eviction
- Strategies for tenants hosting on Airbnb
- Impact on the Massachusetts real estate market
- Potential liability of tenants or landlords for
criminal activity, property damages and personal injury
- Massachusetts room and occupancy tax changes that
impact Airbnb activities
- The Fourth Amendment and expectation of privacy
issues
Faculty:
Susan G. Anderson, Esq., Program Co-chair
Thomas G. Collins, Esq., Program Co-chair
McCarter & English LLP, Boston
Evelyn A. Haralampu, Esq., Program Co-chair
Burns & Levinson LLP, Boston
E. Pamela Salpoglou, Esq., Program Co-Chair
Law Office of E. Pamela Salpoglou Inc., Stoughton
Sheldon C. Toplitt, Esq., Program Co-chair
Sheldon C. Toplitt, Esq., Ashland
Kevin Wells Brown, Esq., Panelist
Commonwealth of Massachusetts Dept. of Revenue, Boston
Mark S. Einhorn, Esq., Panelist
Marcus, Errico, Emmer & Brooks PC, Braintree
Thomas A. Mullen, Esq., Panelist
Thomas A. Mullen PC, Lynnfield
Jeffrey C. Turk, Esq., Panelist
Turk & Milone, LLP, Braintree
Natasha Varyani, Esq., Panelist
New England Law | Boston, Boston