PASCO COUNTY, Fla. — 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.
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.
