The Portland Office of Management and Finance this week followed up with the Mercury about a recent inquiry into possible Airbnb misuse at four single-family homes, including flouting rules around purchasing permits, paying transient taxes, and the amount of time a home can be offered as an Airbnb.

The follow up is in response to this story, published a few weeks ago, about Kurt Morris and his family, who sold their Sellwood/Moreland home to a family under the premise that the four-bedroom home would be well loved, and, well, actually lived in by the new owners, Ryan and Kristina Brown, and their young daughter.

What happened, though, was the Browns never moved in, instead remaining in the San Francisco area and renting their home out as a full-time Airbnb that was being hosted by a local property manager named Sydney Mead.

When the Mercury first learned of the situation, Mead was listed as the host of four additional Airbnb sites, three of which were locatable thanks to online photos of the outside of the homes and a general location on Airbnb's map.

A little background: When Airbnb started to do business in Portland, city council passed an ordinance regulating their operations. First, in order to offer an entire home as a part-time vacation rental, the owners must be the primary residents. They're only allowed to rent the home for about three months per year. Second, each homeowner is supposed to purchase a $180 permit from the city and pay transient lodging taxes.

The Mercury contacted Jen Clodius with Portland's Office of Management and Finance and gave her the addresses of the four Airbnbs being hosted by Mead. Clodius, at the time, said the city had no record of the four homes as registered with the city—meaning they hadn't applied for the proper permits.

Clodius says the city is following up on the addresses the Mercury provided. She says the city's enforcement person called the Morris' to let them know and "they were quite pleased to get the call."

She also explained that, by default, all Airbnb hosts are paying their transient taxes.

"Airbnb assesses [transient taxes] on each rental and remits them to us," Clodius wrote in an email. "If the host is using another website/platform that is not collecting and remitting taxes, the host is sent a warning letter followed by a $500 penalty assessment two weeks later if they fail to cure the violation."

Clodius says hosts can be assessed a $500 penalty for each violation of the city code, though she declined to say how many penalties have been leveled on non-compliant hosts.

"The City doesn’t actually keep track of how many calls it receives about possible violations, but anecdotally, the team says they haven’t noticed an increase recently," Clodius wrote. "Community members who suspect someone might be operating an Airbnb without a permit should call 503-823-2495."

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