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The City of Bonavista has taken a new approach to dealing with airbnb hosts who represent unfair competition for hotels and bread-and-breakfast ins because they don't pay business taxes. They cut your sewer and water lines.
Bonavista cuts off services for Airbnb operators with unpaid business tax bills.
"We have gone to some pretty serious measures to collect. We have literally dug up driveways and turned off water (and) sewer service until the bill is paid, cutting them off completely from all municipal services.
-- Mayor John Norman
If people can't even drive their car onto your property, take a shower, use the toilet, you're pretty motivated to pony up.
The mayor said the taxation method has been successful, but he acknowledges not all Airbnb owners are pleased.
"I don't think some are happy about it, but it is what it is."
This is a pretty effective fix to unfair competition by airbnb hosts. The next question is, how can we apply the same thinking to uber and lyft?
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Wednesday September 11 2019, @03:49PM (2 children)
Digging up and replacing existing sewer lines between the city boundary and a home is only a one-day job. I know because my first real job after college, a friend convinced me to buy a pickup and go into contracting. Bought a backhoe, and when he came by to help me on what he thought would be a two day job for two people, I was just finishing up. Nobody had told me it would take two people two days. Even included time for the city to inspect my work, so no corners cut.
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(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Thursday September 12 2019, @02:01AM (1 child)
Seems a case of negotiation power. A homeowner probably can't get a contractor to do a job like that for less than $3000, but city employees can do it for less than $1000 cost to the city.
But why not cut the water by just shuting and padlocking the valve at the water main? Several hundred dollars may be peanuts to a city, but still, lots cheaper and faster to just turn a valve.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Thursday September 12 2019, @11:53PM
A lot of places don't meter water (it's Canada, water is usually a flat rate for homes), and the shutoff valve at the city boundary is not designed to be locked. It's buried, and you need a pentagonal socket to remove the bolt blocking it - and a 6' long extension to work the valve. Usually it's a two-in-one tool. Any contractor can order one. So shutting off the water at the valve doesn't mean that it stays shut.
The valve is city property,so they just dig it up at the property line, close it, and remove the hollow pipe that allows access to turn if off and on. Anyone digging it up to turn it back on without authorization is committing a criminal offence - vandalism of city property and theft of service, so most contractors won't touch it no matter how much money the owner offers to fix it illegally.
It's not the same as when you access it in the course of regular repairs, where the city hasn't turned it off. In such cases, you should have a good enough working relationship with public works that they trust you not to screw things up. After a while, they'll even let you self-certify that the work was done without an inspection. Just don't fuck it up by trying to cut corners or be the lowball bidder.
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