Pittsburgh City Council makes changes to legislation aimed at registering, regulating rentals
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Pittsburgh City Council is working on legislation to determine how many rental properties are in the city.
After two teens were killed in a mass shooting at a short-term rental last Easter, the push for this legislation started back up, but the city has been trying to get something like this done for quite some time.
In the immediate aftermath of that Easter morning shooting, Pittsburgh City Councilman Bobby Wilson started on legislation to create a registry.
"We really want to put a face on these faceless companies," he said.
It ran into some legal challenges, so on Wednesday Pittsburgh City Council made amendments to hopefully get the bill within legal constraints.
"What you see here is something that we believe can withstand the test of time, something that is enforceable," Wilson said.
Some of those changes call for permits and inspections to be done on properties. Essentially, you would get a permit and have an inspection once every three years. The city's Department of Permits, Licenses, and Inspections would handle it.
"Just ensuring that the person who is going to be renting the property will be safe and have a proper place to lay their head," Wilson said.
Right now, the city does not know how many rentals are in the city.
"We have no legal way of a city government from differentiating between the owner of the property who lives there or an owner of a property who rents it out," Deputy Mayor Jake Pawlak said.
That can be a problem. When there are public safety concerns, there have been times when no one knows how to get in touch with a property owner. The mayor's office would not say if that was the case in last year's mass shooting.
Officials hope legislation like this prevents any connection problems between owners and the city.
"We are trying to know how to reach the owner or responsible agent for a property in an emergency," Pawlak said.
The hope is to have a council vote on this matter by the end of September. KDKA-TV reached out to popular rental companies Airbnb and Vrbo on this bill but has not heard back.
