Homeowner’s associations in Idaho couldn’t restrict owners from renting their property on a short-term basis for “AirBnB” or other types of short-term rentals unless they already had the restriction when the property owner bought the place, under legislation that passed the Senate today after much debate and headed to Gov. Butch Otter’s desk.

HB 511 passed on a 20-14 vote, after senators ardently argued both for and against the bill. “My experience teaches me we don’t get in the middle of pending lawsuits,” Sen. Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls, told the Senate. “We’re not good at that. We don’t know whether the plaintiff should win or the defendant should win.” He said, “This bill is the legislative imposition or siding with one party to a contract. For me this is a dangerous legislative precedent.” He noted that the bill has an emergency clause, making it effective as soon as it becomes law.

The bill, which earlier passed the House on a 60-6 vote, declares, “No homeowner’s association may add, amend or enforce any covenant, condition or restriction in such a way that limits or prohibits the rental, for any amount of time, of any property, land or structure … unless expressly agreed to in writing at the time of such addition or amendment by the owner of the affected property.”

Sen. Dan Schmidt, D-Moscow, said he didn’t have a problem with the “add” or “amend,” but drew the line at “enforce.” “I don’t buy that,” he said. “To me, you signed on to a deal, and now we’re giving you an out -  that it doesn’t have to be enforced. That doesn’t make sense to me. I’ll be voting no.”

Sen. Jim Rice, R-Caldwell, spoke out in favor of the bill, which was backed by the Idaho Association of Realtors. “It’s not an imposition on a contract,” he said. “That contract is being applied in ways never intended, never understood, that devalue the property by taking away fundamental rights to the use and enjoyment of that property after the purchase. That’s the question. Is it appropriate for them to take it away without the consent of the purchaser.”

Sen. Janie Ward-Engelking, D-Bosie, said, “I’m opposed to moving a commercial entity into a residential area and telling the homeowners that they can’t do anything about that. I think if you’re renting your house every day to a different group of people and paying motel and commercial taxes, that’s what it is, so I’ll be voting no.”

Some homeowner’s associations in Idaho have moved to limit short-term rentals, with the growing popularity of online home vacation rentals like AirBnB; the bill would prevent the associations from making any move to block that.

HB 511 now heads to the governor’s desk. Here’s how the 20-14 vote broke down:

Voting in favor: Sens. Bayer, Buckner-Webb, Burgoyne, DenHartog, Guthrie, Hagedorn, Harris, Heider, Lakey, McKenzie, Mortimer, Nonini, Nuxoll, Patrick, Rice, Siddoway, Souza, Stennett, Thayn, and Vick.

Voting against: Sens. Anthon, Bair, Brackett, Davis, Hill, Johnson, Jordan, Keough, Lacey, Lee, Lodge, Martin, Schmidt and Ward-Engelking.

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