I recently parked my RV on my property in La Mesa and have been renting it out on Airbnb for the last few months. Before going this route, I did a lot of research on other Airbnb's in La Mesa and discovered there are 4 other listings that have hundreds of reviews, which means they have been renting out their trailers on the website for years.

Everything was going smooth until a compliance officer from the city knocked on our door and told us we are not allowed to have anyone in it and we need to bring in the awning/ slider and disconnect from the utilities. Going into this, I knew it was a bit of a grey area because there is very little information regarding what you can and cannot do with RV's on your property. We recently received a letter from the city stating that we have 14 days to bring the slider in and unplug utilities.

I reached out to the compliance officer via e-mail stating that we are aware of other Airbnb's in the city doing exactly what we are and wondering why we have to shut down our operation and others are allowed to still operate. She replied and told me that "Code Compliance for the City of La Mesa is solely complaint based... RVs are not allowed for dwelling and should not be occupied beyond what is prescribed in the code."

So the code doesn't exist unless someone complains?

1.) I have an idea of which neighbor might have complained but we have gone the extra mile to make sure there is privacy and that guests are quiet and do not play loud music or party. All of the guests we have had have been very respectful/ clean and I wouldn't even know that they are there if I didn't know they had booked the space (I live on the property and my bedroom window is near the RV so I would have heard any disturbances.)

2.) How can they only enforce a code based on complaints? My take is that a policy is a policy and either everyone has to follow the code or no one does, it can't just be enforced on some.

That being said, we are trying to figure out the best path forward. Our plan before the city came to our door was to rent it out to one long term tenant so we don't have the constant turnover but now we are a bit apprehensive based on the letter.

What can a city do to enforce these codes, what are the chances they give us a fine if we continue renting it out, and how much are fines?

We believe that we won't receive any more complaints from neighbors based on some extra measures we have taken to add privacy to the RV and don't think the city will be driving by and checking on us but there is no way to be sure.

San Diego, California

0 Votes