Threats fly over Malibu’s short-term rentals

Michele Willer-Allred, Staff Reporter

11:03 am PDT June 18, 2020

The issue of short-term rentals is heating up in Malibu — and the Planning Commission seems poised to act.

During the commission meeting via Zoom on Monday, member David Weil complimented city staff and the City Council for trying to get the short-term rental ordinance back to the Planning Commission in a timely manner because he continues to get correspondence from people “who are very anxious for us to hear the public out on this issue.”

The City Council on June 8 agreed to send the matter to the commission as soon as possible.

Commission member Steve Uhring said he recently got two emails from residents saying they are getting letters from a law firm representing an investment firm that owns homes in Malibu that are being used for short-term rentals.

The letters, obtained by Malibu Surfside News, accuse the recipients of “interfering with the sale of the property and bothering (the owners’) Air BNB tenants.”

“You called one of their Air BNB tenant’s(sic) a racial slur and told them to put bad reviews on Air BNB,” the letters state. “This behavior must stop immediately.”

“What this law firm did,” said Uhring, “was threaten the residents with legal action if they complain again about these short-term rentals taking place in their neighborhood.”

“This is something we got to get our hands around because this is getting worse,” said Uhring, who added that he recently read in the news how the online platform Airbnb has been renting out more houses now than before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Malibu Surfside News Editor Scott Steepleton contributed to this report.