Short-term rentals; registration, civil penalty, effective date.
SB 1330 would create a statewide registry for short-term rentals in Virginia, administered by the Department of Taxation. All accommodations providers and accommodations intermediaries would be required to register, with providers supplying property addresses and intermediaries supplying contact information for a responsible liaison. The Department would issue a unique numerical identifier for each short-term rental, and that identifier would have to be used in listings, advertisements, and related social media posts.
The bill also requires intermediaries to collect and report detailed quarterly information to the Department about each listed short-term rental, including the rental’s identifier, address, listing URL, rental periods, and itemized charges such as room charges, fees, and taxes. Local commissioners of the revenue would receive access to the registry for properties in their jurisdictions, and zoning officials could receive some of that information as well. If a locality determines a listing is not lawfully registered, permitted, or otherwise authorized, it must notify the intermediary, which would then be barred from continuing to list the property and must remove it within seven days and refund affected customers.
The bill would add a new section to the Code of Virginia, § 58.1-612.3, and would expand state oversight of short-term rental activity through registration, reporting, and enforcement requirements. It would also create a civil penalty of $1,000 for intermediaries that fail to remove noncompliant listings after notice, with penalties directed to the Virginia Housing Trust Fund. Although the Department would administer the registry, local officials would retain access to information needed to enforce zoning and other local short-term rental rules, and the bill expressly preserves local authority to regulate or prohibit short-term rentals.
The bill appears to have faced more opposition than support in committee, as reflected by its 11-3 vote to be passed by indefinitely in the Senate Committee on General Laws and Technology. That outcome suggests the proposal did not advance and that a majority of the committee was not prepared to move it forward. No committee transcript was provided, so the available record shows the procedural result but not detailed debate.
The main points of contention likely centered on the breadth of the statewide registry, the reporting burden on accommodations intermediaries, and the enforcement mechanism that would require delisting and refunding customers after local noncompliance notices. Privacy and data-sharing concerns may also have been significant, given the bill’s requirement to report property addresses, listing URLs, and itemized financial information to the state and, in some cases, local officials. Supporters would likely have emphasized compliance, tax collection, and local enforcement, while opponents likely objected to administrative burden, platform liability, and the potential impact on lawful short-term rental operators.