Bill > H4327

This bill aims to regulate and insure short-term rentals in Massachusetts. The key provisions are: 1. It establishes a short-term rental registry and requires hosts to register their residential units. It also mandates that the Department of Revenue maintain a publicly accessible list of registered short-term rental properties. 2. It imposes a state-level excise tax on short-term rentals, with varying rates depending on the host type (residential, investor, or professionally managed). An additional excise tax is levied on properties within the Cape Cod and Islands Water Protection Trust Fund area. 3. It allows municipalities to impose their own local excise tax on short-term rentals, with varying rates depending on host type. Municipalities that choose to do so must also require safety inspections of short-term rental units and may restrict short-term rentals in certain ways. 4. It requires professionally managed hosts to have a property manager and $1 million in liability insurance, and it obligates hosts to maintain records and provide certain information to the state and municipalities. 5. It allows insurers to exclude coverage for claims resulting from short-term rentals under homeowners or renters insurance policies. 6. It establishes a timeline for municipalities to conduct initial inspections of short-term rental units and for the implementation of the tax provisions.

Budget and Finance

https://malegislature.gov/Bills/190/H4327