As more cities and states seek to regulate short-term rentals (STRs), the debate over proposed ordinances can sometimes center on perceptions rather than facts. Those seeking to separate perception from reality will likely need to obtain local data and governmental records on short-term rentals to get a clearer picture of what’s actually going on. Whether or not your local government has taken this kind of fact-finding approach, members of the community can seek this information themselves with a public records request, also known as a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
Most government records are considered “open” and “public” and therefore, must be provided to anyone who requests them. Depending on the localized policies of governmental agencies, the records may be free-of-charge or come with a fee to cover the time spent locating and duplicating the information for the requester.
What is a FOIA request?
While the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is often used as an umbrella term for any kind of public records request, FOIA actually refers to the federal act on public records and therefore, applies only to federal agencies such as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) or the FBI.
Given that short-term rentals and vacation homes are regulated at the local level, any pertinent public records would likely come from the government agencies of cities, counties, and states. State freedom of information laws, also known as “sunshine laws,” lay out the rules for the release of records held by state, county, city, and other local public agencies, and those laws can have different names and variations in the rules. For instance, the law is called the Alabama Public Records Law in that state, while in Wyoming, the name is the Wyoming Sunshine Law.
What information on short-term rentals is available in public records?
Public records encompass any kind of recorded material, including written, audio, video, data, charts, emails, text messages, electronically embedded information in a file, and other formats.
An agency may keep a record secret if there is a law on the books to that end. Typically these exceptions to open records are designed to protect individual privacy, communications with an attorney, or security. Laws on what records are confidential can vary from state to state.
Some of the records that could give a clearer picture of how short-term rentals affect a community could include:
- STR licenses or permit holders
- Total housing units
- Whole-home STR listings
- House-share STR listings
- Lodging tax revenue during x timeframe
- Hotel tax revenue during x timeframe
- Number of 311 calls or complaints
- Crime statistics in high-density STR areas
A local government agency may have already analyzed the data that you’re seeking and even produced an internal report on it. That information most likely would be considered a public record and could be obtained with a request.
Read More: Short-Term Rental Data for Advocacy and Where to Get It
How to submit FOIA public records requests to your local government agencies
A public records request is typically made in writing and submitted in person, by email, or by mail. If you need a guide on how to write your request, you can find letter templates for each state on the National Freedom of Information Coalition’s website.
Some governmental agencies have special public records request forms on their websites, which you might be required to fill out in lieu of a letter.
What government agencies have public records on short-term rentals?
Before you sit down to write your request, take time to prepare.
A public records request can turn into a time-consuming or expensive fishing expedition if you aren’t specific about what information you want. Doing some research to identify what specific record you need and which agency holds that document or information can help save time and money.
For instance, if you want to request the total number of STR registrations in your city, find out where property owners register their STRs. The same agency or department is most likely also the custodian of the registration records you’re seeking, or they will be able to tell you where to make your request.
Firstly, check the agency’s website to see if the information is available online.
Then, call or visit the agency and talk to someone who can help you identify the records that contain the information you want and explain whether the documents need to be requested in a particular format.
Learn the name of your state public records law and make your request based on that specific law rather than on the federal FOIA. Links to specific state laws are available on the National Freedom of Information Coalition’s website.
Watch Replay: Leader Seminar: Data-Driven Storytelling for Effective Advocacy ▶️
How to write your FOIA public records request
Be as specific as possible when writing your request. Include enough details for the agency to respond and try to anticipate what you want to do with the information. That way, you can request everything at once instead of playing a virtual game of ping-pong with the agency and dragging out the time it takes to get the information.
A public records request should include:
- Name of the record. If you don’t know the name, describe the information you want;
- Date of the record. If you don’t have exact dates, give a time range, such as all of 2020;
- Format of the record. Do you just want to go to the agency and inspect the records, or would you like the agency to mail paper copies or email scanned copies of the records to you?
State freedom of information laws typically set a deadline for how long agencies can take to respond to a records request. Some states have specific time periods; other state laws are vague on the deadline.
In a response, the agency may furnish the records, deny the request in part or entirely, or say they need more time to gather the information. If your request is denied, most state laws provide a mechanism to appeal the denial, first to the agency and later to a higher authority such as the state attorney general or the courts.
Keep track of your different requests. Try to communicate with the agency by email so that you have a digital trail of what happens to your request. Also, note dates and names and phone numbers of agency contacts.
As the requester, you have no obligation to prove that a document is public because, under most freedom of information laws, governmental records are typically presumed to be open. In fact, if your request is denied, the agency must cite that specific law that allows the agency to keep the record secret.
During communication with the agency, remember that even if a document contains information that legally can be kept a secret, that does not necessarily warrant a denial of a public records request. If secret or personally identifiable information such as someone’s Social Security number is within an otherwise public document, the agency can black out (redact) the secret information and still provide you with the public record.
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