Source: Boston Herald
By Brooks Sutherland
May 5, 2019
Mayor Martin J. Walsh vowed that the city is “moving forward” with its regulations on Airbnb after a federal judge temporarily blocked some parts of its short-term rental ordinance Friday.
“The registry is moving forward, there’s just some aspects that the judge had questions about,” Walsh told the Herald Sunday. “And what we’re going to do is just continue to move forward with our registry and having people sign up.”
U.S. District Judge Leo T. Sorokin ruled Friday that the city can’t ban a short-term rental service because it posted listings in violation of the ordinance. He also concluded that the city couldn’t force Airbnb to report how many days a week rental units are occupied. But Sorokin upheld the ordinance’s provisions regarding registering units and listing which units can be short-term rentals. He also ruled against Airbnb’s attempt to prevent the city from imposing a $300 fine when a rental service collects a fee for booking ineligible units.
