Is AirBNB “Commercial Use” in North Carolina?

Air B&B commercial use is a hot topic right now in Chatham County and the State of North Carolina. You have to think about constitutional real property rights, and one of the fundamental issues with those rights is whether you’re allowed to rent a property out, monthly, weekly or daily. I think that’s a right that you can’t be stripped of unless you’re in a neighborhood that has a covenant specifically forbids such use of the property.

I understand that this is controversial, and I wouldn’t like it in my back yard. For example, take an Air B&B that’s at the end of a long private road with maybe eight cars a day of traffic on that road. They don’t care about the road. There’s no road maintenance agreement. Even without a road maintenance agreement, you still need to take care  ofthe road. People might be renting a 300 to 500 square foot house and be doing something that the rest of the neighborhood isn’t used to. I can see how that might upset some residents, but I don’t see how you can strip the owner of the right to rent the property. I can tell you that the county zoning board is going to look at ways to regulate this, but it will be in concert with the county attorney to make sure that we don’t overstep our constitutional duties.